Daily Mindfulness Compassion Course

Below are videos from the Daily Mindful Compassion Program.  If you are interested in the full Integrative Inquiry course, with more lessons, activities, and journal reflections, click here.

These lessons and practices are made possible by donations to The Rushing to Yoga Foundation.

Day 1:  Childlike Curiosity

Video – Childlike Curiosity
Reflect: When I think of discovering something not yet discovered in myself, I feel..
Audio – Five Points of Attention
Journal Suggestion – When I think of engaging in the five points of attention on a daily basis, I notice….

 Day 2: Practice of Setting Intentions

Reflect: When I think of being guided through some questions where I am just supposed to notice what arises, I feel…

Daily Journal – When I ask myself, “who am I?”, I notice…

Day 3: How to Change Your Brain

Reflect: When I think of being invited to focus on my breathing, I feel…

 Daily Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed…

Day 4:  What do I Want?

Audio: What Do I Want?
Daily Journal – When I ask myself, “what do I want?”, I notice ….

Day 5: Experiences of Focused Breathing

Reflect: When I think of being distracted from focusing on my breath, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced focusing on my breath just now, I noticed…

Day 6: More Experiences on Focused Breathing

Reflect: When I think of using child-like curiosity to focus on my breath, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced child-like curiosity toward my breath, I noticed ….

Day 7: Additional Experiences of Focused Breathing

Reflect: When I think that it is normal to be distracted from my breath, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced observing whether I was aware of my breath, I noticed….

Week 2: Training Attention

The purpose is not to see what we want to see, but to see what is really there.  We can also see additional choices when we become clear about our intentions.

Day 8: Working with Judgement

Reflect: When I think of being asked to suspend attachment to my judgment, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced observing where my attention resides while suspending attachment to my judgment, I noticed…

Day 9: What is My Life Purpose?

Reflect: When I think of being guided through some questions where I am just supposed to notice what arises, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I was asked “what is my life’s purpose?”, I noticed…

Day 10: Working with Kindness

Reflect: When I think about practicing focused breathing with an attitude of gentleness and kindness toward myself, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced focused breathing with gentleness and kindness toward myself, I noticed…

Day 11: For What Am I Grateful?

Daily Journal – When I was asked “for what am I grateful?”, I noticed…

Day 12: Practicing Without Expectations

Reflect: When I think about being able to practice focused movement with breath anywhere, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced focused movement with breath, I noticed …

Day 13:  Question Integration

Daily Journal: When I am asked, “Who am I?” “What do I want?” What is my life’s purpose?” and “For what am I grateful?”, I noticed…

Day 14: Intention Integration

Daily Journal – What is my intention for this moment?

Week Three: Focused Movement with Breath: Another Way to Approach Attention Training

What are you paying attention to right now?   We can’t actually know what we are paying attention to without an awareness of what we are paying attention to.  Focused movement with breath can help train our attention.

Day 15: Focused Movement Introduction

Reflect: When I think about practicing focused breath with movement, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced focused breathing with movement, I noticed …

Day 16: Focused Movement Two

Reflect: When I think about practicing focused movement with breath anywhere I may be, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I was asked ‘who am I?’, I noticed…

Day 17: Noticing One Thing at a Time

Reflect: When I think of being invited to focus on my breathing, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed …

Day 18: What Do I Want?

Video – We Can Not Have Choice When We are Not Aware

Daily Journal – When I think about having to become aware to make an informed choice, I feel…
Audio – What Do I Want? 
Daily Journal – When I was asked “what do I want?”, I noticed …

Day 19: Experiences of Focused Breathing

Reflect: When I think of being distracted from focusing on my breath, I feel…
Daily Journal: When I practiced focusing on my breath just now, I noticed…

Day 20: More Experiences on Focused Breathing

Reflect: When I think that it is normal to be distracted from my breath, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced child-like curiosity toward my breath, I noticed …

Day 21:  Additional Experiences of Focused Breathing

Daily Journal – When I think about ho interpretations inform judgment, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced observing whether I was aware of my breath, I noticed…

Week 4: Unpacking Mindfulness and Inquiry

Knowing that you can become aware of where your attention resides while you are doing anything anywhere creates empowering choices.

