Friday, November 26, 2010

Black Friday and Compassion

On this “black Friday” as materialism at its worst descends upon the masses for the next month and we head into the season of perpetual “busy” I’ve been thinking more about what I learned about compassion at the “Building Compassion, Trust and Happiness” seminar with Dacher Keltner, Co-Founder and Executive Editor, for Greater Good Science Center at University of California, Berkeley. Don’t misunderstand and think that I’m anti-holiday; it’s more that I’m pro building authentic holiday experiences, rooted in compassion. Dacher talked about compassion blockers, or what he called cultural breakdowns in building compassion and I realized that many of the blockers he described are hallmarks of the holiday season, the supposed time of the year we are to be the most compassionate for humankind. Some blockers include being perpetually “busy”, cultural ADHD, and youth obsessed economic mindsets, this show up as being over-committed, over-stimulated, over-distracted which impairs your ability live a life of compassion.

Ironic.

How can you build a holiday season that allows you  tobust through the compassion blockers and be more in the moments of the season?

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