In a stimulating blog entry entitled "The Self Compassion Diet", McKinensie Lode argued for self-compassion as a new dietary protection against over eating. I want to reinforce her claim but add a several points to embellish this approach. First, self-compassion when combined with mindfulness (or conscious living) becomes doubly powerful in diet and eating. For instance, beginning a meal by quietly focusing upon your breathing and emptying your mind of extraneous thoughts, helps you to be totally conscious of your food, its taste and texture, and how your body reacts to it.

Self compassion is often mistaken for self esteem or even self pity.  However, it is much more than that and can have many great benefits to your life.  The golden rule, we have heard it all our lives and now it is time we place it upon ourselves.  Self compassion comes from treating yourself as you would a loved one or someone else you care about. As you would wish the best for them, you should also wish the best for yourself.  Leaving behind all judgements of yourself and others and embracing that we are all human and are allowed mistakes.  Self compassion can be rewarding in obvious ways including happiness, increased emotional balance, opening of our hearts and minds, but also some unexpected benefits as well.  I found out about the new book, pictured on the left. called The Self-Compassion Diet, from a Fox News article.  
Jean Fain, author of The Self-Compassion Diet and a therapist affiliated with Harvard,  says,"when you treat yourself compassionately you are more apt to eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full.  Move when you're energized and rest when you're tired.  Do that and you will lose weight naturally."  Her book and advice is based on scientifically proven theories, one of which, is that giving yourself a break when it comes to diets is the key to success. 

In order to feel self compassion we must first learn to empathize with those around us.  Then learning to care for ourselves in the same manner promoting both our physical and mental health and well being.  Jean Fain's book provides guidance on how to become more self compassionate and teaches how to improve your eating habits. This will in turn promote your self compassion and health at the same time.  It is also said that people who are more self compassionate are more likely to exercise, increasing physical well being and all the positive feelings that come with it.

 Mistakes come in many forms and most people either regret these mistakes, try to learn from them, or a combination of both. My thought for today is that people may be focusing on the wrongs they do, or the accidents that happen, rather then moving forward. When people make mistakes it often holds them back from continuing on with their lives. Perhaps it is because others make these things feel so big that we can not get past them. 

                                                                                                 Kind acts make the world go round. In other words, they hold societies together.  In the movie Pay It Forward, a young boy who is in middle school and takes a class where he teacher inspires him to “think of an idea to change our world and put it into action!” The boy, Trevor, devises the “pay it forward" act where he would help three people, then each of those three people would help three other people. Trevor explains that this act has to be something that the person couldn’t do on his or her own. He tries to help people but feels as if he has failed. In all reality, he has touched people’s lives and because of him, people are helping others and the chain continues all the way across America.

For months I have been blogging about international volunteer experiences and opportunities. Now I want to tell about my upcoming trip to Peru.

 On May 15^th, 2011 I will fly out of Minneapolis, Minnesota and about 12 hours  later land in Lima, Peru. After landing I will be picked up by a representative from the International Volunteer Headquarters program and then driven up the Andes Mountains to the city of Cusco. Once there, I will move in with a local family and begin work at the orphanage.

I came across a website called Random Acts of Kindness. It’s a website where people submit their stories about how they helped someone or someone helped them. The website shows that there are people in the world who take time out of their day to do a good deed for others. The goal of this site is to inspire and motivate others to participate in a random act of kindness.  Their mission statement is “get involved, get inspired, and tell us your story."

As I look outside my dorm window at the latest snow fall, I think about home and my neighbor Mark. When I lived at home, nearly every time the snow fell hard, Mark would come around the neighborhood with his big snowblower and plow the end of our driveways where the snowplow leaves huge mounds from plowing the street.  It takes up time that he could use to do other things, but instead, he gives kindness and compassion to our neighborhood. Kudos to Mark for being such a great neighbor! I hope more people, including me, can be as kind and selfless as he.

Many people have heard reggae music, but if you listen closely to the music you will experience a lot more than just some words and beats. You will hear thoughts and ideas of compassion. Reggae is one of the few music genres that consistently spreads the ideas of compassion. 

Over Thanksgiving break, I went home and had a routine chiropractic appointment. It ended up being much more than that. Not only was it a healing through practice, but also through the words of a new employee named Agnus. Agnus is from Ghana in West Africa and she moved to the United States when she was 20.  I had an hour conversation with Agnus and she taught me about the effects of poverty, hunger, etc. At the end of our conversation, Agnus left me with a enticing message, she said, “You should be kind and love everyone you come in contact with because you never know who will come to your aide when you need it.” Compassion can be simple and Angus is one of the most compassionate people I have ever met.