This week’s word is Śraddhā — faith, trust, confidence, conviction, devotion. The affirmation is: Today, I trust what is sacred within me. Inside the post, I’m working with Yoga Sutra 1.20, the body as a place of trust, and my experience walking the Camino de Santiago solo. "Trust meant I could take the next step without carrying the whole pilgrimage in my mind." You’ll find the full reflection, practice, and writing prompts in the Affirmations section of the Classroom. Let me know what you think!

All week we’ve been been talking about Karuna, the key of compassion. But there is another key part of this. nd that’s drishti, the term yogis use in asana and meditation. It means Focus. Beginning meditators are all over the place because their eyes are. Rapid eye movement = rapid thoughts. If we practice at controlling our gaze, the thoughts will naturally still. Until they act up again, like little kids, and you have to firmly but gently say, “stop.” But it’s not just focus. It’s HOW we focus. The quality we bring to that attention. Think of the way you look at something. Is it with hardness and resentment? Or softness, and kindness? Think about how your eyes feel in those moments. How your body feels. Practicing with a compassionate gaze unlocks a threshold that just won’t open with hardness or force. You can close your eyes and focus on a spot right there in your mind’s eye. And you can be gentle, breathing in and out with compassion and kindness for yourself—and the process—as that spot opens. Let’s practice now. Close your eyes. Find a small spot in the darkness. Maybe it’s white and glowing. Maybe it’s barely noticeable. Keep looking and breathing into the spot. Maybe it moves, maybe it becomes a sphere, or an opening in the darkness. Maybe it grows. Observe without trying to change it. Feel into your heart. Breathe into it. Let your heart swell with compassion and kindness without losing this gaze. Allow your eyes to soften and feel that gentleness. If thoughts enter, notice if what you see changes — if thoughts have become images and story lines. And then come back to your compassionate gaze. Stay here for at least 5 minutes. And then write about the feeling. What did you notice in your eyes? Your face? What about your heart rate, the quality of your breath. And then write about your thoughts and emotions, your judgments, your questions. Write for at least 5 minutes free-flowing down the page. During the week pay attention to how you look at objects, people, situations.

We’ve been working with Karuṇā all week, so it's fitting that we explore it with a little more embodiment in the Classroom. If you haven't been there, it's where I take a Sanskrit word from the Yoga Sutras and explore it through writing, breath and affirmation. In this post, one thing feels key here, maybe the key for the key: Meeting suffering with compassion already changes our perception of it. The hurt may still be there. The circumstance may still be real. The grief, pressure, fear, or exhaustion may still ask something of us. But compassion changes how we see it. Suffering often feels permanent when we meet it through fear or resistance. It can feel sealed inside the body. Fixed. Alone. Like nothing can move and nothing can reach it. When compassion enters, our perception begins to shift. It has somewhere to go besides deeper into the body. In Yoga Sutra 1.33, Karuṇā is the key for suffering because compassion gives the heart a way to stay responsive. And in the Gospels, Christ meets suffering with presence. He touches. He weeps. He enters the place where grief is already present. Compassion changes our perception because it no longer leaves suffering alone. This week’s affirmation is: I can be tender with what hurts. I can let my heart quiver. You’ll find the full reflection, practice, and writing prompts in the Classroom. Let me know what you think!

I have a google alert every time the topic The Power of Prayer gets some traction. Author Nir Eyal wondered if he could still pray if he didn't believe in God. He went to a Rabbi to ask this question. The answer: we can doubt. we can question. And so he prayed, with surprising results. We've been talking about compassion here, with the key of Karuna. And I very much believe that prayer is part of this. When we offer up compassion in our prayers--bringing self-less love to ourselves, others, the world--amazing things happen. Most importantly, the amazing thing that happens is within ourselves. Read the summary or listen to the podcast, below! Let me know what you think! Blessings, Jackie https://hope1032.com.au/podcasts/prayer-and-hope-shown-to-impact-motivation-and-resilience/