May You Feel Peace In Your Heart
Dear Pause Community,
Picture above is a rock that I painted for my mom's birthday last month. It's to put in her garden or on her front porch.
Lately, I've felt a strong resonance with the loving-kindness phrase "May you feel peace in your heart." There's something so tender and pure about those six words, and my mom has been through a lot lately, so it seemed like the perfect offering for her.
It's also good timing, because our Pause community theme for August is COMPASSION. There are many beautiful compassion practices, but loving-kindness is one of my favorites. It is a form of meditation (also referred to as metta in Buddhism) that nurtures compassion, equanimity, and goodwill towards ourselves and each other. If you’re not familiar, check out this article.
For me, loving-kindness is a direct practice that helps me bring more love, gentleness, and intention into my everyday life. It also helps me keep my heart open when things feel hard or painful.
Right now, my practice is taking shape in two ways...
First, when I'm out in the world and I witness suffering in another person, I silently offer them loving-kindness. Sometimes it's the phrase on the rock. Sometimes it's "May you feel moments of ease today" or "May you be free from suffering." I also try to bring awareness to my own moments of struggle and offer the phrases to myself. One I use regularly is, "May I be kind to myself in this moment."
Second, I have been offering loving-kindness to our new baby Mia when I put her to bed at night. It's become the sweetest ritual...for her and for me. I will nurse her, rock her, and put her into her bassinet when she's almost asleep. Then I kiss her on the forehead and quietly whisper these phrases:
May you be happy May you be healthy and strong May you feel peace in your heart May you feel deeply loved
I repeat them once more for Mia, myself, Ryan, our family, and often a wider circle of people and beings in the world:
May we all be happy May we all be healthy and strong May we all feel peace in our hearts May we all feel deeply loved
This takes two minutes and I always feel something in me soften and release. I look forward to this grounding anchor each night and I love the idea that even though Mia doesn't have language yet, the words are landing in her body/mind/heart and planting some very meaningful seeds. I'm excited to explore loving-kindness practice with you this month, as well as the many other rich dimensions of compassion practice that our wonderful teachers and you all will unearth together. As always, thank you for opening this post and for reading here. I wish you a month ahead filled with understanding, kindness, and growth. And...peace in your heart. 💗 With love, Rena Pause Cofounder
About the Author
Rena founded Pause in 2015 with her partner Ryan to help people find a greater sense of peace within themselves. As a striving A-type and a lifelong overachiever, Rena leaned into meditation as a source of healing and a way to find greater balance and ease. Her practice continues to have a profound impact in every sphere of her life.
She brings 16 years of personal practice, a degree in business, and health coaching experience to her teaching. She is a qualified Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction teacher and trained professionally with the Mindfulness Centers at Brown and UMASS. Through work with thousands of meditators, she is amazed and inspired by the depth of support these practices offer. Rena currently guides classes for the Pause Studio® based in Portland, Oregon, and facilitates Pause at Work® programs and resilience trainings for corporations, nonprofit organizations, schools, and hospitals worldwide.
Beyond her work with Pause, Rena enjoys camping, Irish + hip-hop dancing, and loving her amazing family. Her favorite place to meditate is in the sunshine.