Today's card is compassion. It's a beautiful word, and for me it conjures up images of fluffy white clouds, marshmallows and cotton wool. Softness, gentleness. But is compassion about softness? Are compassionate people soft? Compassion is about caring for others, especially during a difficult time; and compassion and empathy go hand in hand; it is the ability to know, to undertand how an other is feeling or consider how it might feel for us if we were in tht position. It is then perhaps to act on those feelings with kindness, gentleness, love and undertanding. But how many of us show compassion towards ourselves?
The dictionary definition of compassion is: "A feeling of distress or pity for the suffering or misfortune of another."
When we ourselves are having a hard time or are feeling low for whatever reason, do we show ourselves care or do we drive ourselves, bury those feelings, be hard on ourselves; generally expect more of ourselves than we would of others?
Having compassion for ourselves is a way of showing ourselves love, showing ourselves that we are of value, and yes, indeed we do need to show ourselves love. After all, if we can't love ourselves, how can we love others?
Loving ourselves, nurturing ourselves and showing ourselves compassion also means that we give off a different energy which can be detected by others. This helps to attract into our lives people who are more loving, kind an compassionate and will treat us well. And that is a good thing!
We all need people in our lives that value, respect and treat us well, but it starts with ourselves. Unless we have boundaries that will not let others treat us badly, unless we treat ourselves with the utmost care, compassion and love, how can we expect other to?
Love an compassion starts with ourselves, and no it is not selfish.... it is self full, which is completely different.
So many of us have been raised to believe that taking care of or loving ourselves is selfish, self-centred or any number of negative labels, that we drive ourselves, punish ourselves.
Is this what The Divine or our guardian Angels would want to us? No, they see us as perfect the way we are, and they want us to radiate the pure love that we are. When we treat ourselves like a precious jewel then we will be stronger, our 'well' will be filled and we actually have more to give to others. After all, you cannot pour from an empty cup.
It's a lesson that I've had to learn, to undo the the conditioning of my childhood and I won't pretend to be perfect at it, and I will confess to lapsing from time to time. But I continue to work at it and it does pay dividends.
When we are having a hard time, are feeling low or weary, it is okay to spend sometime 'going inwards', to take some time out, to lick our wounds, be gentle and nurture ourselves. If we do allow ourselves to be loving, then we will come through much quicker and feel better for it.
Please do comment with what you think of this, I would love to hear from you. Blessed be. xxx