Compassion is a lot like that Chinese proverb: If you give a person a fish, you feed them for the day. If you teach a person to fish, you feed them for life. Compassion is about alleviated suffering, but sometimes we cover up the symptoms of suffering with what we think are compassionate acts — we hand out fish instead of teaching others to fish! The symptoms disappear for a brief moment but return over and over again. How do you stop offering fish and teach yourself and others to fish? Through the practice of both self-compassion and outward focused compassion.
Van Hurst is a spiritual director, intuitive, and author who also happens to be the Congregational Administrator for All Peoples. Through her programs, books, and individual sessions, she encourages people to be unapologetically and compassionately who they are because everyone else is taken.
Topics: compassion