Sunday, 11th of July 2021
I have read a few articles on Compassion prompt given to us by @JonicaBradley and of course I would love to add my 5 cents to it. If you haven't joined already, here are the rules of the challenge:
The rules are simple.
Write about compassion
Write 100% original content
Write at least 600 words
Tag @JonicaBradley
Have fun
How full is Your jar?
Most people think of others when asked what compassion means to them. I feel what we actually need most and first is compassion for ourselves. How can we give compassion to others if our jar is empty?
How many times do we forgive other people for what they did? We feel hurt, betrayed or angry at first, but once these emotions pass we explain the actions of others to ourselves and find it easier to forgive. The same when we see people struggling, be it emotionally, financially or physically. We feel compassion for them. We might have been in a similar situation before and understand what they are going through, or we just want them to do better. That’s compassion.
How about ourselves? We understand that other people have their flows, but are we equally compassionate towards ourselves? I for one have always been judging myself much harsher than anyone else. Until I found Ernesto the donkey inside me to put the blame on him 😅 Just kidding of course. Before Ernesto I have found many other animals and characters inside. We all have many faces and each gets triggered to appear in different circumstances.
I opted for first getting to know each side of myself, understanding them and their motifs and eventually grew to love them all too. There is a little girl inside me who cries when people shout at me, there is a bitch who bites if someone tries to attack, there is a knight who wakes up seeing injustice or bullying towards my loved ones, there is a Princess who wants to be adored by all, there is Ernesto, who’s stubborn as f*** and probably many more who I skip for now.
Knowing each part of myself and understanding why they appear helps me feel compassionate towards them all. They have an important role to play and even when I am not proud of their actions at times, I understand that the source of their actions is often the pain that I haven’t dealt with in my past. Each action of compassion for them makes them just a little less powerful and a little kinder during their next visit.
Years ago I decided to leave my husband. We’ve been together for 15 years, since I was 16 years old. I was struggling with making this decision for around 5 years prior to it. I felt guilty for first promising him to spend my life with him and then my feelings towards him changed more and more and with every action of his I respected him less. I didn’t want to end up hating him and I couldn’t imagine having a family with him. I was too scared of ending up like my parents. I had to leave.
Over the next few years I spent 100’s of pounds on trying to ‘fix’ my chronic neck pain. Physio, sport massage, acupuncture, strong medications that made me sleep all day, you name it and I tried it. I would only ever experience a temporary release. Until I learned that emotion of guilt can be trapped in our body, usually in the neck area. All these years I was in pain of guilt for leaving my husband. That was when I decided it was time to forgive myself. When I first felt compassion towards myself is when my healing journey began.
David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D., an internationally renowned spiritual teacher, psychiatrist, physician, researcher, and developer of the widely-known Map of Consciousness, presents a diagram of vibrational states of being in his book Power vs. Force. This diagram matches the vibrational frequency of its corresponding emotion. He mentions that 99% of the world’s population is living at a contracted frequency (below 200). Thus, the vast majority of humanity is either suffering or just getting by. To live in flow, in love, and in peace, you need to raise your vibration to match that of which you wish to attract.
As you can see on the above diagram, I was vibrating at 30, constantly contracted instead of expanded. I was suffering on my own request, punishing myself for my past. Once I have shown willingness to forgive myself, acceptance followed and soon I was able to LOVE again.
Who deserves our compassion?
That’s the thing about compassion. The full meaning and depth of compassion does not choose the subject. Heart full of compassion is always open for everyone and everything.
One of those sunny days last year, I sat in front of my house with a cup of coffee, aligning my face to the morning sun. It took me probably half an hour to realise that 2 of my hanging baskets were missing. Another 10 minutes or so to realise that my newly purchased rose and beautiful vintage watering can were missing too. Someone must have stolen them the night before. My first reaction was sadness. I cried my eyes out. The hanging baskets with specific types of fruits I brought all the way from Poland. The watering can was old and given to me by my brother.
Next I felt anger and resentment towards whoever stole these items. I looked suspiciously at everyone who passed my house wondering if it was them. Eventually compassion took place of the lower vibe emotions. How sad must be someone’s life to be doing such things? How little do they have in life? How hurt inside they must be to justify these actions?
Hurt people hurt people.
Above is a trivial example. I don’t want to bring heavy stuff here. It can however be applied to everyone who did any harm towards us, our loved ones, strangers or animals. The truth is that they are the ones who need our love and compassion the most. Had they been given enough of these two emotions, they most likely wouldn’t turn out the way they did. They simply don’t know any better.
I understand this might be difficult concept to grasp and digest, let alone practice, but the alternative is anger, resentment and judgement and these are the vibrations we don’t ever want to keep around ourselves and our loved ones, as they only contract our bodies and souls.
Wanted!
Speaking of compassion. I know it is not easy to make first steps on any platform, since I have been there myself many times. I would love to reach out to new users of read.cash or those who are struggling with visibility on this platform. If you are one of those or have friends who are good writers and are in need of a sponsorship, please tag them here. I will of course first read your articles before I decide to sponsor you.
So far I have been sponsoring these great creators: @MarSou @TheEmpress @BSzandra @VoluntaryJapan @Olasquare @Judith1969 @emily2u @aj_u2 @CoquiCoin @Mictorrani @zellypearl @Meyzee @ARTicLEE @Princessbusayo but I am always happy to sponsor new writers to help them on their journeys.
Until next time 💙
A nice article to read about and it's topic was truly relaxing loves a lot .