When people hear the word compassion, they tend to think of kindness. But scientific study has found the core of compassion to be courage. –Paul Gilbert, 2015, Compassion: Universally Misunderstood
“Rush hour. No need to rush. Slow down. Stop. See ….” — Sharon Salzberg
This quote is from a beautiful video that Sharon Salzberberg recently released to honour the 20th anniversary of the publication of her heartfelt book, Lovingkindess. The video is of a short loving kindness meditation, “Street Lovingkindness”. Read more ›
From time to time, I invite clients in both individual therapy and group therapy to write a letter of understanding and encouragement to themselves. This letter can be long or it can be short. Read more ›
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 ›
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 ›
Continuing with the theme of the finest in middle-aged hip-hop, today I want to introduce you to another catchy gem of writing and performance by the Canadian band, Abdominal and The Obliques—specifically, the song, Breathe Deep. Read more ›
Here are two videos of the song, Courage, by Abdominal and The Obliques that was featured in the previous post. Read more ›
While enjoying the blog of the Therapeutic Landscapes Network, I came across the post, “Hearts in Nature, from Suz Lipman“. It included two photographs of heart shapes found in nature (a cloud formation framing blue sky and a small stone). Read more ›
Following up from one of my previous posts, here is a video of a presentation given by Dr. Victoria Sweet, author of the book, God’s Hotel: A Doctor, A Hospital, and A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine. In the video, Dr. Sweet shares some content from the book, talks about the concept of veriditas, the “efficiency of inefficiency”, and of the power of utilizing both fast medicine and slow medicine. Read more ›
The e-book, Compassion: Building Practice and Science, edited by Tania Singer and Matthías Bolz is hot off the press! You can learn about and download the e-book here. The 531 page book is divided into four main sections: experiences with training compassion, concepts of compassion, science of compassion, and training programs of compassion. Read more ›