After Session 3:

Home Practice

If you're in search for some structure for your formal practice explore the following:
- Alternate between Affectionate Breathing Meditation and the Loving-Kindness for a Loved One meditation which can be found here
- Take the opportunity to journal about what you notice as you practice your Loving Kindness Phrases in meditation.

Stages of Progress

As we approach week 4 we are reaching the “muddy middle” of the program. Perhaps you are encountering new frustrations, challenges, and doubts related to your journey of self compassion.
Neff and Germer have noticed that there are 3 stages to the self compassion journey:
- Striving: a time full of hope and elation
- Disillusionment: what shows up when we begin to experience challenges, our progress is not as fast as we might have anticipated and we begin to doubt our capacity to achieve what we strived for
- Radical acceptance: “fully entering into and embracing whatever is in the present moment” (Robins, Schmidt & Linehan, 2004, p.40) & “…we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is…not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already.” (Chödrön, 1991/2001, p. 4)

Video

See if you can identify the three stages in this video in which a martial artist interacts with a fly.

Additional exploration

If you would like to further explore the topic of radical acceptance I would recommend reading Tara Brach’s work or listening to her meditations on Insight Timer.