Once, as part of an exercise I read about, I brainstormed a safe-place and compassionate-helper animal. My place was around a fire at night, in a forest, and with a wolf (safe for me, I first stayed at a wilderness camp when I was six). I’ve since occasioned to visualize my compassion-wolf while reciting the compassion practices, reinforcing feelings of help and support that I can activate by visualizing the wolf. Let’s try practicing for our compassion animals:
I practice compassion for my compassion-wolf
With compassion, I free him from suffering
With compassion, I help him find peace and feel safe in this world
With compassion, I create contentment in his life
With compassion, I inspire him to flourish
With patience and good humour, I welcome my compassion wolf’s imperfections
With sympathy, I feel for his suffering
With empathy, I mind what he’s feeling and try to understand why
For my compassion-wolf, I seek wisdom
I nurture a broad perspective of him
I foster gratefulness for him
And I acknowledge that suffering and difficulties are part of his life
A part 2 for this visualization is upcoming😄