Bringing Caring Force to the World

The current news portrays a world that is out-of-balance, verging on out-of-control. How can we maintain equilibrium when faced with such disarray? By tapping into “caring force” – a healthy balance between fierce and tender self-compassion – we can find more stable footing as we meet the challenges in our world.

Guarding Ourselves with Love

A huge part of caring for ourselves means guarding ourselves from harm. This doesn’t mean we shut down our hearts, quite the opposite. It means that we open our hearts. But we also open our eyes to the potential of being drained of our time or energy in a way that depletes us.

Reparenting Ourselves with Self-Compassion

Some of us are fortunate enough to have had caring parents who met our needs consistently while growing up (I count myself as one of the lucky ones.)

Many of us, however, had parents who struggled with their own daemons and may not have been able to be there for us in consistent manner.

Disentangle from your Thoughts and Feelings

Much of our suffering comes from our sense of self becoming entangled in the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that arise in our awareness. We often believe our thoughts and feelings as true without question, and get lost in a negative storyline about ourselves or our lives.

Self-Compassion and Gender

As part of understanding our history, it’s important to see clearly how gender bias colors our perceptions of others and ourselves. Although the last 30 years have seen significant gains for women in terms of education and access to leadership positions, stereotypes have barely budged.