COMMUNICATE WITH COMPASSION
“You, being yourself, help others be themselves.” – The Nature of Personal Reality
Why don’t we have more compassion and understanding for one another?
All things change and evolve over time, and society is no different. Technology has been instrumental in accelerating this evolution recently. It’s gifted us with a way to communicate with almost anyone in the world using just a few taps on a screen. We’re also able to view how others experience life via social media platforms. Then we have the chance to instantly share our feedback. Even though we’ve become so accessible to one another, it feels like we’ve lost a sense of our humanity. Our communities were once smaller, tight knit places where we were directly responsible to one another. We relied on those around us to sustain a successful community. Nowadays it’s becoming easier to feel isolated -even with the world at our fingertips.
Since technology has captivated us we don’t interact with one another in the same way. It’s caused personal interactions to become increasingly digitalized. As society has grown we’ve seemed to grow apart, thus losing our connection to one another. When we don’t feel connected or responsible to one another it becomes easier and easier to focus on our differences and give into negative emotions. This then keeps the cycle of anger and resentment from ever breaking. It prevents us from realizing that we’re all just humans on the same journey together. We all share the same home -Earth. We’re just trying to find our way in the world and thrive the best we can. So instead of ignoring or holding onto our disdain for others, we need to learn to have some compassion for all of humanity.
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In a world with almost 8 billion people we know less than .001% of them. So how can we learn to have empathy for the other 99.99%? Humans are sympathetic beings and when we feel connected to a cause, movement, or a harrowing story we can easily feel inspired. We want to join or help in any way that we can. Yet when it comes to strangers, acquaintances, and adversaries in our lives we’re rarely compelled to give our time -let alone our compassion. We tend to feel sorry for others who seem worse off than us. Or we put down those that we think are better off than us. But no matter where we are in life, we all deal with valid personal struggles.
Most of us interact with people daily, some we like and others we don’t. It’s important to keep in mind that those we interact with are likely dealing with something painful in their life -externally or internally. Not everyone is aware of their own struggles or doesn’t know how to process them. So when others clash with or lash out at us, it’s really a manifestation of their own insecurities, fears, or problems they haven’t faced. Knowing this can help us gain compassion towards the rest of the world. We come to realize that the issue isn’t between them and us. It’s between them and their issues. If we believe this to be true, then we can’t take anything personally. Thus it won’t allow for any anger or resentment to exist between us in the first place.
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When we’re certain in ourselves and who we are, we can use that knowledge to affect those around us. We can begin to see that everyone deserves the same love and compassion for themselves as we give to ourselves. When we have compassion for humanity we understand that we’re united by what makes us human. Even if we have different struggles we all want the same thing: to feel safe, secure, and happy.
We can then see that there is no taking the “high road” or “low road” when responding to others. We’re all on the same road, some are just carrying more baggage. And the extra weight is tiring and anger inducing. So we should show compassion and teach others how to let go of what’s weighing them down in life. We can help them learn to enjoy the moment. By doing so we can positively impact our surroundings, even if negativity is directed our way. This will allow for the growth of mutual respect and understanding for all.
