Sat Nam,

Happy full moon in Scorpio! And with the watery emotions of the moon, what a perfect time to talk about this week’s virtue, Compassion and Kindness.

One of the the five Sutras Yogi Bhajan gave us to support us in the Aquarian Age is “Recognise that the other person is you”. That I believe is the first step to being compassionate. Compassion and Kindness come from the heart. It’s the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and find what it is they’re feeling within yourself, and feel how they feel. This is how we connect. There is a big difference between compassion/kindness and sympathy, which comes from the mind.

Brené Brown does a great talk on this, and my take aways are:

– Compassion fuels connection and sympathy drives disconnection.
– Compassion is feeling with people, and it’s a vulnerable choice as in order to connect with someone we have to go to that overwhelming dark space they are in and find that within ourselves so we feel how they feel.
– Compassion come’s without judgement and it’s not about fixing the problem or finding a solution, it’s about being with another human being and knowing what it’s like for them in your heart so they’re not alone. Rarely can a response to try and fix the problem or make them feel better make something better, what makes something better is connection.

I believe in order to be a compassionate and kind person we must start with ourselves. If I notice myself beating myself up, judging myself over my feelings, allowing my ego to dominate my decision making when I have a heartfelt problem, I am disconnecting from myself and not showing myself compassion and if I can’t show myself compassion how can I be compassionate to others?

Kundalini Yoga is a great tool to help me connect and find compassion for myself. It challenges me to keep going but on the days I’m not feeling so strong, it also gives me the opportunity to show myself compassion when I can’t and we all have those days both on the mat and in life.

There’s a saying “Be the change you want to see in the world” and I want to live in a compassionate and kind world so it starts with me.

What is your relationship with compassion and kindness?

Classes this week:

Tuesday 7.00pm – Adette
Thursday 9.30am – Adette (at Soul Flow)
Friday 7.15am – Bartek

See you on the mat. ❤

Love and light,
Adette