There's a paradox inside mindfulness practice: When we want to heal something, we move toward what hurts, not away from it. It's not easy to keep our hearts soft or open, and a mindful practice doesn't change the inherent risks in being a human in a world of other humans. This week, as part of his mini-course Opening Ourselves Up to Compassion, Vinny Ferraro shares a practice to meet our pain and uncertainty, to recognize our inherent connection, and to summon the courage to lower our defenses. Vinny Ferraro has been a practitioner of insight meditation (vipassanā) since the early 1990s. He is a co-Founder of the Dharma Punx and co-Guiding Teacher of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. He is also a nationally recognized leader in designing and implementing interventions for at-risk adolescents and is currently Senior Trainer for Mindful Schools. The transcription of this guided meditation will be online and in our app at Mindful.org next week. Stay curious, stay inspired. Sign up for our free newsletter mindful.org/signup or download the app for free at mindful.org/app. Show Notes Find more from Vinny Ferraro here. Go Deeper For more resources on wise boundaries and how to stay open when you want to shut down, check out these resources from Mindful.org: How Writing Three Lines of Poetry Can Open Your Heart Why We're Hardwired to Armor Our Hearts Fearless Open-Hearted Awareness with Frank Ostaseski (a mini-course) How to Show Up With Your Whole Heart Compassionate Boundaries: How to Say No with Heart To try another meditation to help lower defenses and break down armor, try A 12-Minute Meditation to Cultivate an Open Heart. And more from Mindful here: More episodes of 12 Minute Meditation Let us know what you thought of this episode of 12 Minute Meditation by leaving a review or by emailing [email protected].

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