Um Jill I'm in Australia and don't have phone numbers ect of the world population. I don't consider having compassion is dwelling on the negative either. But I'm glad you have the answers to everything. Must be nice.

To further explain I did a mindfulness meditation course and have a daily compassion practice as part of it. This is not the same as negativity or creating drama. I also practice not judging or criticising others thoughts and feelings. It would be nice if we could just focus on supporting the people who need it at this point in time.

Disaster victims, both natural and human-made, work well as targets for my daily compassion exercises, too. Prayers in progress for all of them, whether they are in the News Headlines, or not.

I watch my deflection pattern with it, though. My personal herstory is chock full of obsessing over the misery on the other side of the globe so that I don't have to look anywhere near my personal life. Balance in all things.

I'm wondering about our precious Lilly, too. That is some intense stuff going on in her neighborhood and it has been a while since she posted.

Isn't it? I think so. The same week I was diagnosed in 1995 my therapist had a great suggestion. It was to join a weekly Buddhist meditation group to run parallel to my weekly PTSD therapy sessions and my weekly face to face support group meetings.

Being an ordained Christian minister, speaking for myself I wasn't naturally inclined to do so. But rocked on my heels at the time by my diagnosis, at my wife's urging I gave it a try.

It turned out to really turn my PTSD recovery process into a stable three legged stool going forward. Every week, I went to my individual PTSD therapy session, my face to face support group meeting, and my meditation group meeting.

It balanced out my week recovery's good "me" focus, then good "we" with PTSD focus, and then a good "we" beyond PTSD focus. It kept my PTSD from defining me.

My meditation group was based on Thich Nhat Hanh's writings. He was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who was friends with the Christian monk Thomas Merton. Like Merton, Hanh was a good writer. Even though he survived PTSD horrors in the Vietnam War, one of his great books is on compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh showed me, as you say, that it's nice to be compassionate, but also that having compassion isn't really primarily about others; it cultivates recovery in ourselves even those of us have lots of internalized CPTSD trauma like he had. He had lots from the Vietnam War. I have lots of that from surviving the Tupamaro War as a missionary kid growing up in combat overseas with CPTSD.

I recommend Thich Nhat Hanh's book on compassion. It's really good. Here's a review of it.
http://upliftconnect.com/power-of-compassion/

Thich Nhat Hanh on the Power of Compassion
By Martin Doblmeier on Sunday March 5th, 2017

"Thich Nhat Hanh has published nearly 100 books and is one of the best-known teachers of Zen Buddhism in the world today.

In the early 1960s, his practice of what he termed ‘engaged Buddhism’ led him to create the School for Youth and Social Services to provide education, housing, and medical care for victims of war in his native home, Vietnam. In 1966, Nhat Hanh visited the United States and Europe on a peace mission and was forbidden to return home. A year later Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize."

I've been concerned for her too. She posted yesterday and was staying off the roads.

Thinking also of you guys down in Australia. I've been reading reports of melted highways, and bats dropping dead (I love bats...for real...they eat insects my least favorite thing).

Huge hug sweetie..... I do much the same at times..... We've had a wickedly cold winter and I really feel for wildlife

I put a little food out for the birds and the squirrels and they look for me now

Poor Lilly has been really effected this year with the fires as well

Another hug and a blessing.....xo

oh, Our (((Loo)))

and everyone xoxo

just popping on real quick to say hi and update. coming to bring that compassion along as we all do when we come here, that's our foundation after all, what DS PTSD is made of.

not to worry for me, although, i have noticed being challenged a good bit to stay grounded, there are so many to send strength to around me. i mean, vibe wise.

TW

the town to the north has had the worst of the storm and mudslides. it is heartbreaking what is happening there.

they have recently figured out that there are boats to be used to taxi people who really need to get from here up there or from there down here, so that is helpful.

i'm in a relatively safe spot but it feels so odd to be here.

Loo, i have been hearing about the extreme - understatement - heat you are having there and have been praying for you.

mother nature is really throwing some tantrums.

most gentle of hugs all around.

sending out peace ripples while doing some belly breathing and blowing good breaths out
annnnd good breaths in

Global warming at it's infancy.

Compassion is a beautiful thing, especially here. Hugs to everyone

Yes, the world wide disasters are being brought to us daily, more than ever before w the constant news media circuits. I rarely listen to the news anymore, I read what I need to and pray for those I see, but the details and dramatization does no good for my spirit or mind. I do take magnesium and ginseng a lot to calm my mind, body and spirit. They also help get rid of those sticky negative thoughts that can keep me down. God bless you. Do what we can, and leave the rest to God. <3

((((Loo)))))
Same here, I feel what you’re feeling, I want it all to settle down. Thank you for being a sweet sensitive soul in this world :)
Gentlest of hugs to you <3

Thanks, Lilly, for the update about conditions around you there in California, since you're who was mentioned in Loo's post launching this compassionate thread of hers in the first place.

I remember that you were evacuated yourself not too many weeks ago. What a hassle that was, with your electric wheel chair and your support dog and all.

Glad you're not having to be evacuated in this round of climate change weather disasters. I feel so badly for all of those who are caught up in it.

So you're not in it this time, at least not yet. Fingers crossed, my friend.