Hi, this is Katie, and thank you for joining me on the Creating Your Sanctuary podcast.

And this is a podcast about creating those little moments and space that support you.

And today I wanted to talk about compassion, and this is something that is very well needed right now, right?

There's um, a lot going on in the world that compassion would really be a key element into building stronger bonds, creating more safety, rebuilding systems that will support each other.

There's just so many things that this key ingredient to life to being human is, you know, can help in so many ways.

So, I do like to think of compassion as multifaceted, and there are times when,

We need to extend our empathy out and to others and hear them out.

listen to them, see like what we can understand from their experiences in life, and that takes being quiet and sitting down and listening and being open to hearing stories.

And I don't believe this works with every situation at all, right?

There are groups and people who want to do harm and they enjoy that, right?

So this is not part of that.

But there are ways to extend out, um, not the olive branch, but just trying to be there to listen to other people's stories so they can hear hours, an exchange, right?

An exchange of,

This is what has happened in my life that has brought me to this point.

I would like to hear your experience with life that has brought you to this point because not only, are we migrating around the world, um, as I've experienced.

We also are taking huge steps in our growth in our learning and what has brought us to, uh, meet people, to work, to play, to do all these things, to connect with our children, to, um, connect families, to, All different facets, right?

So, um, I I find other people's stories incredibly interesting because there's never 2 that are the same, right?

It's, um, like, I guess a metaphor would be like reading a book, you know, but there's more to it than that.

It's recognizing that humanity in someone and knowing that they aren't a fictional character.

This is a real life human being that has experienced these things in life.

And there's a deeper compassion when it's real, right?

There's there's just more weight to everything.

And I think in some cases, you know, I try to imagine what it's like to go through that, but it's not.

It's not just evoking sympathy.

The empathy really tries to understand in a way that if you haven't gone through it, you can still try to understand it, at least, to give more space around their actions.

It's not a forgiveness, right?

You can have people who have gone through bad things who don't do bad things, right?

There's that quote of hurt people, hurt people, and I can see where there are patterns involved in experiences that haven't healed, but there are lots of people who have experienced a lot of hurt in their lives who have never hurt anyone else.

And it takes a lot of healing to recognize that you can be the end of those cycles.

So alongside all of that, I believe also that we can have a lot of compassion for ourselves, that we can see our hopes and dreams and imperfections with love and with kindness, and to know that we are doing the best that we can.

And so that takes listening to ourselves, right?

There's moments where we have to kind of step back and know, okay, perfection is not the name of the game here.

We can.

create and work and play and do all the things.

In a way that benefits others.

I guess it, for me, there's a huge part of being perceived, right?

Like there's so much pressure, especially growing up in American culture, of being on social media and how do you look and how do you correctly show up, there's like always trying to be on your A game, always trying to show up and be that persona.

And when we strip that of the way and actually have compassion for ourselves and show up imperfectly and just try to understand ourselves and others.

I think that is the biggest thing that we can do, that we can try to authentically connect.

And authentically, there's a lot of play with that word as well, because I think we are seeking that out where you're seeking out what is the truth in others.

So in those ways of showing up imperfectly.

I think about like what kind of acts of kindness, acts of, um, connection, and creation.

Can I do that could inspire someone else, not with the intention of, making money or being a certain way or, you know, it's, it's about like, the smallest things can ripple out, the smallest, you know, maybe I, create something in needlepoint that inspires someone to make a ceramic thing that, a thing, you know, a form dish of some kind or whatever ceramic art of some kind.

Into someone making a painting and then also taking being inspired to take a photograph.

Like all those creative mediums can be inspired because the people behind them.

Um, look at so many different kinds of things.

I know as a creative person, I seek out, like, what creative thing can I look at today?

And whether it be a short film, whether it be acting, whether it be background design, set design, to architecture, to, uh, spoken word too, you know, it's reading a poem.

All those things.

Uh, After a while, you'll know this patterns of what you really like.

And even if a lot of them seem unrelated, it can all weave together, this common thread that we are connected by our experiences and that we are standing on causes, that we are stepping forward and acting as a movement, that we can protest and create change in our world.

It sounds,

Like, how can I, one little person changed the world.

And there are certain people who have come along in history that have had like small things ripple out and create immense change. And there are also people out there who made activism, their daily life.

They live it and breathe it and they inspire others every single day because of all of their hard work. And there's people in between.

I guess to wrap this up, I would say, please, please share your creativity, your convictions, and your thoughts, and your beliefs, into however you want to communicate that with the world because we're listening.

And we share ours because we know other people are listening.

And it's in that exchange that we can find compassion for each other. And I guess spread our arms wider for a larger hug, right?

It's not just a small little hug.

You're embracing all of humanity.

And also hugging yourself.

However, you are creating your sanctuary right now through art or whatever is speaking to you.

Whatever medium, whatever way, whatever outlet, whatever consumption of art.

Know that how you're creating that right now, it's enough.

I'll see you next time.