Day 22: Mindfulness

Reflect: When I think about practicing mindfulness, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I think of focused breathing being the foundational practice of mindfulness, I noticed …

Day 23: Revisiting Intention

Reflect:  When I think about practicing mindfulness as it relates to discovering who I am, what I want, what my life’s purpose is, and for what I am grateful, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I think of what I want to do right now, I notice …

Day 24: Remaining in Inquiry

Reflect:  When I think about practicing inquiry within every moment, I feel…
Daily Journal: When I think of who I am, what I want, what my life’s purpose is, and for what I am grateful, what feels true for me now is…

Day 25: More About Remaining in Inquiry

Reflect:  When I think about everything carrying energy and information even when I can’t see it, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I think about what I want to do right now, I notice …

Day 26: Expansion of Inquiry

Reflect:  When I think about how my choice of thought may change energy and information even when I can’t see it, I feel…
Daily Journal – When I practiced focusing on my breath just now, I noticed…

Day 27: Body Scanning

Reflect:  When I think about scanning my body, I feel…
Daily Journal – When just practiced this brief body scan, I noticed…

Day 28: Body Scanning Continued

Daily Journal – When I just practiced this body scan, I noticed …

Week 5: Attention to Emotions

Emotions can drive our choices or we can become aware of our emotions and harness them for positive choice making purposes.

Day 29:  Attention to Emotions

Reflect:  When I think about becoming aware of where emotions reside in my body, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced the brief body scan just now, I noticed…

Day 30: Awareness of Emotion

Reflect:  When I think about emotions informing my decisions, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced the brief body scan just now, I noticed ….

Day 31: Non-Judgment of emotions

Reflect:  When I think about not judging my emotions, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced the unwelcomed emotion body scan just now, I felt ….

Day 32: Inquiry Into Emotions

When working to intentionally change the brain, we want to train healthy links between our neurological being and our environment. Since the brain has a negative bias, we want to train it to welcome emotions that are positive.  This will allow us to recall those positive emotions more readily.

Reflect:  When I think about steeping in my emotions, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced the steeping in of welcomed emotions just now, I noticed…

Day 33:  More Inquiry Into Emotions

Reflect:  When I think about the important role emotions play in memory storage and recall, as well as decision-making, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced noticing what is true for me now in the unpleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed …
Journal- When I practiced noticing what is true for me now in the pleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed ….

Day 34: What is True For Me?

Reflect: When I think about my responsibility to discern for myself what is true for me in any given moment, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced noticing what is true for me now in the unpleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed …
Journal – When I practiced noticing what is true for me now in the pleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed…

Day 35: What if I Didn’t Believe It Was True?

Reflect:  When I think about considering that what is true for me in any given moment may not be true for another, I feel…
 Journal – When I practiced inquiring what is true for me now in the unpleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed ….
Journal – When I practiced inquiring into what is true for me now in the pleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed ….

Week 6: Emotion Regulation

 Day 36: Emotion Regulation
Reflect:  When I think about how focused breathing may be able to help me become less reactive to emotions, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed…

Day 37: More Emotion Regulation

When I think about how focused breathing may be able to help me differentiate my thoughts, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed…

Day 38: Non-Judgment of Emotions

Reflect:  When I think about not judging my emotions, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced the unwelcomed emotion body scan just now, I noticed….
Journal – When I practiced the brief welcomed emotion body scan just now, I felt …

Day 39: Emotion Regulation using SBNRR

Reflect:  When I think about practicing SBNRR with kindness toward myself, I feel…
Journal When I practiced SBNRR just now, I noticed….

Day 40: What Emotion Regulation is Not

Reflect:  When I think about what emotion regulation is not, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed ….

Day 41: Acknowledgement of Emotion

Reflect:  When I think about practicing mindfulness and just naming my experience, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed …
When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed…

Day 42:  The Possibilities to Alleviate Suffering

Reflect:  When I think about how things change in each moment, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed…
Week 7: Compassion

Compassion is a misunderstood practice.  Here, we begin to explain it and provide practices that can support your cultivation of compassion.

 Day 43:  Being Human
Reflect:  When I think that to suffer or not to suffer could be a choice I am making, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I noticed…

Day 44:  What Do I Deserve?

