Coaching practices for Breathing in Own Suffering
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Breathing in Own Suffering, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- My whole instinct is to push pain away and grab at anything that feels good, and I’m tired of how walled-off that makes me
- I’ve heard of this breathing-in-the-pain practice but it stays a vague idea in my head
- I’ve been fighting and trying to push away my own pain and it only tightens its grip
- When I try to breathe in suffering from a raw, already-shaky place it just pulls me under rather than opening me
- Someone I love is suffering and there is nothing I can actually do to fix it, and that helplessness is unbearable
Practices that may help
- Tonglen: sending and taking
Breathe in suffering (yours and others’); breathe out relief and well-being.
Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training - Work with the classical two-breath texture
Breathe in something hot, dark, and heavy; breathe out something cool, bright, and spacious.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Practice tonglen for your own suffering first
Use your own current pain as the object before extending the practice to others.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Prepare for tonglen with a brief equanimity grounding
Entering tonglen from a grounded, spacious state makes the practice sustainable rather than destabilising.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Direct tonglen toward a specific suffering person
Bring a person who is suffering to mind and breathe in their pain; breathe out whatever would give them relief.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Investigate resistance to the practice honestly
The impulse not to breathe in suffering is information about where your self-protective contraction lives.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Expand tonglen to include all beings who share this suffering
Whatever you are suffering, countless others feel it too — breathe in the shared pain, breathe out shared relief.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Use flash tonglen in the moment of encountering suffering
A single in-breath of someone’s pain and an out-breath of goodwill is a complete act of tonglen.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Acknowledge: name what is hard
Place a hand on your heart and say, "This is a moment of suffering."
The Self-Compassion Break - Connected circular breathing — the core technique
Breathe continuously without pauses between inhale and exhale, faster than normal.
Holotropic Breathwork, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Breathing In Suffering Meditation
Breathe in something hot, dark, and heavy; breathe out something cool, bright, and spacious.
Work with the classical two-breath texture
- Directed Tonglen Practice
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
- How To Practice Tonglen Meditation
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
- Tonglen Meditation
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
- Tonglen The Tibetan Practice Of Taking And Sending As A Caregiver
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
- Tonglen The Tibetan Practice Of Taking And Sending At Work
Tonglen ("taking and sending") is a Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice in which the practitioner breathes in suffering — their own or another’s — and breathes out relief, ease, and goodwill. It works by deliberately moving toward pain rather than away from it, which gradually reduces the fear of suffering and expands the capacity for compassion. Evidence is largely clinical and mechanistic; direct RCTs on tonglen specifically are sparse, though compassion training more broadly shows meaningful effects.
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