It’s often a stressful, pressured and demanding environment we live in. Perhaps, the most needed capability in 21st century living is an ability to be compassionate towards others and ourselves. Have we learnt to navigate this journey with a real sense of compassion? Probably not. It’s worth practicing this fundamental capability and then to watch the impact it has on your life.
“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”Leo Buscaglia
Maybe it’s strange to see compassion as a skill we can build. Like going to the gym builds muscle and cardio endurance, we can adopt the same application to build core life skills such as compassion.
What do I mean by compassion? Looking kindly at yourself and where possible transmitting this feeling of wishing well being. Building this skill will take being mindful of what is happening in your inner thoughts and outer dialogues and actions. Choosing to be more kind and noticing when you are and when you aren’t is a great step.
Practicing being compassionate melts a lot of the frustrations, demands and hurts inside and can improve quality of life. Kindness tends to beget kindness!
A few books I have read recently exploring the topic are:
A Fearless Heart: Why Compassion is the Key to Greater Wellbeing by Thupten Jinpa
Self Compassion by Kristin Neff
A Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert
All are worth a look but I found the most impactful was A Fearless Heart.
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