Compassion

I am not the Dalai Lama, or Thich Nhat Hanh, nor do I claim to be. The concept of having compassion certainly has meaning for me though. Trying to understand what a person is going through if they are angry, sad, depressed in despair or stressed is what the concept of compassion means to me. Compassion for others that is. Compassion for self involves the same elements I just mentioned for having comoassion for others. I think having compassion for one's self is a hard nut to crack. I would say that having compassion for myself is harder for me then having compassion for others is. Learning to have compassion myself and others is a learning process, and an important one, and it takes patience especially for me to have compassion for myself. I tend to be tough on myself. Making a mistake, or doing something by accident can be a catostrophic event when I do it, or I just simply get into a negative mindset where I start attacking myself. I would never intentionally treat another person that way. A good perspective on being hard on yourself, is to ask yourself if you would treat another person that way. I should hope not. There are certainly times where I forget to have compassion for others. Especially when I think someone is being rude to me, a driver is going to slow, and so on and so forth. I forget quite easily as a matter of fact. The point of all this is that we are all equal, we are all human beings, and all we can do is do the best we can each day. I was starting to get into an attack mode on myself in my mind when I was driving home from Yom Kippur services earlier. I decided to have some compassion and not entertain those unrealistic thoughts. I had compassion for myself, and realized I was exhausted. Progress was made in that moment. If anyone who reads this is having issues with having compassion for themselves and/or others, remember that suffering is optional. I hope this was helpful to someone.