Breathing Through

Meeting the World’s Pain Without Holding It Alone

Staying aware of current events these days doesn’t just affect my thoughts—it lands in my body. A tightening in the jaw. A heaviness in the chest. A hollow feeling in the belly. Often, I don’t realize how much I’ve taken in until my body begins to brace.

To stay awake and compassionate in this unraveling world seems to require learning how to let the body feel what it knows without becoming overwhelmed—to stay open without hardening or shutting down.

When I notice myself constricting, I turn to a simple breath practice taught by Joanna Macy called Breathing Through.

Based on tonglen, a traditional Buddhist meditation practice, and offered as part of the Work That Reconnects, this practice gives us a way to open to the pain of the world without holding onto it. Rather than bracing against what we take in, we allow it to move through us—so it can be metabolized and released. Over time, this builds strength and resilience, not by armoring the heart, but by expanding it. When I practice Breathing Through, I feel the heaviness begin to shift—not because I’ve pushed it away, but because I’ve allowed it to move.

How to Practice Breathing Through

You can do this seated, standing, or lying down. A few minutes is enough.

1. Settle into your natural breath.

   Close your eyes and bring your attention to your breathing. Don’t try to breathe in any special way. Simply notice the breath as it moves in and out on its own. Feel the sensations at the nostrils, chest, or abdomen. Notice that you are not doing the breathing—you are being breathed. Life is breathing you, just as it breathes everyone, everywhere.

2. Sense yourself in the larger web of life.
   Imagine your breath as a stream or ribbon of air flowing in through your nose, down into your lungs, and into the heart space in the center of the chest in line with your sternum. As you exhale, feel the breath flowing out through the heart, reconnecting with the larger living web that sustains you. Your breathing is one loop within a vast, interconnected whole.

3. Open to the pain of the world.
   Without searching or straining, gently allow your awareness to open to the suffering that is present—human and more-than-human. Let whatever arises come naturally: images, sensations, emotions, or even numbness. All of it belongs.

4. Breathe it through.
   As you inhale, imagine the pain riding in on the breath—like fine granules carried on a stream of air—moving through your nose, lungs, and heart. As you exhale, let it continue on its way, flowing back out through the heart into the wider web of life. You are not asked to fix or resolve anything. Just let it pass through your heart, releasing it with each outbreath. Keep breathing.

5. Return and rest.
   When you’re ready, let go of the imagery and return to simply noticing the natural movement of your breath. Feel your body. Sense the support beneath you. Notice what has shifted, even subtly.

Breathing through, once learned, becomes a companion in meeting life in 2026 with resilience—in moments when painful information arrives, when criticism lands, or when we are present to someone else’s suffering. By breathing through rather than bracing against what we take in, we deepen our sense of belonging to the larger web of life.

This is how I want to meet the pain of the world: not by turning away, and not by carrying it alone in my body. Staying present, breathing, and allowing what we witness to move through us feels like a quiet, necessary form of resistance.

If that’s what you’re longing for too, may this practice offer some support—one breath at a time.