The Unifying Power of Compassion

Compassion is a state of being that creates coherence and harmony. It aligns body, mind, and soul. Compassion is an action created through conscious connection to the heart. It is a practice that requires intention, presence, and the acknowledgement of someone’s suffering or our own. It is through compassion that we can offer love’s soothing balm.

I witnessed the unifying power of compassion at a workshop I taught earlier this year about befriending our emotions. One of the main exercises of this workshop involved the embodiment of various emotions. As I called out an emotion, participants moved around the space and expressed each emotion through their bodies. As expected, fear evoked stillness and contraction. One participant crouched in the corner. Anger aroused clenched fists, stomping and guttural sounds. Joy appeared in raised arms, open chests, and fluid movement. What surprised me most, and filled me with awe, is what happened when I called out compassion.

The participants spontaneously formed a circle and spaced themselves with equal distance between each other. Together they began to move in a circular motion, completely coordinated in rhythm and form; quiet, purposeful and at ease with each step. This simple act of coming together was so natural. I felt deeply moved as I observed this beautiful embodiment of oneness.

Each person innately knew how to embody compassion. I believe this to be so because it is in our DNA. Compassion is innate yet sometimes obstructed. When unhealed wounds fill us with rage, hatred, fear and shame the heart can become dull and hard. We can lose access to our soft, gentle, human nature.

To regain our ability to express or deepen our compassion, we need to identify our invisible emotional wounds and meet them with tender loving care. Your body knows where these wounds reside. It is a map of both your life experiences and internal resources. Places of tension, aches, pain, and uneasiness are your clues and guides for what is unresolved and in need of attention. By listening compassionately rather than with judgement we can integrate the hurt places within us and experience wholeness.

The Medicine of Compassion

Compassion is a soothing balm.
For shame.
For the shadow.
For pain.
For suffering.

It does not fix.
It softens.

It does not analyze.
It stays.

It tells shame:
“You are still worthy.”
It tells the shadow:
“You are still part of me.”
It tells the wound:
“You are not abandoned.”

Compassion is not weakness.
It is the strength to stay open when it would be easier to close.

It is the frequency that harmonizes.
The presence that unifies.

It does not erase pain.
It makes it bearable.

It does not demand healing.
It becomes the field in which healing becomes possible.

To offer compassion,
is to offer love to what once felt unlovable.

And in that offering,
something shifts.
Something softens.
Something begins to return.

Join me on Saturday, September 6th for an experiential workshop, where we will explore the differences between pity, sorrow, judgement, and compassion in our bodies. The discoveries we make will help us listen to ourselves and each other with compassion and hold the parts of ourselves that we do not like or struggle to accept with love and care to experience deeper peace and wholeness. Learn more and REGISTER HERE.