Week One Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 15-20 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. 2/3 appreciating & offering, 1/3 mindfulness (if you have practiced mindfulness) 2. Micro-practices: notice/recall feeling or offering kindness. Notice kindness between others.

Homework for this class is: Daily meditation: 15-20 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. --At least 2/3 metta for easy being/benefactor & self. (start with easy being if it’s helpful). --Up to 1/3 mindfulness (or end with a bit of mindfulness). --If it gets challenging, return to where it’s easy. 2. Micro-practice: Stop, notice, appreciate, kindness/positive regard for self or others: Appreciation, gratitude, or inspiration as a form of mindfulness. If you don’t notice in daily life, recall/write down a few in the evening. Due to a recording error, the second mini lecture was not recorded. The topic was the Buddhist and Scientific rationales for cultivating lovingkindness for oneself. The scientific study referenced is entitled "Open Hearts Build Lives," by Barbara Fredrickson, et al. https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=-0XLchUAAAAJ&citation_for_view=-0XLchUAAAAJ:geHnlv5EZngC

Week Three Homework: 1. Daily meditation: 15-30 minutes per day if new, normal amount if experienced. At least 2/3 to easy being or benefactor and self, then someone neutral. Experiment with single words/short phrases or gestures to build stability/concentration Always okay to return to where it’s easy, or switch to mindfulness. 2. Micro-practice: offer pulses of kindness, privately, to strangers or neutral persons in the course of each day