A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.
christopher k. germer
Yesterday, while thrift store shopping, I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of Brene Brown’s book “The Gifts of Imperfection” Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are.
Although I haven’t read it yet, I have been skimming some of the pages and it is definitely resonating with me. I am reminded once again that we are not in this alone. We all suffer from the same things, self-doubt, insecurities, fear, lack of self-confidence and more. We are NOT alone! You, me and the stranger across the road, we’ve all been here or are here right now.
I write about self-love and compassion often and it seems for good reason. We can be so hard on ourselves. As I write this, I am glancing over at my cat Bella, curled up in a chair and I realize that when I look at Bella so cute like that, I instantly feel this emotion that I would call compassion. Why? I am not sure. I don’t need to be compassionate to her or for her but for some reason that emotion comes to mind. It makes me think that we all have compassion in us but being compassionate to ourselves often seems so challenging.
In my quest of getting a better understanding of compassion I found these synonyms:
pity, sympathy, feeling, fellow feeling, empathy, understanding, care, concern, solicitude, solicitousness, sensitivity, tender-heartedness, soft-heartedness, warm-heartedness, warmth, love, brotherly love, tenderness, gentleness, mercy, mercifulness, leniency, lenience, tolerance, consideration, kindness, humanity, humaneness, kind-heartedness, charity, benevolence
The two that jumped out at me the most, were soft-heartedness and warm-heartedness. Yes this is what I feel when I look at Bella all cuddled up over on that chair. My heart is warm and melting and I just want to go over there and kiss her or cuddle her.
What if we could look in the mirror and feel that way about ourselves? Would it have an impact? I think it would. And I think if we felt that way towards ourselves we would open up our capacity to feel these tender feelings toward others and then the whole world benefits just like the starfish story, one starfish at a time. 🙂
I hope you take the time to practice compassion and self-love for yourself today and always. I am going to start right away. Just writing this post has helped me to see the gift in compassion and to feel it’s power to shift and to heal. Will you join me? I would love to hear also what synonyms for compassion resonated with you or jumped out at you? 🙂
Wishing you a day full of JOY and Compassion……
With Love,
Maggie
Maggie Holbik.com is a Certified Life Coach & Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer & Coach who loves to write as a way of expressing her feelings. She thanks you for taking the time today to stop by and spend a moment with her in her heart and soul.
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