Breathing Yin and Yang

This practice is designed to help you balance the energies of yin and yang self-compassion. It should be done in a seated posture.

• Relax and settle into your body.
• Put your hands on your heart or some other supportive place.
• Start to notice your breathing. Don’t change it or control it, just let it be.
• Your mind will naturally wander. When it does bring back your attention with the same gentleness you would use with a young child who has wandered off. Come back to your breath without judgment.
• Now focus on your in-breath, feeling each inhalation.
• With each in-breath imagine breathing in tender yin energy, loving connected presence. Let it fill you, nurture you, heal you.
• If you like you can image a golden healing light filling your body.
• Do this for five minutes.
• Now take a big breath in and hold it for about 15 seconds, then release.
• Next we are going to call up some yang energy by breathing deliberately in a practice known as breath of fire.
• Put both hands on your abdomen, your center.
• As you breath in expand your abdomen, and as you breath out contract your abdomen, taking each breath firmly and deliberately.
• Now start picking up the pace, but going at a speed that feels comfortable. The most important thing is that expand your abdomen on the inhale and contract it on the exhale.
• Do this for three minutes.
• Now take a big breath in and hold it for about 15 seconds, then release.
• Allow your breathing to return to normal.
• Feel the energy flowing up and down your spine.
• Now, as you breathe out imagine that you are breathing out fierce yang compassion. That it is arising within you and flowing out into the world. Fierce empowered clarity.
• Do this for two minutes.
• Now bringing the two together, putting one hand on your heart and the other on your belly. As you breath in imagine that you are breathing in tender yin compassion and as you breath out imagine that you are breathing out fierce yang compassion.
• Allow these two forms of love aimed at the alleviation of suffering to flow freely in your body, merging and integrating.
• Allow the flow inward and outward to be as natural as the movement of the ocean, waves going in, waves going out.
• Do this for five minutes.
• When you’re ready, gently open your eyes.

Soften-Soothe-Allow

This is a good practice when you need to be with yourself in a tender and accepting way.

• Please find a comfortable position, sitting or lying down, close your eyes, and take three relaxing breaths.
• Place your hand over your heart, or another soothing place, for a few moments to remind yourself that you are in the room, and that you, too, are worthy of kindness.
• Let yourself recall a mild to moderately difficult situation that you are in right now, where you think you need some self-acceptance or healing. Perhaps a health problem, or sadness, or some way in which you’re feeling inadequate. Do not choose a very difficult problem, or a trivial problem, please choose a situation that can generate a little stress in your body when you think of it.
• Clearly visualize the problem. Who was there? What was said? What happened? Or what might happen?

Labeling Emotions

• As you relive this situation, notice if any emotions arise within you. And if so, seeing if a label for an emotion comes up, a name. For example:
  • Sadness?
  • Grief?
  • Confusion?
  • Fear?
• If you are having many emotions, seeing if you can name the strongest emotion associated with the situation.
• Now, repeating the name of the emotion to yourself in a tender, understanding voice, as if you were validating for a friend what they were feeling: “That’s longing.” “That’s grief.”

Mindfulness of Emotion in the Body

• Now expanding your awareness to your body as a whole.
• Recalling the difficult situation again, if it has begun to slip out of your mind, naming the strongest emotion you feel, and scanning your body for where you feel it most easily. In your mind’s eye, sweeping your body from head to toe, stopping where you can sense a little tension or discomfort. Just feel what is “feel-able” in your body right now. Nothing more.
• Now, if you can, please choose a single location in your body where the feeling expresses itself most strongly, perhaps as a point of muscle tension in your neck, a painful feeling in your stomach, or an ache in your heart.
• In your mind, inclining gently toward that spot.
• See if you can experience the sensation directly, as if from the inside. If that’s too specific see if you can just feel the general sense of discomfort.

Soften-Soothe-Allow

• Now begin softening into that location in your body. Letting the muscles soften and relax, as if in warm water. Softening, softening, softening. Remember that we’re not trying to change the feeling, we’re just holding it in a tender way. If you wish, just softening a little around the edges.
• Now, soothing yourself because of this difficult situation. If you wish, placing a hand over the part of your body that feels uncomfortable and just feeling the warmth and gentle touch of your hand. Perhaps imagining warmth and kindness flowing through your hand into your body. Maybe even thinking of your body as if it were the body of a beloved child. Soothing, soothing, soothing.
• And are there some comforting words that you might need to hear? For instance, you might imagine if you had a friend who was struggling in the same way. What would you say to your friend? (“I’m so sorry you feel this way.” “I care deeply about you.”) Can you offer yourself a similar message? (“Oh, it’s so hard to feel this.” “May I be kind to myself.”)
• If you need, feel free to open your eyes whenever you wish, or let go of the exercise and just feel your breath.
• Finally, allowing the discomfort to be there. Making room for it, releasing the need to make it go away.
• And allowing yourself to be just as you are, just like this, if only for this moment.
• Softening, soothing, allowing. Softening, soothing, allowing. Taking some time and going through the three steps on your own.
• You may notice the feeling starts to shift or even change location, that’s okay. Just stay with it. Softening, soothing, allowing.
• Now letting go of the practice and focusing on your body as a whole. Allowing yourself to feel whatever you feel, to be exactly as you are in this moment.

