There seems to be an epidemic of compassion in the area — and we hope it's contagious.
The town of Basalt has recently signed on to the International Campaign for Compassionate Cities. Civic leaders agree to try to incorporate into all aspects of life the Golden Rule — treat others as you would like them to treat you.
Good advice. But treating others well is by no means restricted to compassionate cities. It's been heartwarming to hear about several examples in the past week of people reaching out to help others or working together toward a common goal.
Jannet Ann Nordemann, Founder of Canadians for Compassion interviews Canadians from all walks of life in the first leg of her cross-Canada tour to ask three questions: How would you define compassion? Where do you see compassion working in your home/school/community? Where do you see the need for more compassion?
Is compassion, finally, more crucial than forgiveness?
I've never been entirely comfortable with the concept of forgiveness. Sure, if you're truly to get over being wronged or abused, you'll need to forgive the person responsible for hurting you. Yet to me there can be something uncomfortably condescending about forgiving another. It's almost as though you're saying, "I'm better than you, ‘cause I never would have done what you did to me . . . but because of my charitable ideals, I'm going to forgive you anyway." And it's this regrettable link between forgiveness and the presumption of superiority that makes me a little uneasy about the whole concept.
Arvid has returned from Sabbatical and in his first sermon back, he shares with us the "Steps to Compassion" and discusses the secret to life; which he says is the Golden Rule.
Governments are bad at compassion, in part because it is a candle to power-seeking moths. The heavy lifting of compassion belongs in the private sector, where it is divorced from the impulse to impose continually greater levels of control.
On Tax Day, April 15th, Rep. Paul Ryan had this to say about "his" budget:
Our budget offers a compassionate and optimistic contrast to a future of health-care rationing and unbearably high taxes. We lift the crushing burden of debt, repair the safety net, make America's tax system fair and competitive, and ensure that our health and retirement programs have a strong and lasting future.
Some time ago, I wrote a Hub about the survival value of compassion. In it, I questioned the truth of the accepted doctrine of “survival of the fittest.” That phrase is all most of us really know about Charles Darwin and the one that is used to justify all sorts of horrible behaviour. I’ve just stumbled across a short video clip that offers another Darwin quote that completely contradicts the notion that “survival of the fittest” is just the way it is in nature and we might as well face it.
The program will by emceed by Bill Kurtis of WBBM-TV and includes performances by children of the Tibetan Alliance of Chicago and the Chicago Children’s Choir, with Josephine Lee, president and artistic director. Ani Choying will also give a special performance. The staging was conceived by and implemented under the direction of Jim Lasko of Redmoon Theater in collaboration with Chicago-land representatives of many of the world’s faith organizations
For me, I believe compassion begins with the understanding that my problems and pains and sorrows are no worse than anyone else’s and that, in this way we are all the same. I do not believe – any longer – that others are better off than me, even if they have more money, are better known. A famous television producer came to the farm the other day to meet me – he has read my books – and we did not talk about his fame or my writing, but the struggle to be good fathers, to find meaning in life, to make real friendships and love our wives and children in the best possible way. To age well.
Have you heard of the term compassion fatigue? Compassion fatigue can be defined as lack of compassion or sympathy for the suffering of others due to constantly working as a caregiver. Through this article we will take a look at compassion fatigue causes.
Some of the tell tale signs of compassion fatigue are listed below.
* Lack of enjoyment in day to day activities * Not deriving any joy from things that used to excite the person earlier * Difficulty in concentrating in any task * Feelings of anxiety and perpetual fear * Feelings of irritability triggered by trivial things * Isolation from family and friends * Detachment from work and life * Inability to take big or small decisions .....
The Telluride Institute’s Ideas Festival, which was launched in 1986, drew innovative, influential and brilliant minds — think Al Gore, Edward Abby and Lee Atwater — to Telluride to discuss topics like housing, watersheds and politics for more than a decade before the event tapered off a few years ago.
After a couple years of quiet, however, Telluride Institute is reviving the Ideas Fest in a big way, with a three-day event packed with experts, scientists, spiritual leaders and movies all addressing a universal subject: compassion.
At Maxim Institute, our mission is to foster the ideas and leadership for a more free, just, and compassionate society. They are terms that appeal to everyone because they are three beautiful and absolutely pivotal attributes of a healthy society. But what we mean by freedom, by justice, by compassion, now that's a whole different story.
