I’d like to introduce three simple short meditation practices that help us tune in to the rich and ongoing process of exchange that marks our lives altogether • we’re always giving something out to the world and receiving something from it • we are affected by others and we affect others in so many ways; and we’re also quite susceptible to the energies and the outpourings from those around us • in the first practice we begin by looking at the simple and ordinary process of breathing, feeling the qualities of the different rhythms of the breath • this is working with exchange at the simple bodily level • the second practice is referred to as meeting suffering with kindness and compassion • to begin with, you could look within to see how much love and compassion is there • how do you experience that? what happens when you send it out? can you send it out? does it flow out or is it more buried within? • the third practice is connected with the idea of space • here, you relate to the outbreath as letting go into space; when breathing in, you let that outer spaciousness mix completely with the spaciousness within you and your state of mind and consciousness • you’re simply stirring space and infusing space with tenderness and love.