Exercises for enhancement #1
If you find yourself growing bitter or crusty, start doing a weekly compassion reflection. It’s a game-changer.
It happens. I know. The blinders of your own challenges keep you focused on your own problems and soon it is difficult to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. When these times of limited perspective for what it might be like to live with someone else’s problems ensue, engage in this exercise.
For a minute to 5 minutes, think of a person or even a group of people that you might otherwise overlook, judge or even resent. With compassion, not pity, consider what it might be like to be them. How do they know what they know and why do they do what they do? What might it be like to live in their shoes? What challenges can you easily imagine or plainly see that they must manage?
Whether your assumptions are entirely accurate or not, the process of doing a compassion reflection will soften your anger and enhance your capacity for love and understanding.
Worth Repeating
Compassion is the basis of morality.
-Arthur Schopenhauer
