Tag: compassion

You feel your heart beating harder and faster in your chest. A lump forms in your throat. The sound of the person talking to you fades into the background as your own thoughts and concerns become all-consuming. Maybe you feel a turning in your stomach or no longer feel content to stand still. You feel like you are losing your mind!

Well, there’s a little bit of truth to that. Dan Siegal, an author and professor of psychiatry, uses a fun analogy to break down the brain and how it works in situations like these. At the risk of oversimplifying, we’ll name two main characters in our brain: the guard dog (aka our brain’s limbic regions) and the wise owl (aka our brain’s cerebrum). The main role of the guard dog is to protect us from danger, and to do it fast! The main role of the wise owl is to help us think through things, using logic and reason.

In these moments when we feel like we are losing our mind, our guard dog has sensed danger ...

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It's been an... interesting week.  If you had told me last week Tuesday or Wednesday that, here in Michigan, all schools would be shut down, businesses closed, events canceled, and people confined to their houses until further notice, I would not have believed you.  This type of rapidly spreading, deadly virus is something I'd expect to read about in apocalyptic literature, not the news. And yet, this is the situation in which we find ourselves.  As a counselor and, more importantly, a human being, I am asking myself the best way to process through these events and my own thoughts and feelings. 

I've seen several ideas and recommendations for "how to socially distance" and the best way to structure your day if you're stuck at home.  Many in the medical profession have offered advice as to what supplies we should be stocking up on and how to care for those who are sick.  These types of information are va ...

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We are all familiar with the term compassion. We are easily able to look at other and feel care and concern for their suffering. Self-compassion on the other hand, sounds foreign and may even seem wrong. To understand self-compassion, it may be helpful to first define compassion. 

Compassion

sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

"the victims should be treated with compassion"

synonyms:

pity , sympathy , feeling , fellow feeling , empathy , understanding , care , concern , solicitude ,

solicitousness, sensitivity , tender-heartedness, soft-heartedness, warm-heartedness,

...

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