I'm not really surprised that my Compassion Experiment yielded similar results as my Positive Thinking experiment. It turns out in both cases that the actual way of getting anything to happen is to be neither quiet nor compassionate. The key is to harness your power of assertiveness and your sense of humor and forge ahead. If you feel disrespected, yo, you probably are being dissed. The solution is not to kill anyone and then be featured on LockedUp Raw. I think the solution is to do whatever makes you feel better about what is going on and that could mean being nice and compassionate toward yourself. More realistically, it could mean laughing at the fools who are doing you wrong. Use your perspective and reactions wisely.
During my month of choosing to respond to people who were dissing me (as opposed to just glaring at them) I did not feel more satisfied or resolved. Even with the gas leak, it wasn't until I took matters into my own hands was the leak fixed and I could've been dead by then. In addition to the instances I wrote about, I also had experiences with various customer service departments at Staples, Chase Bank, and AT&T that left me wondering how those companies stay in business. The other day at Home Goods, a woman cut in line in front of me like I wouldn't notice her with her over-flowing squeaky cart full of ceramic angels. I'd been in line for 20 minutes already. I chose annoyance over compassion and told her the line was behind me. She responded that she was in a hurry and stayed put. Nobody else in line said anything. Where's John Quinones when you need him? I imagined one of those angels falling off her shelf during an earthquake one night and giving her a concussion.
All those new agey quotes about compassion and love for all mankind sound pretty but it's not realistic. I think empathy and humor are more effective tools than compassion and the universal blanket of love when it comes to dealing with people, once you've determined that they aren't just total jerks. Respect yourself enough to listen to your intuition, yo.
Compassion is what you give yourself at the end of the day.
*Disrespected, Yo prints are available in my Imagekind shop. New Compassion art on canvas is available in my etsy shop.
Visit Linda Woods Artworks for prints on canvas, paper, or wood for all size spaces and budgets.
