Our lives are dyed by the color of our thoughts.
We focus on what we look at.
We get what we focus on.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Trying to create and cultivate space between what happens to us, and our thoughts and emotions regarding what happens to us can be very hard. And certainly is not the default state of doing things for human beings.
They’re called snap judgements for a reason.
In the blink of an eye.
We’ll react with fervent emotion, containing very little, if any, rational thought.
But of course, in the moment of choice, we don’t just think, we know we’re right. We feel it. We don’t know it. We feel it.
Which is more powerful a thought or a feeling?
Which is more influential?
What was the world like during the vast majority of human history before rational thought?
Of course we construct the world through the paradigm of our emotions. Our emotions predate language by at least 100,000 years and rational thought by around 300,000 years.
We evolved to construct the world with our emotions. It is the norm to construct the world with our emotions. We are emotional creatures.
The modern world is one of logic and reason. At least it is officially, on the table, for appearances, in public. But living life is a private matter. Emotions and feelings rule the day for the vast majority of people. If it were the other way around the world would be incomprehensibly different.
So we must have more compassion and empathy for ourselves AND others.
I have found maintaining self compassion and empathy towards others to be a challenge despite large quantities of meditation practice and spirituality study. Negativity and selfishness seem to be increasingly amplified and glorified in the western world. I wonder why that is? Put another log on the fire.
Is it in our nature to be compassionate and empathetic? I believe so. I believe it is, barely, in our nature. Just enough that it can be cultivated, expanded, and spread around in the spirit of emotional contagion.
I know there are, have been, and likely will be plenty of days where I will need to give myself compassion and empathy. Living can be hard and complex.
That means that others need it to. Some more than others. I know I’ll have to develop my ability to extend compassion and empathy. But it’s a challenge worth taking on and conquering. It is a good fight to take on and win.
Because compassion and empathy are good things. Two things we need more of for ourselves. Two things this world needs more of from us.
Anarchy Journal Constitutional 