Working with anger

The purpose of this exercise is just to practice working with the yang energy of anger itself, and to integrate it with the yin.

Instructions

• Please close your eyes and think of a situation that is making you angry, it could be past or present. Please choose wisely. If you choose something that makes you very angry it could become overwhelming and it will be difficult to learn the practice, but if it’s trivial it won’t challenge you, something that is between a 3 to 4 on a scale of 10.
• Think of the details as vividly as possible, getting in touch with the situation. What happened. Were your boundaries violated, were you not given respect or due consideration, did an injustice occur?
• Let the feelings of anger arise.
• Please put both hands on your solar plexus to help hold yourself steady as you feel the anger.
• Also feel the soles of your feet touching the floor. Ground yourself to the earth through the soles of your feet.
• Now see if you can let go of the storyline of what’s causing the anger and feel your anger as a physical sensation in your body. Where is it located? What are the sensations? Hot, cold, pulsating, throbbing?

Owning your fierceness

• Know that it’s completely natural for you to feel as you do, this is your fierce momma bear energy protecting you. It’s a form of self-compassion. Perhaps saying to yourself, “It’s okay to feel angry! This is fierce compassion, the natural desire to protect myself.”
• Fully validate the experience of being angry, while trying not to get too caught up in what happened, stay with the anger itself.
• See if you can allow the yang energy to flow freely in your body. There is no need to stifle it, to contain it, to judge it. This too is an important aspect of the compassionate heart.
• Staying grounded through the soles of your feet, and feeling your hands on your solar plexus.
• Can you fully embrace your yang energy? Perhaps you can even feel it flowing up and down your spine, giving you strength and determination.
• Maybe your anger wants to say something, has a message it wants to express.
• From a place of stability and centeredness, what does your anger have to say?
• Can you listen to this part of yourself and thank it for its efforts to protect you?

Bringing in the love

• While continuing to let the energy of protective yang flow, and while continuing to be grounded to the earth through the soles of your feet, leave one hand on your solar plexus and the other on your heart.
• Feel the space between your two hands.
• Staying in contact with the strength and determination of your yang energy to protect you, and from this place of strength, turning toward your heart.
• See if you can call up some yin energy, some tenderness. Recognizing that there may be feelings of hurt and fear underneath the anger that need to be held in a loving way.
• Getting in touch with some of vulnerable feelings that your anger is protecting if it feels right to do so, if not just stay with the anger.
• Is there anything this tender part of you wants to say, a message it wants to express?
• Can you listen to this part of yourself and honor its efforts to care for you and hold your pain?
• Allowing yourself to be fierce and tender at the same time. Like a tree with a strong trunk and flexible branches. Letting the energies merge and integrate and do whatever dance they need to do in this moment.
• Now letting go of the exercise, and simply resting in your experience, letting this moment be exactly as it is, and yourself exactly as you are.
• And gently opening your eyes.

Providing Self-Compassion Break

Instructions

• Think of a situation in your life where you feel your needs aren’t being met. Maybe you are a caregiver and aren’t taking enough time for yourself, or maybe you’re overworked, or maybe you are constantly giving to your partner in a relationship and aren’t getting back what you need to be happy.
• Call up the situation in your mind’s eye. What’s happening? Allow yourself to feel whatever emotions are arising. For example, are there feelings of exhaustion, unfairness, resentment, hopelessness? Make contact with the discomfort as a physical sensation.
• Now focus on the need that is not being met. For example, the need for rest, for

