This week I’m talking with Immanual Joseph, PhD, about compassion. In the workplace, at home, for others and for ourselves. On the podcast Immanual said: “Compassion is fierce. In the workplace it involves standing up to popular opinion, Standing up to your co-workers and friends to do the right thing. It’s also being vulnerable, Compassion is the opposite of weakness. Compassion is courage with wisdom.”
Immanual shared a technique to develop our compassion muscle:
1. If you are going into a situation you know could be difficult. Take a breath and get grounded.
2. Use that feeling to practice gratitude for what you have and the blessings you’ve been given. In this state of mind, we are more receptive to practicing compassion.
3. Give yourself one moment of sincerely wishing everyone happiness and love. We all deserve to be happy and loved.
This practice can set us up for a much better approach to the meeting and the people we meet with. Automatically priming ourselves to be proactive with compassion rather than being reactive. We are more able to give others the benefit of the doubt when they are not their best selves.
About Immanual Joseph, PhD. Immanual is the founder and Chief Compassion officer of CompassionLeaders dedicated to improving engagement, productivity and culture in organizations through compassion trailing. He received his PhD in Biochemistry at the Tulane School of Medicine and was a cancer research scientist before becoming a compassion entrepreneur. He is also a certified compassion leadership coach, Energy Leadership index master practitioner and author.