Pulling Back And Letting Compassion Step In

Compassion isn’t always easy to feel. Especially since cynicism and anger and violence seem to be the preferred emotional response nowadays.
I gotta admit, compassion hasn’t been my go-to either. In times of heartbreak and frustration and even pure insanity, all that mattered to me was, well…me.
Lately though, I’ve been pulling back a little before choosing the reptilian brained approach.
Letting compassion step in.
When I’m wronged or insulted or worked-up by someone, I’ll pause for a few seconds and observe the situation holistically.
“Why are they talking to me this way?”
“What’s going on in their life right now that’s spawned this reaction?”
“Are they upset with someone else and have taken it out on me?”
This isn’t easy at first.
We Earthlings have a tendency to default to a defensive mode and strike back without giving the moment a second thought.
We get offended and live in that offense for hours, sometimes days after the incident.
But imagine for a second if we could see people through the lens of compassion.
To feel what they feel rather than gratify our ego’s need for retribution.
The more time we spend in upper tier emotions like love and compassion and generosity and grace, the less time we’ll spend dwelling in the lower, reptilian levels of thinking that prefers to strike back and get even and stand its ground.

