Amy Leigh Mercree - The Compassion Revolution

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

The Compassion Revolution: 30 Days of Living from the Heart 2017 by Amy Leigh Mercree.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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First e-book edition 2017

E-book ISBN: 9780738752426

Cover design by Ellen Lawson

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)

ISBN: 978-0-7387-5208-2

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Woodbury, MN 55125

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my amazing agent, Lisa Hagan, for all her dedication and hard work and for believing in my mission. A big thanks to editors Angela Wix and Lauryn Heineman for seeing the potential of this project and midwifing it into being. Lots of gratitude to the design team at Llewellyn for their attention to detail and talent. Many thanks to designers Donna Burch-Brown, Ellen Lawson, and other professionals who helped bring this book to life. And lots of gratitude to Vanessa Wright for an amazing publicity and outreach campaign.

It truly takes a village to create a clear, beautiful, concise, and artful book, and the team at Llewellyn is top-notch. Im grateful for all the blessings that the creation of this book has brought and will bring in the years to come. It was created with love.

Dedication

This book is dedicated with love and gratitude to the bodhi-sattvas of compassion, both physical and nonphysical.

Contents

: Finding Happiness in a Hectic World

: Releasing the Shackles of Anxiety

: Relax Your Heart

: A Child s Wisdom

: Self-Talk Is the Most Important Force in Your Life

: Examining Self-Compassion from Different Perspectives

: Accepting Ourselves in All Ways

: Kindness and Peak Performance

: The Real Reason Why Compassion Is Relaxing

: You Are the Heroine/Hero

: Cyber Self-Compassion

: Liking Me, Liking You

: Living Kindness

: Believe in Yourself

: Self-Compassion Inspirational Stories

: Compassion and Yogic Thought

: Being Truly Kind Means

: The Magic Ingredient to an Amazing Life

: Care Like You Have One Day Left

: Compassion for Nurturing and Validation

: Find Compassion Within through Your Own Spiritual Path

: Witnessing Lack of Love and Staying Open

: The Interconnection Mindset

: Choosing Compassion in a Jaded World

: Ending Bullying and Teaching Children Compassion

: Celebrities and Cyber Kindness

: Live to Give

: Stop Being Snarky and Start Living

: Ideas Plus People Equal a Movement

: Join InEveryone Is Welcome

Introduction

Every day we are barraged with slick messaging telling us that we should look a certain way because we arent attractive enough. That we better get that gym equipment or face cream ASAP. This same messaging tells us, Quick! Get that new car! Then youll have more status than your neighbor. Park that glossy new Beemer in your driveway and youll be worthy.

The thing about consumer culture is that it is all about getting more, as fast as you can, to fill the emptiness and out-compete others. In the rush to be better, we get caught in an endless competition in which we forget that who we are comes from our core, not our outer adornments. There is an abundance of powerful programming out there that tells us to stay in the race to the top. And we all feel it in different ways.

The path to transcending that mentality is being compassionate. We dont necessarily have to reject all that stimulating media. We simply need to bring awareness to the power of being kind! Caring about others is basic, and its our true nature. Now is the time to return to our innate kind nature. I created The Compassion Revolution to make a thirty-day commitment to explore this idea and to share it with you. Together we learn about ourselves, our family and friends, and our world. My hope is that every day you and I make a positive impact on someones day, including our own. Let the compassion revolution begin!

Choosing Compassion

Being compassionate seems like a pretty simple concept. Just be nice to people and get on with it, right? Thats certainly a start. But its only the beginning of a beautiful, fun, and deeply profound journey. Not everyone will want to take this journey just yet. In time, though, this movement will grow. In fact, it already is growing. Around the world, people are being kind to each other, to the environment, and to themselves every day. Every day billions of people love someone. Out of love, caring is born. And from caring, kindness springs forth.

Cultivating compassion is a path of happiness and self-awareness. It might not seem like the easy path all of the time. It takes effort not to go off on someone who spills coffee on you when youve been having a bad day. Or to bring awareness to what you type in the comments of someones blog so that you express your opinion kindly and consciously instead of trolling and being anonymously snide.

The thing about choosing compassion is that it creeps up on you. You start thinking more kindly. Negative self-talk begins to lessen. A spirit of goodness comes over you. Humanity doesnt seem as much like a germy mass of self-absorption. You notice the shy smiles directed your way, the doors held, and the helping hands offered, and you start offering the hand up sometimes. Meaning evolves out of awareness and conscious choice of focus.