{"id":1210,"date":"2014-03-25T22:13:08","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T02:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2014-03-26T22:53:59","modified_gmt":"2014-03-27T02:53:59","slug":"bringing-compassionate-love-into-our-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/bringing-compassionate-love-into-our-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing Compassionate Love Into Our Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"compassion<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA void of loving relationships and feelings of connectedness in our<\/p>\n

Communities is jeopardizing our personal well-being and the well-being<\/p>\n

of everyone around us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a recent journal article, Wendy Saunders poses that our entire culture is shifting to become more individualistic and less connected. \u00a0In her role as the executive director of a large metropolitan YMCA, she is in a prime position to observe the consequences of this growing trend.\u00a0 <\/span>In fact, Saunders challenges us to consider that the resulting detachment is jeopardizing not only our personal well-being but also the larger well-being of our communities, organizations, and businesses.\u00a0 <\/span>She notes that the phenomenon appears to be getting worse as people, often overwhelmed themselves, in turn, are giving less of themselves to others. \u00a0Many believe civility is needed to reverse the progression. \u00a0<\/span>Wendy goes a step further, suggesting that change may require more substantial efforts toward reengagement.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We invite you to read a brief excerpt of a discussion session on the topic held between Saunders and Tom Lowery, Director of Leadership and Volunteer Development for YMCA of the USA.\u00a0 <\/span>For further information, you are invited to read Saunders thought provoking article, \u201c<\/span>Growing Compassionate Love in Communities<\/span><\/span><\/a>.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Lowery- YMCA of the USA<\/strong><\/strong>: \u00a0Wendy, what do you see as the difference between civility and manners — and compassionate love?\u00a0 We were talking earlier about behaviors in the business setting, a more professional setting.\u00a0 Some of that sounds a little bit like civility and good manners.\u00a0 How is that different from compassionate love?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wendy Saunders<\/strong><\/strong>: I love that you asked that\u2026 thank you.\u00a0 The title of my article is actually Beyond Civility: Growing Compassionate Love in Communities.<\/em>\u00a0 I think a lot of us think of civility as just getting along with other people, just not rocking the boat, being civil, not fighting.\u00a0 [Compassionate love] is raising the standard in terms of the potential for a more authentic, genuine, and connected experience with other people, rather than remaining detached.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Civility doesn\u2019t necessarily address this issue of connectedness.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a notch above \u201cdon\u2019t fight\u2026 just be civil.\u201d\u00a0 A lot of people look at it that way.\u00a0 What is suggested here with this concept of compassionate love is taking it a lot deeper\u2026 allowing us to actually create feelings of concern.\u00a0 A lot of times in my Y work, I\u2019ve wondered, \u201cHow do we get people to care about other people\u2026 to really care, not just get along?\u201c\u00a0 A lot of the things I came across in my research demonstrated there are ways for us to get people to really care, to have a genuine concern for other people – as opposed to just not fighting.<\/span><\/p>\n

YMCA of the USA<\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0 Great, thank you.\u00a0 Let me ask another question of you, Wendy.\u00a0 You\u2019re proposing something slightly provocative here, which is that you\u2019re asking people who are in the Y movement – Y professionals – to consider the question:\u00a0 How can we integrate compassionate love into our daily YMCA work?\u00a0 That has programmatic implications, it has member engagement implications, it has implications for how we interact with staff members, with children, and so forth.\u00a0 That\u2019s a fairly provocative idea.\u00a0 What if people don\u2019t feel comfortable with that?\u00a0 What if they feel like it’s too personal or too private?\u00a0 What would you say to them, Wendy?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Wendy Saunders<\/strong><\/strong>:\u00a0 That\u2019s a great question.\u00a0 You know, in our Western society, especially, we really have adopted this culture of being so individualistic.\u00a0 We\u2019re conditioned this way, from early on, to be concerned for our own interests \u2013 you know, make a lot of money and get a promotion, really be self-centered in a way.\u00a0 This concept of engaging warmly with other people can feel very foreign.\u00a0 I understand how it could feel uncomfortable for people to engage in that way, at least to start.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What I would say is the World Health Organization has done a lot of research on love and connectedness, and found it\u2019s really critical to our well-being.\u00a0 We may not realize how much it\u2019s connected to our well-being until we really start to engage in it and realize that our life is enhanced as a result of this process.\u00a0 Not everybody is going to get on board with this concept, but I do think it takes a little bit of courage to reach outside of ourselves and say, \u201clet me give this a try\u2026 let me see if I do feel a higher quality of life as a result of being more connected to other people and expressing these feelings of compassionate love.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of the studies that have been done have demonstrated that people do feel all of those benefits.\u00a0 And, so, I think that some people will be advocates for this more quickly than others, but once you start to get into it, you start to realize, \u201cWow, I like feeling this way\u2026 my life feels more valuable as a result of expressing compassionate love for other people.\u00a0 I feel a higher quality of life as a result of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To learn more about Wendy Saunders and to read the full article on compassionate love, published in the YMCA of the USA\u2018s Journal of Community StrengtheningTM<\/span><\/sup>, <\/span>please visit this link: http:\/\/compassionatelove.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Wendy Saunders is an Executive Director with the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles and leadership development faculty for YMCA of the USA.\u00a0 <\/span>She is also a teacher-in-training for Emory University\u2019s Cognitively Based Compassion Training (CBCT) program.\u00a0 <\/span>CBCT will be offered at select YMCAs and other locations in the Los Angeles area in partnership with Emory University in 2014.\u00a0 <\/span>Please visit <\/em><\/span>www.compassionatelove.net<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/a> for a schedule of upcoming classes.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cA void of loving relationships and feelings of connectedness in our Communities is jeopardizing our personal well-being and the well-being of everyone around us.\u201d In a recent journal article, Wendy Saunders poses that our entire culture is shifting to become more individualistic and less connected. \u00a0In her role as the executive director of a large […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YyuX-jw","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1210"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1232,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1210\/revisions\/1232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}