Reflect: When I think about whether someone I love deserves compassion, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced loving kindness for a loved one right now, I noticed…

Day 45: Neurology of Empathy

Reflect:  When I think about everyone being human, just as I am human, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced “Just as Me” right now, I noticed…

Day 46: Loving Kindness for Others

Reflect:  When I think about practicing Loving Kindness toward anyone I come in contact with, I feel…
Journal -When I just practiced loving kindness for someone I don’t really know right now, I noticed…

Day 47:  Loving Kindness for Self

When I think about practicing Loving Kindness toward myself, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced loving kindness for myself, I noticed…

Day 48:  Loving Kindnessfor the Difficult Person

Reflect:  When I think about practicing Loving Kindness toward a difficult person, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced loving kindness for the difficult person, I noticed…

Day 49: Compassion Integration

Reflect:  When I think about practicing Loving Kindness daily, I feel…
Journal -When I just practiced loving kindness, I noticed…

Week 8: Integration

How do we begin to bring these practices together in meaningful ways in our everyday lives?

Day 50: Just One Breath
Reflect:  When I think about practicing just one focused breath a day, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced focused breathing, I noticed …

Day 51:  Suspending Judgment

When I think about suspending judgment as I practice, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced suspending judgment, I noticed…

Day 52: Remaining in Inquiry

Reflect:  When I think of staying in inquiry as long as possible, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced staying in inquiry, I noticed…

Day 53:  Integrating Intention With Awareness

Reflect:  When I think of staying in inquiry as long as possible, I feel…
Journal – When I just practice awareness of my intention, I noticed…

Day 54: Integrating What is with What is Not

Reflect:  When I consider that what is true for me in any given moment may not be true for others, I feel…
Journal – When I just practiced inquiry into what is true for me, I noticed …
Journal – When I practiced inquiring into what is true for me now in the pleasant emotion body scan just now, I noticed ….

Day 55: Embodiment

Now that you have completed envisioning this practice in your mind, we invite you to try it out in your work environment with a trusted colleague. As you do, notice what arises in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

Reflect:  When I think about integrating who I am with a quality of what I desire in order to serve my life’s purpose, I feel…
Journal – When I practice integration, I notice…

Day 56:  Conscious Choce-Making

Reflect:  When I think about practicing conscious choice-making, I feel…
Journal -When I practice conscious choice-making, I notice…

Week 9: Unpacking the Practice

In this week, we explain a little more about the practices and invite ourselves to deepen our practices.

Day 57:  What does it Mean to Practice

Reflect:  When I think of practicing and not becoming perfect, I feel:
Journal – When I practiced observing my breath while noticing the human experience is imperfect, I ….

Day 58:  It’s not About Self-Improvement

When I think of practicing and not becoming a “better” person, I feel:
Journal -When I practiced observing my breath, considering that there is nothing to fix or improve, I ….

Day 59: SBNRR Revisited

When I think of practicing SBNRR during my day, I feel:
Audio – When I practiced SBNRR just now, I ….

Day 60:  It is not About Not Hurting Others

Reflect:  When I think of practicing and still hurting other peoples’ feelings, I feel:
Journal – When I practice making choices in alignment with who I am and who I am becoming, I ….

Day 61: Noticing Shifts

Reflect: When I think of how this practice may result in my choice to shift relationships in my life, I feel:
Journal – When I practice making choices in alignment with who I am and who I am becoming, I ….

Day 62: Difference in Self-Awareness and Self-Consciousness

Reflect;  When I think about considering what is true for me in any given moment, I feel…
Journal – When I practice inquiry into my emotions, I ….

Day 63: It’s not about Looking a Certain Way

Reflect:  When I think about not having to “look” a certain way as I practice, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced noticing what is true for me now in the unpleasant emotion body scan just now, I felt ….
Journal -When I practiced noticing what is true for me now in the pleasant emotion body scan just now, I felt ….

Week 10: Mindful Communication

How judgmental of yourself are you when your attention wonders away from what you intended, and how kindly do you direct your attention back to where you want it placed?

Day 64: Attention and Communication

Reflect:  When I think about being able to train my attention toward listening, I feel…
Journal -When I practiced focused breathing just now, I ….

Day 65: Mindful Listening

Reflect:  When I think about practicing mindful listening, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced mindful listening just now, I ….

Day 66: Mindful Listening with Another Person

Reflect:  When I think about practicing mindful listening with another person, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced focused breathing just now, I ….
 Day 67: Paying Attention to Emotions as you Communicate
Reflect:  When I think about communicating with another while paying attention to my emotions, I feel…
Journal -When I practiced noticing my emotions while communicating, I ….
Journal – When I practiced noticing my emotions while communicating, I ….

