How Can I Be More Compassionate?

Well, it starts from within!  I am a very compassionate person, and was able to unlock even more room to care for others once I became more compassionate towards myself. 

For years I wondered why I felt depleted of energy to care for others - I blamed it on early life experiences, or my own deficits.  

Looking back, particularly on family dynamics, I can definitely see how NUMEROUS people around me were starved for love and didn’t know how to find it within. Self-love was neither modeled or explicitly taught.  

What I understand now is I was giving all my energy away, and trying to operate off of the scraps that remained. You know how they say to put on your oxygen mask first and then a child’s? Well same thing goes for care - and I was putting on many masks around me without putting mine on first.  

Once I started caring for myself I felt less depleted. Now that I put self-care first, I no longer wait on others to care for me, so I have less resentment towards people in my life for not taking care of me. Sadly, I used to even be resentful towards my kids, for having needs that I was too overwhelmed to address because I was drowning in that overwhelming feeling.

Honestly, the love has always been there, but it was an impossible task to have love come from the outside when I wasn’t willing to do the work to find it inside of me.  And for the record, I am surrounded by amazing people who LOVE me HARD! The competition for time, energy, or love ended because I filled myself up first.