The welfare officers genuinely believed they were being compassionate by offering her freedom, as they understood freedom to be. But because the welfare officers understanding of both compassion and freedom were flawed, they ended up providing her with a toxin rather than real help.
n a modest room at the Davis Community Church on Thursday night, a group of familiar and friendly faces gathered for a single purpose: to hear the story about one man and his journey in discovering compassion.David Breaux, known as the "Compassion Guy" on Third and C Street in downtown Davis, started his mission two years ago with mere pen and scraps of paper; recording countless interpretations of what residents of the community considered compassion to be in their own words.
To make compassion a habit all kids need to do is promise that everything they do will be kind and compassionate and keep that promise. Sound easy? Anyone who has ever taken a vow, and then tried to keep it, knows that saying you'll speak and act in a certain way is easier said than done. The best way to keep a promise is to make it a habit and that's where mindfulness can help. Mindfulness is the mental quality by which children and teens remember to check-in with themselves throughout the day and make sure they are on track. Mindfulness helps kids remember their intention to be kind and compassionate and notice if they're acting and speaking in accordance with it. We don't expect children to be perfect, any more than we expect perfection of ourselves, but using mindfulness to notice when they swerve off track and away from their intention allows them to correct their course.
Compassion fatigue, also known as secondary trauma, burn-out, vicarious trauma, or empathetic strain is a occupational hazard for therapists, health-care professionals, and other care-givers. It’s a catch-22 that only deeply caring people are susceptible to compassion fatigue, and only deeply caring people become care-givers. Compassion fatigue can be defined as physical, emotional or spiritual exhaustion that takes over a caregiver and causes an inability to experience joy or feel empathy for others.
Mindfulness meditation can help caregivers heal from, and even better, prevent compassion fatigue by resetting the cargiver’s nervous system and replenishing stores of compassion.
Bob Stahl and Steve Flowers show us how to generate mindfulness and compassion for psychological healing...
In the foreword to Steve Flowers’ and Bob Stahl’s book Living with Your Heart Wide Open, psychologist and mindfulness teacher Tara Brach says that “If we cannot embrace our own frightened and vulnerable hearts, we cannot love our world.” I think this sentence pretty much sums up the ongoing struggle most of us have with life.
In a world often devoid of a true sense of community, we grow up searching for how to belong. Social isolation is our greatest fear and many of us grow up with the mantra “There’s something wrong with me” feeding a cycle of unworthiness and shame. How we relate to our “frightened and vulnerable hearts” makes all the difference.
TED Talks Robert Wright uses evolutionary biology and game theory to explain why we appreciate the Golden Rule ("Do unto others..."), why we sometimes ignore it and why there’s hope that, in the near future, we might all have the compassion to...
In my opinion, small acts of compassion can alleviate some suffering but ultimately do not contribute to a lasting compassionate society.
Compassion is not a new or recent concept. Suffering seems to grow exponentially in proportion to population and throughout history acts of cruelty and abuse seem to match acts of kindness and overwhelm them.
Children whose mothers have a compassionate outlook are more likely to act in a similar way. Children whose mothers have a compassionate outlook are more likely to act in a similar way.
New research from the Telethon Institute and the University of Western Australia shows that parents have an important role to play in teaching their children to understand another person's feelings and point of view.
"We found that mothers who have higher levels of empathy were more likely to encourage their children to think how others might be feeling," said Brad Farrant from the Telethon Institute, who led the study, based on four-to-six-year-old children.
The other day a friend was sharing with me the trouble he sometimes has feeling for others the kind of compassion that he knows Jesus would want him to feel.
“I want to love everyone,” he said. “But sometimes I’m talking with a person, or just watching someone, or whatever, and I realize that the feelings I’m having toward that person aren’t very compassionate. I try, but it’s just hard for me sometimes.”
That got me thinking about some of the things anyone can do to increase their level of compassion for others.
All day Friday and Saturday, the conference room of the Sheridan Opera House is the place for activities that are free and open to all curious passers-by. The main attraction will be Tibetan and Navajo markets of arts, crafts, ceremonial and secular objects. But also, Karen Armstrong’s Charter of Compassion will be displayed; please come, read and sign it! Local non-profits will have the opportunity to distribute their info literature;
Between the Covers bookstore and our presenters will show off compassion related books, DVDs and other materials.
Social Entrepreneurs need to be able to tap into Public Compassion for their cause.
You may have the best solution for a major problem, you may have done all the groundwork to establishing your social entrepreneurial project but unless you are able to harness the public compassion for the cause you will find it very hard to implement change.
Your success rests in part on tapping into the public capacity for compassion and strategically contributing to that capacity. As Social Entrepreneurs we need to think about the social environment in which our social entrepreneurship takes place.
Some very interesting people speak to the power that cultivating compassion has in transforming human relationships at every level, from one's relationship with one's own self, one's relationship with family members, on up through the relationships that make society.
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