Happiness Break: A Meditation for When Others are Suffering, with Anushka Fernandopulle

The Science of Happiness

PRX and Greater Good Science Center

Science, Social Sciences

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Seeing others suffering is painful. Learn to practice both compassion and self-soothing in this guided meditation led by Anushka Fernandopulle.

How to Do This Practice:

Find somewhere peaceful, sit down and get comfortable. Once you’re ready, gently close your eyes.
Start taking deep breaths and relax your body. Part by part, release tension in different areas of your body.
Think of someone or a group of people you know or have heard of who may be having a hard time. Bring to mind an image of them.
Connect with whatever it is they are struggling with. Mentally, make some wishes of compassion for them. For example, “May you be free from pain.” Or, “I am here with you.”
You can also use this practice to focus on your own pain. To do this, call to mind your struggles and give yourself the same compassion you gave others.

Today’s Happiness Break host:

Anushka Fernandopulle is a meditation teacher who trained in Buddhist meditation for over 30 years. After studying Buddhism at Harvard, she spent four years in full-time meditation training in the U.S., India, and Sri Lanka

Check out Anushka’s upcoming meditation retreats https://www.anushkaf.org

Follow Anushka on Instagram https://tinyurl.com/ytn3vvhz

Follow Anushka on Twitter https://tinyurl.com/485vj8xn

Check out Anushka’s Dharma Talks https://tinyurl.com/ydacvamn

Find another version of the Compassion Meditation practice at our Greater Good in Action website:

https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/compassion_meditation

More resources from The Greater Good Science Center:

What is compassion? https://tinyurl.com/2s3ztcpt

Take Our Self-Compassion Quiz: https://tinyurl.com/yysrf663

Try Dr. Neff’s Fierce Self-Compassion Break: https://tinyurl.com/yk9yzh9u

How to Bring Self-Compassion to Work with You: https://tinyurl.com/45zkrkam

The Five Myths of Self-Compassion: https://tinyurl.com/2p88vass

Read Dr. Neff’s interview about Self-Compassion: https://tinyurl.com/286njtje

How Self-Compassion Can Help You Through a Breakup: https://tinyurl.com/222scejz

Can Self-Compassion Overcome Procrastination? https://tinyurl.com/mrfmvyj

We love hearing from you! Tell us about your experience of compassion meditation. Email us at [email protected] or use the hashtag #happinesspod.

Find us on Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

Help us share Happiness Break! Leave us a 5-star review and copy and share this link: https://tinyurl.com/2p9h5aap

We're living through a mental health crisis. Between the stress, anxiety, depression, loneliness, burnout — we all could use a break to feel better. That's where Happiness Break comes in. In each biweekly podcast episode, instructors guide you through research-backed practices and meditations that you can do in real-time. These relaxing and uplifting practices have been shown in a lab to help you cultivate calm, compassion, connection, mindfulness, and more — what the latest science says will directly support your well-being. All in less than ten minutes. A little break in your day.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pain and suffering in life are inevitable, we all go through hard times.
0:08.2	And difficult as that may be, sometimes it's even harder to watch someone we care about
0:12.7	in pain.
0:14.5	I'm Dacker Keltner, welcome to Happiness Break, where we take a short break to try a
0:18.7	practice designed to cultivate calm compassion and ultimately more happiness.
0:26.3	Today's practice is a tool for when you find yourself feeling other people's pain and suffering,
0:31.4	and you're not sure what to do.
0:34.2	The literature shows that when we do practice compassion towards others, it has a snowball
0:38.8	effect.
0:40.2	It increases our own happiness and self-esteem.
0:43.6	It also helps us feel more satisfied with our lives.
0:47.6	It's an opportunity to step out of our own worries and ruminations, which can actually
0:52.0	make us more altruistic, less depressed, and less stressed.
0:56.5	Here to guide us is Anushka Fernandipoli.
0:59.6	Anushka is a meditation teacher who's trained in Buddhist meditation for over 30 years.
1:05.7	So find somewhere peaceful and settle in.
1:11.0	Hi, this is Anushka.
1:20.0	I'd like to guide you in a practice of cultivating compassion.
1:25.5	So it can be helpful to find a place to sit that you can feel comfortable in a quiet area.
1:37.9	You can close your eyes gently if it's safe and comfortable for you to do so.
1:45.4	So the practice of compassion is helpful for when you encounter someone who's suffering.
1:51.2	This could be a friend who is telling you something difficult that's happened to them.
	...

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