It's a Practice

From the Idiosyncradeck, the Ace of Cups; from the Mixed Emotions deck, Compassionate:

To love without knowing how to love, wounds the person we love.

― Thich Nhat Hanh 

I have learned that having a full heart, one that overflows with love to share, takes practice. Some of the tools I use are: 

• Bring to mind (from childhood to present) your benefactors, those who have been kind without any agenda or strings attached.
• At the end of each day, ask: What happened today that made me smile or laugh? What touched or warmed my heart? What made me pause in wonder or awe?
• Make use of a loving-kindness meditation.

Compassion means being willing to sit with another's pain with a desire to help. But notice how the hands in this card tenderly hold rather than control the bird. Sometimes, in our desire to make our own discomfort go away or when we want to 'fix' the other person, we react inappropriately. As Ed and Deb Shapiro caution, "Wise compassion is inherently skillful, sees the whole situation and aims to bring release from suffering; its opposite is known as blind or idiot compassion, which does not take into account the whole situation and so, while appearing compassionate, is inherently unskillful and may actually increase suffering."