How's it Going So Far?

Well here I am.  About 6 months into living a more meaningful, compassionate life.  How do I feel?  What have I learned?  How am I progressing?

Living with intention and awareness

  Writing about compassion has definitely helped me be more intentional.  It keeps in the forefront of my thoughts so that I am thinking about it more frequently.  In the past I've always had trouble with that, but writing the blog is a huge help.

  Also, I just love seeing compassionate gestures in people, and really noticing and celebrating those moments.  It reminds me, especially when those terrible moments come up in the news, or when life throws a little bit of a curveball at you, that we must persevere.  We must, because there is goodness all around.  We just need to collectively unleash it and spread the energy.

Control over negative thoughts/emotions

  There are days when I feel like 'I've got this'.  And then there are days when I think how come this is so hard.  It's definitely a work in progress, but I've noticed that because I am always thinking about it at least I am aware of my thoughts and can take actions to try to change them.  Being aware allows me to take action sooner.  Whereas before I may have 'hung out' with the negative emotions for a longer period of time.

Not being so quick to judge

I definitely at times still have a tendency to pass judgement, or jump to certain conclusions about things.  But I am able to catch myself now and think about others ways that I could perceive events or circumstances.  I try to find a bit of grace in my thought process, and look for things to take my biases away.  It's tricky to realize that we make judgement about a lot of things, sometimes without really being aware.  We just let our minds take control.  But we need to harness our minds and take control, and tell it what it really needs to think.

Reaching out to others

This is the last one that I've been working on.  It's probably the most difficult for me.  I don't know if I posted previously, but about 6 weeks ago I was with a group of people in Rossland doing a trail running camp and my running coach had us pull some type of a 'tarot' card.  My card was the 'quiet' card.  Now there are lots of ways to interpret that card, but I chose it to mean that I should be more quiet.  I was so pissed off at the card that I made my first attempt to be the exact opposite!  And I've been working at it ever since.  Guess what?  It makes me happier in a group setting to put myself out there and participated!  I'm not saying I turned into a social butterfly, but I am saying that I've made an effort.  My goal for this fall when I go to Cuba is to collect a few stories from the locals. I guess we'll see how it works out.

These are some of the things I've been working on - but how do they make me a more compassionate person?  By developing and getting control over my mind, and being mindful of what I want to accomplish has allowed me to focus on being compassionate.  I look for the good in people more, and am not so critical over perceived 'faults' or 'wrong doings'.  Things roll off my back easier, and I am more concerned about being able to communicate better with people, and hopefully touch their lives positively.  I try to put myself in the other persons shoes as much as possible, and don't sweat the small stuff.

As the saying goes, be soft on people, and hard on tasks.