Day 68: Staying in Inquiry as you Communicate

Reflect: When I think about inquiring into my emotions as I am communicating with another, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced inquiring into my emotions while communicating, I ….
Journal – When I practiced inquiring into my emotions while communicating, I ….

Day 69: Inquiring into the Other as you Communicate

Video – Inquiring into the Other as you Communicate

Reflect: When I think about inquiring into another’s emotions as I am communicating with another, I feel…
Journal – When I practiced inquiring into another’s emotions while communicating, I ….
Journal – When I practiced inquiring into another’s emotions while communicating, I ….

Day 70: Engaging in Difficult Conversations

Reflect:  When I think about my intention for inviting in a difficult conversation, I feel…
Journal – When I think about y intention for this difficult conversation, I ….

Week 11: Diving Deeper into Mindful Communication

What is the quality of your attention as it shifts from your surroundings in the room and sensations in the body back to breath?

Day 71: Creating an Intention for Communicating

Reflect:  When I think about setting an intention for every conversation, I feel…
Journal – When I think about my intention for this conversation, I ….

Day 72: Three Parts to Conversations

Reflect:  When I think about paying attention to 3 parts of a conversation as well as my intention for the conversation, I feel…
Journal – When I think about exploring three parts of a conversation, I ….

Day 73: More on Three Parts to Conversations

Reflect:  When I think about taking the time to pay attention to each conversation, I feel…
Journal – When I think about exploring three parts of a conversation, I ….

Day 74: Using I Language

Reflect:  When I think about using “I” language in my communication, I feel…
Journal – When I think about using “I” language in a conversation, I ….
 

Day 75: The Third Story

Reflect:  When I think about considering the third story after having experienced a difficult conversation, I feel…
When I think about what the wise observer saw in my difficult conversation, I ….

Day 76: The Steps in a Difficult Conversation

Reflect:  When I think about going through the steps of preparing for a difficult conversation, I feel…
Journal – When I think about entering into a difficult conversation, I ….

Day 77: Communication with Yourself First

Reflect:  When I think about having a mindful conversation with myself, I feel…
Journal – When I think about communicating with myself first, I…

Week 12: Resilience

 You can train your attention anytime anywhere and as such, you can begin to notice the quality of your attention and make choices with regard to that.

 Day 78: Wherever You Go, There you Are

Reflect:  When I think of investing in a relationship with myself, I feel:
Journal – When I think of developing a relationship with myself so I can be with myself wherever I may go, I ….

Day 79: The First Part of Training Resilience

When I think of training my awareness towards recognizing when I am calm, I feel:
When I noticed my inner calm as I practiced focused breathing, I ….

Day 80: The Second Part of Training Resilience

Reflect:  When I think of training my awareness towards recognizing bodily sensations that are not associated with calmness, I feel:
Journal – When I noticed my bodily sensations as I practiced focused breathing, I ….

Day 81: The Third Part of Training Resilience

Reflect:  When I think of training my awareness towards recognizing bodily sensations associated with my thoughts, I feel:
Journal – When I noticed my bodily sensations in relationship to my thoughts, I ….

Day 82: Our Relationship of Thought to our Bodily Sensations

When I think of training my awareness and then inquiry into my thoughts, I feel:
Journal – When I inquire into my thoughts associated with my bodily sensations, I …

Day 83: Explaining Our Experiences to Ourselves

When I think of becoming aware of how I explain to myself my experiences of success and failure, I feel:
Journal – When I notice how I explain my experiences of success and failure to myself, I …

Day 84: Returning back to Homeostasis on Demand

Reflect:  When I think of the next moment being a new moment and a new opportunity for a new choice, I feel:
Journal – When I think of this moment as a new moment and a new opportunity for a new choice, I …

Week 13: Mindset and Resilience

Be sure to tell your friends and loved ones know that you’ve signed up for this amazing program. 

