To work with joy is to be free from tiredness.

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Message for the day 29-06-2012
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To work with joy is to be free from tiredness. 

Projection: When there is the happiness and joy of doing something, one can go on putting in effort even in the most difficult circumstances. For having done everything with happiness, there will be the inner quality revealed in each and every task. The happiness within will spread around to others too. 

Solution: As I never leave my inner joy, and am constantly in touch with my inner qualities, I am able to enjoy everything that life brings. Nothing will then be experienced as work, but I feel everything to be entertainment. I will be able to enjoy the richness of life even when there is something actually difficult. 

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Soul Sustenance  29-06-2012
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Discovering Inner Compassion (Kindness) – cont. 

When we try to describe compassion, it is worth looking at the words sympathy, empathy and interpathy. 

Showing sympathy towards another person's suffering is acknowledging their suffering, for example, 'I am sorry that you have hurt yourself'. We recognize that they are injured or ill without really engaging at a feeling level. 

Empathy is when we literally share a feeling with someone, we 'walk in their shoes', for example, 'I feel really upset that you are so depressed about losing your job'. This can bring great comfort to the person we are empathizing with, but the comfort to them can be at our expense and leave us feeling emotionally drained or sad. If we identify too closely with them, it can also make it difficult for us to help them. 

An expansion of empathy is a word called interpathy where we relate to another's suffering although we may not understand why they are suffering. This may be because they are from a different culture or because their feelings may seem inappropriate given the situation, but we are curious, we try to understand. 

Compassion is all these words — sympathy, empathy, interpathy - yet it is more and it is less. We acknowledge someone’s sorrow, we sense how they feel, we try to understand how it affects them, yet with compassion we do not become emotionally involved. We are engaged yet detached. We are standing back and looking on with kindness. By showing compassion in this way, it allows us to be compassionate without suffering from 'compassion fatigue' or 'emotional burnout'. 


In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris