Compassion for Others, Builds Resilience for You

Over the past 2 weeks we've examined a 3-pronged strategy for using Mindfulness to engage with the news.  The aim is to stay informed in a way that meets our needs and doesn’t deplete us.  Our first strategy in the A, B, C’s of Staying Informed is to understand and be aware of our agency:  the choices we can make around staying informed.  The second is to ensure we're consuming a balanced diet of news:  seeing the full picture vs. just the news that we are offered.  The final strategy involves using compassion to resource ourselves and build our resilience.  

When we witness suffering in the process of informing ourselves about the world’s goings on, we can offer up a wish for an end to that suffering.  “May you be safe again”, “may you feel the care of your neighbors”, “may there be peace for us all”, “may your needs be met”….   

This small step of wishing for an end to others’ suffering moves us from an empathic state, where we feel the suffering of others, to a compassionate state.  Empathy lights up the pain regions of our brain and depletes us, leaving us exhausted, worn down, lacking hope.  Compassion activates the reward center of the brain, releasing dopamine (which motivates us), oxytocin (which stimulates emotional bonding) and serotonin (a mood enhancer and anxiety reducer).  The net result is a sense of being resilient, uplifted and connected.

As with all practices, this is a chance to experiment and explore.  We invite you to take it for a spin and let us know how it goes.  And it’s always helpful to remember that we ourselves are just as deserving of compassion as others are.  Turning off the TV, closing the laptop, placing a hand on the heart and the other hand on top of that one, sensing in to the rise and fall of the chest, and maybe offering the wish, “May I feel at ease” can shift the moment (and it’s healthier than the bowl of ice cream we might turn to to feel better! :  ).

May all beings everywhere, without exception, feel resilient, uplifted and connected,
Your CMP Family

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