There are many gifts you can give to another, but if any gift were to be considered a sister to love, it would be compassion. The art of compassion, when mastered, empowers the receiver and heals the giver.

First, what is compassion and what is it to be compassionate? Let us start by asking you to remember a time when someone showed you compassion. What did it look like? How did it make you feel? For many, the answer would be that the other person understood what you were feeling at face value and interestingly enough, did it without participating in the emotion or the event.

The art of compassion is the ability to acknowledge without judgment and understand without involvement.

The non-prejudicial attitude and acceptance validates the receiver’s experience and therefore, empowers them. The non-participation in the emotion allows the giver to heal themself of similar energies, by understanding it in another, they understand it in themselves. Compassion’s uninvestment is based upon the giver’s ability to forgive the self so that the person can accept another without judgment or participation. Compassion to another is their declaration of forgiveness which is why it is such a powerful healing expression of love.

Compassion is born from one’s own self-acceptance, and therefore, it is safe to accept another.

Does the giver of the compassionate act have to have all their “ducks in a row” in order to act so? No, but by an openness to forgive and accept the other, healing is facilitated.

The purpose for titling this concept “The Art of Compassion” is to emphasize to the reader that compassion is a delicate dance of love between two people wishing to be healed—for reaching out to another in compassion is an act of embracing yourself in love.