Compassionate Awareness

By Trish Briggs

The more self-aware that I become, the more I open my heart to compassion.

This is the natural energetic progression.

Let me explain my logic/understanding. My increasing knowledge of self, establishes and strengthens who I am internally. With this progressively increasing ‘solidness’ in self,’my self-confidence increases, and my feelings of vulnerability gradually lessen. I feel safer and stronger in knowing self.

Am I still vulnerable? The answer is yes: everyone is vulnerable in their physicality. But I feel less vulnerable from mental and emotional wounds/attacks because I have addressed (acknowledged and am in the process of healing) my mental and emotional issues. If I address them first, the pain of someone else addressing them lessens.

I have this crazy imagery of comparing myself to a slice of Swiss cheese. There are openings on my surface (holes on Swiss cheese). These holes represent my wounds and as long as they exist, I am susceptible to even deeper injury in each one. I internally work (consciously and systematically) to close each opening by addressing their source and the damage done. Each time I successfully close/lessen an opening (heal), I am less vulnerable to attack in that area.

In coming to know self, I learn how to love and forgive self. I find self-compassion.

Each baby-step forward in my self-awareness increases my self-compassion and gives me the courage to open my heart and high heart further. This is a natural progression.  It happens without thought. (To lessen my vulnerability as this occurs, I learn how to establish healthy boundaries physically, emotionally, mentally, and spirituality. This protects any remaining openings in my Swiss chess imagery.)

Through compassion for self, I eventually extend this to compassion to others as I focus on my outer world (after establishing a firm understanding of my inner world of self). I take seriously their realities, their inner lives, and their emotions. I see and feel our connection.  

Self-Awareness + self-compassion = Compassion for others!

Eventually, if I get to the position where I can give love and compassion with an open heart and have no expectations of any return, then I become love and compassion in action. At this point, I am creating grace for self and the other person(s) that I am helping. This is the closest that I will get to channeling unconditional love in my physical body.

Thank you for joining me on my journey - Have a great day!