In self improvement, I think there is often a myth that you need to “do it all on your own,” and your life circumstances shouldn’t ever depend on other people. While I admire independence and self-reliance, and it’s a huge theme of this blog, I also acknowledge that we are interdependent beings. Our relationships, and [...]

We don’t always have to like someone for us to have love for them. Sure – it may not be “friendship” love or “family” love or “romantic” love. However, we can have “compassionate” love for anyone, despite any differences or shortcomings that person may have. Compassion is our ability to understand and sympathize with the [...]

There’s a right way and a wrong way to help people. It’s important to remember that even when you act with the best intentions, you don’t always know what is best for someone else. Here are some guidelines to determine if you’re really helping someone or not.

What is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to recognize thoughts and feelings within another conscious being. It is a mental capacity in which we can understand the inner world of others – their beliefs, emotions, intentions, values, goals, and personal experience. With empathy not only comes the understanding that other beings have thoughts and emotions, [...]

I have a challenge for you – but first I want to write a little about universal compassion. Many religions and philosophies hold “universal compassion” as a moral value that we should try to practice in our everyday life. It is best defined as a desire to alleviate the suffering of others, and it is [...]