“Compassion for yourself leads to greater compassion for others… Compassion for other leads to better acceptance of yourself.”

So far we’ve been looking at getting comfortable in your own skin; working with quieting the mind, leaning into self-acceptance, and recognizing that we are just fine exactly as we are. Now we’ll begin to add in compassion.

I like this definition of compassion. Compassion has three parts: 1) recognition of suffering or distress, in self or others, 2) being emotionally touched by the suffering or distress you have become aware of, 3) feeling compelled to take action to help ease the suffering or distress.  (Taking action can be anywhere along the continuum of taking physical action like helping at the food bank or donating to your favorite cause, to imagining the person experiencing distress and authentically and sincerely sending well wishes to that person.)

Over the past few days as you’ve deepened your self acceptance, have you found it has helped you be more accepting of others? If you haven’t noticed it yet, think about it throughout your day today. With practice you’ll find it begins to happen automatically. When we are content in our own skin, more concerned with how we think of ourselves and less concerned about what others think of us, we begin to automatically open our hearts. As we do so we begin to see others as OK in their skin too, without a need to judge them.

All of these skills takes practice, so today remind yourself again and again  to follow these steps:

• Practice being comfortable in your own skin, and extend yourself compassion whenever you feel resistance to that point of view.
• Notice how feeling compassionate toward yourself creates space for you to extend compassion to others.
• At the end of the day, spend a moment reviewing the day and see how you feel about having extended yourself compassion, shared that with others, to see if you feel an even greater sense of self-acceptance than you had when you started the day.

Keep these ideas in mind as you practice your daily formal meditation… 13 minutes today, or whatever form you prefer.