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I’ve been facilitating courses on compassion for over eight years now, and there’s one thing that keeps coming up again and again:   Most of us have never learned how to have compassion for ourselves.    I remember when I first learned about self-compassion in 2012, and my compassion teacher challenged me to consider, “Think…

A kind stranger recently posted the below drawing on social media, and he tagged Compassion It and me. The Chopra.com article, Compassion in Action: 15 Easy Ways to Spread Kindness, inspired artist Bodhisatva Vivek to create the piece. In the article, I shared some of my favorite ways to “compassion it,” including: Offering your full…

Hindsight might be 2020; however, like you, Burrell and I had no way of anticipating what the year would bring. We could never have predicted that a global pandemic would shut down the world and simultaneously open hearts and minds to the value of compassion and the reality of interconnectedness.   We were both grateful…

My friend Brett’s text message to me this morning sums it up…   “You picked a hell of a week for your retreat.”   Boy, ignorance was bliss.   Yesterday afternoon, I re-emerged out of a five-day silent meditation retreat. Unlike other retreats I’ve attended, this one, like so many other pandemic-era experiences, arrived in…

  My teammate, Burrell Poe, and I recently led a 90-minute self-compassion workshop for 20 leaders of a large organization. We asked them prior to the training to share their current challenges, and this is what we heard back:   “I am worried about team burnout.” “I feel like there are too many fires to…

It’s not always easy to “compassion it.” Especially when the divisiveness created by our two-party political system takes the “united” out of the United States of America.   Dealing with the pain and uncertainties of a global pandemic certainly doesn’t help. During a time when we need more connection and compassion, politics keeps widening the…

What Happens When You Invite Your Enemies to Tea? Howard Stern entered an elevator and found himself face-to-face with Regis Philbin – a man he had been relentlessly berating on his well-known radio show. What could have been an awkward elevator ride instead became a lesson on unconditional kindness.   I’m a big fan of…

As I reflect back on Compassion It’s eighth year, I can’t help but feel a tremendous sense of accomplishment and joy.  Here’s why: 1 – We worked with refugees in Rwanda Thanks to a partnership with the nonprofit Alight, we supported compassion initiatives in a Rwandan refugee camp, and those efforts may impact millions of…

I don’t know about you, but every year the holiday shopping ads seem to appear earlier and earlier. I get emails about Black Friday, Giving Tuesday* and Cyber Monday, and they tell me, “Click here! Go to our website, and spend your money with us!”

In 2015, retail and outdoor recreation services giant REI created a brilliant campaign to get people off of their phones and computers and into the world. While every other retailer asked you to spend money on Black Friday, REI told you to take a hike. Literally. REI closed all of its 150+ stores on Black…