When we experience fear, loss, or the hundred other daily stresses inherent in life, it can be easy to retreat inside ourselves until the whole world is just a single point of pain–our pain. Lovingkindness is a practice that, among other things, helps us understand that the path out of loneliness, the cure for fear, is to expand the concern that is normally centered around yourself outward, to include someone else.

In this excerpt from her course, Compassionate Resilience, Sharon Salzberg speaks with insight and clarity about the expansion of spirit we call love. Watch her full course for free with a 14-day Commune Membership trial at onecommune.com/trial.