One definition of compassion is “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” (Mirriam-Webster Dictionary. We can also apply compassion to ourselves, when we step into a witness state and perceive ourselves from a loving, sympathetic state.
As we continue to negotiate life in a field of pandemic, how are you feeling towards yourself and others? It is so easy for us to be judgmental, critical, angry, or otherwise non-accepting of how we are coping or how others are acting. This is always true but is, like many aspects of ourselves, potentially magnified by the stress of these challenging changing times.
- Do you long to be gentler with yourself?
- Could you be more accepting of the behaviour you or others engage in?
- How loving do you feel these days?
- What is your sense of being able to just be present with whatever you feel or perceive?
- How sympathetic are you with the suffering of those you meet or learn about? Or of your own suffering?
- Do you feel empowered to alleviate suffering? Or do you, like many these days, feel helpless, like you don’t know what to do or how on earth you could help
In the mindful movement practice of Continuum, we practice being present with whatever aspects of ourselves emerge. We listen with respectful curiosity to how our bodies hold our history and can move beyond it. We practice slowing down, listening deeply, orienting to subtle fluid motion within our breath and tissues. In the process, our hearts open and we can deepen into compassionate being.
This 3-hour Continuum webinar class is guides us in nurturing our natural compassionate nature. Just as water doesn’t judge the rocks it encounters in a stream, so we learn to move with what is, allowing a gentle dissolving to soften our habits and patterns. We can emerge feeling relaxed, refreshed, more present and with a compassionate heart.
