Compassion. Go the whole day only thinking about others.

Typically we go through our lives focused on ourselves. It seems to be an automatic default that we can be utterly unaware about. Let’s change that, lets go a day only focused on other individuals.

I tried this challenge the other day, and too be honest it was quite hard. It was kinda like mediating for the whole day, as you have to constantly bring your awareness back to the present whenever you mindless go into your old thought patterns. Whenever I caught myself, focused on me, my worries, issues, appearance, I brought my attention back to the first person I saw. It slowly began to become a fun game as I created a story line for each individual.

I than slowly began to think of ways I could help brighten another persons day, that would leave us both full of joy and laughter. One thing I did was arrange a small full course meal with all the items we had around in the house after hearing my Dad was coming back tired after long day of work. When he came in I acted like a waiter and introduced each item. We were both left grinning and laughing.

This exercise also helped me understand the saying, “one person’s problems might be another person’s gift”. As my thoughts began to go off about being stuck at work and all the things I had to do, I saw a man with no leg and my problems instantly seemed so small in comparison. How much pain and compromise he had to go through was nothing compared to me.

Overall, it has been an event full day and it was worth giving it a go. Try it yourself and let me know how it goes.