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Where Does the Time Go?
April 1, 2022
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First, From the Heart
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” I can still remember the opening line from the American soap opera, Days of Our Lives, which my grandmother watched regularly when I was in elementary school in the mid 1960s. Flash forward to the present moment – apparently the show is still airing! And I deeply feel the underlying truth and wisdom captured by the showbiz sage who penned the line over five decades ago.
Do you sense that time is moving more quickly in our tech-drenched era? Many of us feel overcommitted and under-resourced, to the detriment of our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. We’ve disconnected from the natural cycles of Mother Earth and our own bodies. Our systems, cultures, and organizations expect us to defy the rhythms required for our individual and collective wellbeing.
It’s time to courageously take a stand for creating a new way to support ourselves and those we lead. With mindfulness and compassion, we can change the way we perceive and experience the sands of time moving through our lives. With intention, practice, and loving kindness, we can shift our relationship with time, each other, and the deep-rooted expectations of our modern way of life.
May peace be with you, always,
Laura
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Best of the Blog
Overcoming Obstacles Part 2 – Excess Time Demands
As we explore the obstacles to compassionate leadership, we turn to the issue of excessive time demands, which is named consistently in our leader surveys. What is a compassionate leader to do? We start by changing our relationship with time, ourselves, and the culture. Be realistic about the fixed nature of time. Practice self-compassion. Be courageous – name when the system is broken and collaborate to create more human solutions. Read more.
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Research Worth Sharing
Meeting Suffering With Kindness: Effects of a Brief Self-Compassion Intervention for Female College Students
by Elke Smeets, Kristin Neff, Hugo Alberts, and Madelon Peters
in Journal of Clinical Psychology 70, no. 9 (2014): 794-807
Students were assigned to either a group that practiced self-compassion for three weeks, or one that was taught general time management skills. Self-compassion led to significantly greater increases in self-compassion, mindfulness, optimism, and self-efficacy, and greater decreases in rumination. "These findings suggest that a brief self-compassion intervention has potential for improving student resilience and well-being." Read the research.
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Practice Matters
Always Time for Peace
I, too, am heartbroken by the war on display everywhere we turn, and the wars raging in other parts of the world we are less likely to see. I, too, am heartbroken by the chronic presence of injustices we hurl toward each other, toward other sentient beings, and toward our planet.
Can we expand our vision to include the goodness of life in ourselves and each other? Might we turn our precious attention to appreciate the ways in which we are alike and interconnected in our humanness?
Each moment offers us the opportunity to shift out of separation and into connection. I choose to practice the return, again and again, to a quiet still place in my heart. There I know peace is possible. That is where I touch peace, within.
When can we practice? Always!
If you'd like to explore additional Practice Matters, you can find them here.
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Upcoming Programs
Compassion Intensive
4-Week Online Experiential Program Begins April 21
How do we respond to the profound suffering around the world today? How do we hold both the pain and joy of life at the same time? Join an experiential four-week online journey designed to deepen your compassion skills. This series, led by Laura Banks, condenses components of Compassion Institute’s 8-week Compassion Cultivation Training© course developed at Stanford CCARE. Together we grow our understanding of compassion through evidence-based research, interactive exercises, and group discussion. Register now.
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Upcoming Events
Global Compassion Community Gathering
Free Community Event + Guest Speaker Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH
Join us as we explore the science behind the impact of serving others in order to build a more compassionate world. Our guest speaker is Stephen Trzeciak, MD, MPH, author of the influential Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference and the upcoming Wonder Drug: 7 Scientifically Proven Ways That Serving Others Is the Best Medicine for Yourself.
Dr. Trzeciak is professor and chair of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, and the chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care. A practicing intensivist and clinical researcher, he’s been published more than 120 times in JAMA, Circulation, The New England Journal of Medicine, and more. His research has been supported by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The event is co-hosted by Laura Berland, Founder of the nonprofit Center for Compassionate Leadership, and Monica Worline, co-author of Awakening Compassion at Work, and Research Scientist at Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Reserve your spot for this free event – Register now.
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