One Minute Practice and a Video: Water Seeds of Compassion & Gratitude

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"If you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the last day then you will have spent this day very well."  ~Brother David Steindl-Rast

  1. Begin by opening your eyes, really look into (not at but into) what and who is around you.
  2. Slow your thoughts and your breath. 
  3. Feel your breath filling your lungs, feel the gentle weightlessness at the top of your inhalation and feel your breath leaving your lungs as you exhale. 
  4. Feel your feet resting on the earth.
  5. Feel the rhythm of your heart and open your heart. 
  6. Look into the eyes of the people around you, can you see part of yourself in any one of them? 
  7. Look into yourself, can you see part of any one of those people inside of you? 
  8. Notice what you are experiencing while in this space. Name it if you can. Be gentle toward yourself and breathe.
  9. Thank yourself for trying.


Steps 6 & 7 can be extremely difficult, especially when the "other" has brought pain and suffering into our life. What I know for sure is that we magnify our suffering when we create "me vs them vs me" roles. I know this because I like so many, have lived it. It has taken years for me to begin to see the wisdom in steps 6 & 7. That doesn't mean I'm good at it, it only means that my eyes are beginning to open. 

When we do this short practice consistently over time, we train our mind and heart to be more responsive than reactive, more peaceful than irritable, more understanding than judging. We water seeds of compassion in ourselves and towards others.  

Thank you Brother David, not only for this beautiful teaching on how to build Gratitude but also for the gift of compassion that manifests while watching this video.  

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