Motivating Self-Compassion Break

Instructions

• Think of a behavior you habitually engage in that is causing problems in your life and that you would like to change. For example, you may overeat and not exercise enough, and it is starting to affect your health. Or you may be unhappy in your job or relationship and want to make a change, but cannot seem to summon the energy or willpower.
• Notice what feelings arise when you think about making this change, such as frustration, disappointment, fear, or excitement. Make contact with the emotions as a physical sensation in your body.
• Bring in the three components of self-compassion so you can try to motivate yourself to make the change with encouragement and support. First, say to yourself slowly and with conviction: I can see this behavior needs to change, it is not good for me.
• This is mindfulness. We have clear vision of the way things are and what needs to change. Find your own words, for example:
  • I am not happy in this situation.
  • I am not where I want to be right now.
• The second phrase is: This is a life learning experience.
• This is the wisdom of understanding common humanity. We accept that everyone gets stuck, makes mistakes, or gets things wrong, but we can learn from our experience. Other options include:
  • Change and growth are part of being human.
  • We usually get it wrong before we get it right.
• Adopt some supportive way of touching yourself, patting yourself on the shoulder, or simply holding your own hand in a gesture of encouragement.
• The third phrase is: I will do my very best to change this behavior and to do something different.
• This is self-kindness. We encourage and support ourselves to make needed changes, not because we are inadequate as we are, but because we want to alleviate our own suffering and be happy. Other options might be:
  • I have your back. I will support you.
  • Just try your best and see what happens.
• If you are having difficulty finding the right words, imagine that someone you really cared about was struggling with the exact same behavior you struggle with, and you wanted to encourage and support them in making a change. What would you say to this person? What tone of voice would you use? Is there any constructive criticism you would offer? Now, can you offer the same message to yourself?
• Finally, combine the yang energy of encouraging, wise vision with the yin energy of unconditional self-acceptance. We can try our best to make needed changes, but the bottom line is that we are also okay as we are. It is okay to be imperfect. We will try to do what we need to be happy and to alleviate our own suffering because we care, but we can let go of the need to get it exactly right.

Giving Ourselves What We Need

The quintessential self-compassion question is, What do I need? Self-compassion is not just about being kind and loving toward ourselves. It is also about discovering what we need to be happy, then taking action to do something about it. One way of understanding what we need is to think about what we value most in our lives, our core values. Core values are what give our lives meaning, such as the value we place on learning, creativity, or nature in our lives.

This exercise will not only help us discover our core values, but we will try to use our providing yang energy to commit to taking action to live in accord with them.

• This is a written reflection exercise, so kindly take out a pen and paper.
• Close your eyes and, in your mind’s eye, find yourself in the room. Place your hand over your solar plexus, your core, and try to feel your center.

Looking Back

• Imagine that you are in your elderly years. You are sitting in a lovely garden as you contemplate your life. Looking back to the time between now and then, you feel a deep sense of satisfaction, joy, and contentment. Even though life has not always been easy, you managed to stay true to yourself to the best of your ability.
• Which core values are represented in that life? For example, adventure, creativity, learning, spirituality? Please write down some of your core values.

Not Living in Accord with Values?

• Drop back inside and ask yourself if there are any ways that you are not living in accord with your core values, or ways in which your life seems to be out of balance with your values. For example, perhaps you are too busy to spend much quiet time in nature, even though nature is your great love in life.
• If you have several values that feel out of balance, choose one that is especially important for you to work with for the remainder of this exercise and write it down.

Obstacles

• External. We all have obstacles that prevent us from living in accord with our core values. Some of these may be external obstacles, like not having enough money or time. Often the obstacle is that we have other obligations. For instance, we may need to support a family, and this interferes with our ability to fully meet our own needs. Reflect on this for a moment and then write down any external obstacles.
• Internal. There may also be some internal obstacles getting in the way of you living in accord with your core values. For instance, are you afraid of failure, do you doubt your abilities, do you feel it is selfish, or maybe do you not feel you deserve to be happy? Drop inside and reflect, and then write down any internal obstacles.
• Consider whether calling up some yang energy could help you live in accord with your true values. Feel the deep yearning and desire within you to meet this need. Can you get in touch with it as a physical sensation?

• Can you bring more balance into your life, giving yourself permission to take care of yourself in this way? It is not selfish. The more you meet your own needs, the more you will have to give to others. The more you honor your true self, giving yourself what you truly need to be happy, the more you can honor the authenticity of others.
• Write down any ways you think self-compassion could help you overcome any of the obstacles that are getting in the way of meeting your needs. Could it help you feel safe and confident enough to take new actions, risk failure, or let go of things that are not serving you? What can you do to make yourself happier and more fulfilled?
• Of course, sometimes there are insurmountable obstacles to living fully in accord with your values. Part of being human is that we cannot have everything exactly the way we want it to be. For this we need some yin energy of acceptance and tenderness.
• Close your eyes for a moment and put your hands on your heart or some other soothing place. Can you make space for the reality that we cannot always be fully authentic, we cannot always meet our needs the way we want to, and that is okay too? We can still hold ourselves in loving, connected presence.
• Finally, we need to integrate the yin and the yang. At the same time that we need to accept and open to our present moment experience as it is, we can still make a good-willed effort to do what we can to change our circumstances. For instance, is there any creative way you can express your core value in your life that you have not considered before, even if this expression is incomplete? For example, if you love nature and you work in an office all day, can you bring in plants and stones to make your environment more natural? Are there small things you can do to keep the flame of your values alive? If so, please write this down too.

