Something dramatically healing and transformative happens when compassion is brought into your circle of responses. And given the incredible uptick in challenging circumstances around the world, it’s a good one to have in your repertoire, both for yourself and others!

The amazing thing about compassion is that when you get good at self-compassion, it seems to fill up a bucket that easily overflows and it becomes so much easier to offer it to others.

So, let’s focus on that for the moment. How do you treat yourself when you are suffering or struggling? What is your inner dialogue like when you are in pain, or facing the challenging emotions like anger, fear, panic, anxiety, frustration, overwhelm?

Do you berate yourself for being petty or weak?

Do you shame yourself for not being stronger, more resilent, less affected?

Do you push yourself, or even bully yourself, to stop whining and just get on with things?

Do you stay stoically calm, cool and collected? Unnerved, untouched, (but possibly with a lump of feelings stuck in your throat)?

If you’re like most people, you’ve grown up in a culture that has elevated strength, power and accomplishment above all else, while overriding and often dismissing the less manageable, less controllable world of feelings, human rawness, tenderness, sensitivity, and softness.

Such things as your fear, your heartache, your sadness, your concern are driven underground until the next time something triggers you and they rumble back to the surface.

This is where the Power of Compassion can change your life.

Embodying this energy, (which is the color White), will be like gifting yourself with the inner voice of the most loving, kind, compassionate parent the world has ever known.

This voice won’t let your emotions be ignored or dismissed, which, let’s face it, doesn’t work in the long run, does it?

Your pain and your uncomfortable feelings are part of your life’s journey, and you deserve to be able to breathe through them, not be overrun by them, or have to push them down.

As unnerving as they may seem, and although you might not yet even have words for them, these experiences are authentic to you, and they just want to be seen, acknowledged, and yes, loved. This is the healing opportunity.

The Power of Compassion, as self-compassion, acknowledges your suffering and gives it some space to just be, without judgment.

Being healthy and balanced with the Power of Compassion, gives you the ability to self-soothe with a loving inner voice that says things like:

I see you.

I hear you.

I know you’re struggling right now.

I accept you exactly as you are in this moment.

I’m here. I’ve got you.

I love you.

I’m not going anywhere.

What would it feel like to hear that when you are hurting?

True compassion doesn’t concern itself with answers and strategies and solutions. It doesn’t need you to be fixed or happy or better.

It knows only to offer itself as a healing balm, helping you to reconnect with your own essence and your own heart.

Let the healing begin!

Bring a little more Compassion

into the world this week.

Our message today was inspired by a powerful talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Big Magic, and Eat, Pray, Love. She also shares a beautiful exercise of writing yourself love letters with this compassionate inner voice. We can’t think of a better Power of Compassion exercise to offer you than that! Click HERE to listen.