🌸 COMPASSION & SELF-REALIZATION 🌸🕊
What does compassion mean to you and how do you relate to this word personally? This quality can play an extremely powerful role in your life, helping you to live a happier, more fulfilling life. 🕊
Today's Personal Power Life Coaching discusses this relevant topic:
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary: "Compassion = sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it".
It is a feeling of kindness, active sympathy, benevolence, being kind-hearted, and understanding. In buddhism it is considered one of the 2 qualities (Wisdom + Compassion) that must be developed to realize enlightenment: Compassion - “The ideal of practice is to selflessly act to alleviate suffering wherever it appears” [http://buddhism.about.com/…/basicbuddhistt…/a/compassion.htm].
🕊
Compassion is an important quality for us to embrace not simply because Buddha, Patanjali, the Dalai Lama or another great sage said so. It comes down to the basic quality and feature of living humanely, lovingly and with heart in this world. We can also begin understanding Compassion by knowing its opposite - heartlessness, selfishness, egotism, despotism, cruelty, harshness, hate, intolerance.
💮
One of the effects of compassion is that we adopt a more “unity” and “oneness” consciousness or mindset. That is, when we practice compassion and are mindful of it in our lives we are empathetic to others’ plights and tribulations and appreciate that what can happen to another could very well happen to us. We open our heart, communicate sincerely, with integrity and live with more love, light, joy, ease and wellbeing. We feel deeper gratitude for our life and see many more of our blessings; we realize there are others less fortunate and that we can help in any small way without necessarily needing to take physical action. We can be compassionate when we simply project love and positive energy through thoughts, intentions and wishes towards XYZ.
These realizations ground us (down-to-earth) and bring us closer to the univeral, timeless Truth of being a part of the shared human collective - we are One, instead of one person, nation or group being superior or inferior. We are all human beings and we are going through the human life experience together and individually; no one is better than another person nor beneath anyone else. We are all one people, one race and all experience the same basic human needs to exist and coexist.
🐘 How can you practice more compassion in your daily life? 3 Helpful Tips:
- 🏳 Be Aware, Open Your Eyes - We can start by awareness of what is compassionate and what it is not. What does it mean to you?🏳Look around you: Your environment, home, workplace, relationships, how others interact and notice where there is an opportunity to be compassionate, kind, caring, helpful or understanding. Often times, people use ‘being nice’, empathetic, sympathetic as synonyms for ‘compassion’.
- 🏳 Self-Compassion - Be compassionate with/towards yourself, and then towards others. This means not judging yourself or being hard on yourself. Throw perfectionism out the window and celebrate the good work you are doing and the positive steps you are taking. Appreciate how far you’ve come along your own journey and the several ways you have changed for the better, and even if you cannot find too many ways that you’ve improved then acknowledge your willingness to do better and be a better person than you were yesterday. You always have the chance to change and you can do so with your intention and the empowering energy of self-compassion.
- 🏳 Compassion Towards Others - Consider extending to others the benefit of the doubt rather than jumping to negative conclusions. Avoid criticizing or judging others. Understand that they are going through their own journeys and are doing the best they can. There is one NLP Presupposition summed up as follows: “People make the best choices possible with the information and resources available.” Although we might be inclined or habituated to judging someone else’s behavior, weakness, attitudes, or whatever other aspect you disagree with, we can practice compassion by understanding that they are doing the best they can, perhaps they do not know any better way and this is the utmost they can do at this time.
Practicing Compassion is incredibly important in today’s day and age - both for individual wellbeing and society at large.
Given our global societies evolving and industrializing at faster and faster rates there is more automation, computerization and more sources of immediate gratification and short attention spans. Our amazing technological progress has enhanced convenience in our lives yet it has also generated some degree of being dissociated and numb to real tragedy, violence and suffering around the world and in our local communities. The more we are exposed to “fake suffering” through movies, TV shows, commercials, video games, music and mass media overall the more sensational it is (violence, suffering, etc.) the more it serves as entertainment; as some become desensitized, there is less impact when real calamity occurs and thus people are unable to actually be the compassionate beings we are by nature. As to whether Compassion is inate or not, we need only look to the babies, and we too we once these same beings - kind, gentle, innocent, compassionate beings who can continue evolving as such when given the opportunities to grow up safe, positive, nurturing environments.
By practicing feelings of kindness, love, understanding, patience, and giving others the benefit of the doubt, we cultivate more wellbeing within us and then we can extend it others. Alternatively, if you have a hard time loving yourself and are your own worst critic yet easily feel compassion for others, then nurture the quality you extend to others and direct those loving, positive, warm vibes towards yourself! You deserve your own love. Indeed, this is fundamental to living your greatest, most joyous life possible. It starts with awareness and compassion.
I invite you to watch the Life Coaching Video that inspired this post: Compassion & Self-Realization - A Tool for Personal Power :
How can you be more compassionate in your daily life? Share your messages and energy of love, light and compassion - you may be pleasantly surprised at the increased peace, happiness and positive experiences that unfold in your every moment.
With Love, Light & Gratitude,
Jennifer Personal Power Life Coaching Http://bit.ly/pplcjen