Motivating Change with Compassion

Ironically, when we criticize ourselves to make a change, we are often also trying to help ourselves and protect ourselves from harm. We may be afraid other people will reject us if we do not change, or that some of our behaviors are harmful. So we criticize ourselves to protect ourselves from harm, but it actually usually just makes things worse. Tapping into the encouraging, supportive energy of motivating yang can be a much more productive and sustainable way to motivate ourselves over time and keep ourselves safe. Harsh self-criticism tends to undermine our self-confidence and make us afraid of failure. The constructive criticism of motivating yang self-compassion gives us the encouragement and support we need to do our best.

This exercise explores the difference between motivating a change with self-criticism versus yang self-compassion. This is a writing exercise, so please take out something to write with.

Instructions

• Think about a behavior that you would like to change, something that is causing problems in your life and that you often criticize yourself for. Please select a behavior that is mild to moderately problematic, not one that is extremely harmful. Examples of behaviors you might be criticizing yourself for which are causing problems in your life are: I eat unhealthy food, I do not exercise enough, I procrastinate, I am very impatient.
• Please write down the behavior that you would like to change, and also write down the problems the behavior is causing.

Finding Your Self-Critical Voice

• Write down how your inner critic expresses itself when this behavior occurs. Is it through harsh words or tone of voice? For some people it is more a feeling of disappointment or inner coldness. How does your inner critic show up?

Compassion for Feeling Criticized

• Switch perspectives and take a moment to get in touch with the part of yourself that feels criticized. Notice how it feels to receive this message. What is the impact on you?

Turning Toward Your Inner Critic

Now, turning toward your inner critic with interest and curiosity. Please reflect for a moment on what is motivating your inner criticism. Is the inner critic trying to protect you in some way, to keep you safe from danger, to help you, even if the result has been unproductive? If so, please write down what motivates the inner critic.

If you cannot find any way that your inner critic is trying to help you, sometimes self-criticism has no redeeming value whatsoever, or if you feel your inner critic is the internalized voice of someone who abused you in some way, please just continue to give yourself compassion for how you have suffered from self-criticism in the past. And discontinue this exercise.

But if you did identify some way your inner critic might be trying to protect or help you, see if you can acknowledge its efforts, perhaps even writing down a few words of thanks. Let your inner critic know that even though it may not be serving you very well now, its intention was good, and it was doing its best.

Finding Your Motivating Yang

Now that your self-critical voice has been heard, let’s see if we can get in touch with our motivating yang energy.

Close your eyes, and feel your desire to make a change. Get in touch with this part of you that has encouraging, wise vision, that wants you to be happy. See if you can feel this form of yang self-compassion flowing in your body.

This energy clearly sees the problems this behavior is causing in your life, and can use vision, wisdom, and encouragement to help you make a change.

• Our inner critic usually is simplistic and sees our behavior as the result of being bad or inadequate. But the wisdom of yang self-compassion can see bigger patterns, can learn from our mistakes. Can you see any patterns or reasons that this behavior keeps occurring? Why are you stuck? Maybe you are extremely busy or stressed, or it’s a habit you have from the way you were raised. Are there any lessons you can learn from your past failures to change? Please write your response.
• Close your eyes again. Now see if you can call up the supportive, encouraging energy of yang self-compassion to motivate you to make a change, not because you’re unacceptable as you are, but because it wants the best for you. Begin to repeat a phrase that captures the essence of your compassionate voice. For example:
  • “I deeply care about you, and that’s why I’d like to help you make a change.”
  • “I don’t want you to keep harming yourself. I’m here to support you.”

Now please open your eyes and begin to write a little letter to yourself in a compassionate voice, freely and spontaneously, addressing the behavior you would like to change. What emerges from the deep feeling and wish, “I’m here to encourage and support you to make a change?”

If you’re struggling to find words, it might be easier to write down the words that would flow from your kind heart when speaking to a dear friend who is struggling with the same issue as you.

Finally, hold this encouragement to change together with the fact that it’s also okay to be where you are, a work in progress. We don’t need to be perfect, or to get it all right. We can allow the yin of self-acceptance to co-exist with the yang of our intention to change. To do our best, and then accept whatever happens.

Please write some words of acceptance, to remind yourself that whether you are successful at making a change or not, you’re okay as you are.