Day 85: Determination to Succeed

When I think of cultivating my determination to succeed, I feel:
Journal – When I think of who I am in relationship to this moment, I …

Day 86: Exploring Values

Reflect:  When I think of exploring who I admire and why, I feel:
Journal – When I think of embodying what I value, I …

Day 87:  Exploring Purpose

When I think of envisioning an ideal future in the next three years, I feel:
Journal – When I think of living out an ideal future, I …

Day 88: Being with the Politics

Video – Being with the Politics
Reflect:  When I think of engaging in political conversations, I feel:
Audio – Communicating with Attention Toward Unwelcome Emotions
Audio – Communicating Attention Toward Unwelcome Attention Pt 2
Journal – When I think of engaging in political conversations, I …

 Day 89: More on Politics

Reflect:  When I think of engaging in political conversations, I feel:
Journal – When I just practiced loving kindness for the difficult person and for myself, I …

Day 90: Accepting Consequences of our Choices

Reflect:  When I think of the difference between guilt and shame, I feel:
Journal – When I consider that my feeling guilty is awareness of what I can learn from a past choice, I …

Day 91: Determining Costs and benefits of Choices

Reflect: When I think of the benefit I am getting out of a conflict I have a role in creating, I feel:
Journal – When I considered the cost and/or benefit of keeping my point of view, I …

Week 14: Organizational Transformation

If you become aware of your emotions, then you get to choose whether and how to express your emotions.

Day 92: Transformation

Reflect:  When I think about how focused breathing can care for my interior condition, I feel…
Journal-When I think of caring for my interior condition, I …

Day 93: Looking Again

When I think of continually looking again, I feel:
Journal – When I think about what I may notice from looking again, I …

Day 94: Look Again with Compassion

Reflect:  When I think of continually looking again with compassion, I feel:
Journal – When I think about what I may notice from looking again with compassion, I …

Day 95: Suspending my Truth

When I think of suspending my truth, I feel:
Journal – When I think about what I may notice from looking again with compassion, I …

Day 98: Theory U

When I think of transforming my organization, I feel:
Journal – When I think about the transformation process, I …

Week 15: Uncertainty and Leadership

Through self compassion you will find peace and through compassion for others you will develop successful and satisfying interpersonal relationships.

Day 99: Uncertainty and Leadership

Reflect: When I think of embracing uncertainty, I feel…
Journal- When I think about embracing uncertainty by looking back with compassion, I …

Day 100: Exploring the Feedback Loop

When I think of providing process feedback, I feel:Assignment
Journal – When I think about receiving process feedback, I …

Day 101: Exploring Ethics

When I think of exploring another person’s ethics, I feel…
Journal – When I think about being with someone who has different ethics, I …

Day 102: Interdependence

Reflect: When I think of moving from I to we, I feel:
Journal – When I think of being interdependent, I …

Day 103: Self-Confidence and Humility

Reflect:  When I think of being as powerful as Mt Fuji and as small as a grain of sand, I feel:
Journal – When I think of being self-confident, I …

Day 104: It is UP to You

Reflect: When I think that I am the only one who can take myself out, I feel:
Journal – When I think of all my possibilities, I …

Day 105: To What are you Committed?

Reflect:  When I think about what I am committed to, I feel:
Journal – When I think of my commitment, I …

Week 16: What is Possible?

Conscious Choice-Making is simply the process of becoming aware of the choices we make and the potential consequences of those choices.

Day 106: Emerging Neuroscience

Reflect:  When I think about intentionally changing specific portions of my brain, I feel…
Journal -When I think of changing my brain, I …

Day 107: What Else Changes the Brain?

Reflect:   When I think about intentionally activating specific portions of my brain, I feel…
Journal – When I think of allowing my thoughts and feelings to flow onto paper without judgment, I …

Day 108: Being in Nature

Please move into a place of nature or a place that is closest to nature prior to practicing this exercise.

Reflect:  When I think about intentionally immersing myself in nature each day, I feel…Assignment
When I walk in nature, I …

Day 109: The Benefit of Movement

Reflect:  When I think about moving in order to enhance my mental agility, I feel…
Journal – When I move with breath, I …

Day 110: Things we Don’t Yet Fully Know

Reflect: When I think about engaging in the creative and performing arts, I feel…
Journal-When I am feeling most creative, I …

Day 111: The Neuroscience of Compassion

Reflect:  When I think about being able to train myself and others to see everyone as a human being worthy of kindness, I feel…
Journal – When I practice loving kindness, I …

Day 112: Be of Service

When I think of being of service, I feel…
Journal – When I am of service, I …

End of Course:
We hope you have enjoyed this course and developed mindfulness habits which you will continue in your daily life. Thamk you for taking this journey with us!