New addition to Classroom Affirmations & Practices

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!

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