Compassion is the courage to descend into the reality of human experience. —Paul Gilbert, founder of Compassion Focused Therapy
This quote appears toward the end of a fantastic, very moving animated short-film that psychologist, Dr. Charlie Heriot-Maitland, worked on with animator Kate Anderson. It is the story of Stuart who experiences internal voices that criticize him, frighten, and overwhelm him, and of his journey of gaining confidence Read more ›
It is common that people describe the experience of what I will call, The Snowball Effect. One thing leads to another, which leads to another, which leads to another with the result being an exponential enlarging of a phenomenon, sometimes undesired, such as an enlarged state of anxiety or exhaustion, an ever enlarging array of mess and clutter, or a growing backlog of work/schoolwork. Read more ›
Recently, someone said to me an approximation of, “I have breathed in the kindness you have offered me.” In response, I thought, “Wow, what a beautiful, honouring, and powerful thing to do Read more ›
Compassion can be understood as having two components: (1) a sensitivity to suffering in yourself and others, and (2) a commitment to try to alleviate and prevent this suffering. This means that compassion also involves two different sets of skills, processes, and orientations. Read more ›
Background: I wrote this letter last evening after watching a semi-final game in the FIFA World Cup, Team Germany playing against Team Brazil. On the one hand, it feels like a strange thing to post in this blog. On the other hand, it could be viewed as an example of connecting to the compassionate self Read more ›
In the book, Mindful Compassion, you will find an important sub-heading: “Mindfulness of the Chaotic Mind, Not Just the Still Mind” (see chapter five). The book is written by psychologist, Paul Gilbert, and mindfulness and compassion meditation instructor, Choden. The 10-word sub-heading is so important, containing a key concept, practice, and lesson in and of itself.Read more ›
I am currently reading the biography, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet (copyright 2012). From this reading, I have learned many things not limited to but including
the word, viriditas
that viriditas comes from the Latin word for green, and
that one meaning of viriditas that was used by Hildegard during a period of premodern medicine is “the analogous power of human beings to grow, to give birth, and to heal” (p. 86).
Love, not of the pain nor for that pain, but of the being who is in pain and for that being.
~Tracy
Emotions and emotional experience are fundamental elements of life. We live. We go through our days. We feel or we don’t feel (feeling of an absence of feeling, a flatness or a void). We feel a little or we feel a lot. Read more ›
Go to nearly any self-help or psychology section in a bookstore these days and you’ll probably find books with mindfulness in the title. Below is a link for a handout I’ve written that provides a brief introduction to mindfulness. It contains information you might find useful if you are learning how to experience mindfulness in your life, including if you are beginning to practice guided meditations such as a body scan meditation. Read more ›
