Empathy, Compassion and Strength

Morning all, Sam here

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about compassion and empathy. This month we have been running intention setting workshops for clients and companies that we work with, which also includes a little bit of reflection on the year gone by. No matter how hard a year/month/week has been, finding the positives and highlights can be such a powerful way to remind yourself that there are always reasons we can be thankful.

One of the positives from 2020 that the workshops have found so far was that people seem to be supporting each other much more. There seems to be a bigger sense of community, with more empathy and more compassion shown to each other. One of the reasons that this has been highlighted is that worldwide we are all going through a shared experience. Of course we all deal in different ways to the things that are going on around us, we cope in a variety of ways and it is important to remember that each of our experiences are valid and relevant. 

However, pandemic aside, how often do we show the same sort of empathy and compassion for others? We can never know what others are going through and one of the main reasons it has been highlighted this year is that we all know that there is one major external force that is impacting us all to varying degrees.

I consider myself quite a naturally empathetic and compassionate person, with my time volunteering with the Samaritans helping to hone my skills, however even with my tool-kit of coping mechanisms, I was surprised just how much my  mental health suffered during lockdown version 1. It meant I also learnt a lot about myself and re-learnt some of the techniques to cope with that strain. I also found empathy and compassion from friends and family who I wouldn't have previously expected it from.

Hopefully for me and for others, the skills we have honed within ourselves during these last few months will help us deal with unexpected hiccups that may crop up in our lives going forwards. What 2020 has shown us is how to be that little bit stronger for ourselves as well as sharing our strength with others. We have seen that whatever we are going through we can still be there for others and we have found that they can still be there for us.

So lets try to continue to be as empathetic and compassionate as we can. Take as much time for ourselves as we need to and hold on to that strength that we all have inside us.

Sam and Ash
(She/Her and He/Him)