Compassion is the feeling you get when others or yourself are in physical, mental, or emotional pain, and you get the motivation to ease that pain.
To ease that pain, you do acts of compassion.
Compassion is closely related to kindness, patience, and wisdom.
When we show compassion to ourselves, we give ourselves space heal from suffering. You accept that you feel pain and actively look for ways to improve.
When we show compassion for others, we're not only trying to ease one person's pain. We are creating a world that's worth living.
“To make a difference in someone’s life, you don’t have to be brilliant, rich, beautiful, or perfect. You just have to care enough and be there.” — Anonymous
Reading Recommendations
Allowing Ourselves to Feel Joy During the Day
“I’ve come to the realization that most of us don’t allow ourselves to feel joy most days. Sure, maybe on some kind of big occasion, we’ll let ourselves run around whooping with joy … but mostly not. Think about you past week: have they been joyful and wondrous? Or routine, full of busyness and stress and […]”
How Adults with ADHD Can "Manufacture" Motivation
“Do you make great plans, but never follow through on them? Perhaps you need to manufacture some motivation.”
Migrating Millions of Concurrent Websockets to Envoy
“Slack has a global customer base, with millions of simultaneously connected users at peak times. Most of the communication between users involves sending lots of tiny messages to each other. For much of Slack’s history, we’ve used HAProxy as a load balancer for all incoming traffic. Today, we’ll talk about problems we faced with HAProxy, …”
Weekly Mindfulness Practice
If you're using a computer or smartphone, take one conscious breath every time before opening a new browser tab or app.
You may find yourself being more focused on your tasks, just by adding the friction of one breath and by becoming more present.
End Note
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Have a great week
Simon
PS: If you found an article you think others might like, and that fits this newsletter, I’d love it if you write me an email. Just reply!