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Compassion meditation can be difficult, so today I’m going to share a simple method for making it a little bit easier.

Last week, in Part 1 of our Compassion Series, I made the point that compassion can be fostered with both mindfulness meditation and a special practice called compassion meditation. We wrapped up the episode with a classic guided compassion meditation also known as metta, loving-kindness, and goodwill meditation.

If you tried that meditation, you may have had a difficult time conjuring up feelings of loving-kindness toward yourself and/or toward people you dislike. These are two common sticking points in compassion meditation. But, there’s a method that can help.

Before I explain the method let me assure you that, if you’ve bumped up against these sticking points, there’s nothing wrong with you. Compassion is about caring for others as much as you care for someone you love deeply. That’s not easy. In fact, it’s because compassion is so difficult to muster that we need to do compassion meditation in the first place!

Compassion meditation coaches you to generate feelings of caring and extend them out further and further from yourself. This takes a lot of practice!

During the meditation, when you find you’re unable to conjure up any feelings of goodwill, just stick with it. Just do the practice the best you can and let go of any feelings of inadequacy. Don’t judge yourself. You’re doing this practice to improve compassion, and it’s natural that you won’t be good at it to begin with. It’s also natural to discover that you’re good at it some days and not others. Don’t admonish yourself or feel bad. Just keep practicing.

This Week's Peaceful Moment: Red Headed Duck on Grandin Pond, St. Albert

 

To make practice easier, you might try starting off generating goodwill to someone you already care about unconditionally. You can even start with a pet, or animals that aren’t even a part of your life. It’s easy for me to generate goodwill towards baby polar bears, for example. They’re so cute and innocent, and so at risk.

The idea is to proceed through all the phases of a classic compassion meditation, but to start with things that are easy to love. Once you’ve generated warm, fuzzy feelings you then try to extend them to people you don’t know, people you don’t like, and people and animals everywhere. Yes, the feelings of goodwill may fade as you move through the meditation. That’s okay. Remember, just keep practicing.

Let’s try it now.

Invitation to meditate

For a 10-minute guided compassion meditation that begins with generating thoughts of goodwill towards pets or other animals, forward the podcast or the video above to 2:41.

Next Week:

Next week, in Part 3 of the Compassion Series, we’ll explore self-compassion, a practice that can be incredibly difficult for some people.

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