Posts tagged: Courage

In case you need a reminder, may you be gentle toward yourself. (Equally, may you be gentle toward all of your selves.)

I wrote a poem this week after a monthly meeting with a group a cherished colleagues. I described the poem as a kind of collage of things. Later today (with the help of some feedback), I thought that perhaps it could be a nice poem for this longest night—this year’s winter solstice—as well as being a fine poem for any other moment. I’m sharing it here in two photographs.  Read more ›

At this link you can watch a video on compassion that was produced, recently released, and generously shared by The International Center for Compassionate Organizations. For those who have participated in compassion-focused therapy sessions (e.g., via the mindful compassion group therapy program), some of the lines early on in the video will sound very familiar—I hope! Read more ›

“My whole heart for my whole life.” I saw this quote in a piece of artwork hanging on a studio wall that served as part of the backdrop for videos in the online course, Self-Compassion, with Kristin Neff and Brené Brown. It was love at first sight. Read more ›

Earlier this fall, I stumbled across and read the autobiographical book, 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life, by Cami Walker. Cami became very ill and subsequently received the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis when she was 30 years old. As she shared in the video I link you to below, this experience changed her life forever. At the same time, through hard work, serendipity, and the prescription of giving away 29 gifts in 29 days, she also found a way to come back to herself and back to others. Read more ›

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

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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 ›

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 ›

Here are two videos of the song, Courage, by Abdominal and The Obliques that was featured in the previous post. Read more ›

In this post, let’s turn our attention to music that has been dubbed the finest in middle-aged hip-hop. Let’s also turn our attention toward courage. Read more ›