The New Golden Rule

THE NEW GOLDEN RULE: DO UNTO YOURSELF AS YOU WOULD DO UNTO OTHERS!

Compassion is a shared feeling of empathy with another person, situation, or event. So many of us have compassion for our friends and others that suffer, but not for ourselves. All of the newest research into being HAPPY has to do with how you treat yourself.

Tara Barch talks about the practice of self-compassion as a means to train ourselves to be in touch with the suffering in our own bodies and hearts and actually offer care. That is so different from our culture, which teaches us to be hard on ourselves, thus dragging us to self improvement. This is what we are taught. To have pride in ourselves for being tough.

We have a survival wired brain (the flight/fight reptilian part of the brain I refer to often). This brain makes it difficult to be kind to ourselves. We try to avoid unpleasantness, whether it is sadness, grief, or hurt. SUFFERING is where we prove how tough we are. This is where we are told we get our sense of strength.

If you are suffering, instead of looking at it as a source of strength, show compassion for yourself. Compassion begins at home, within our own minds, about ourselves.

Giving compassion to ourselves is the beginning of true healthiness and peace.

— Karen