When Our Hearts Are Open

We instinctively give and receive compassion

I woke up a few mornings ago and the first thing that came to mind was Ram Dass and Natural Compassion. I had some vague dreams the night before, so perhaps one of them triggered this thought. Regardless of the origin, I was compelled to revisit Dass’s work on Natural Compassion from a couple of different perspectives.

Ram Dass and Paul Gorman’s book, “How Can I Help: Stories and Reflections on Service” is a book that I frequently reference in my undergraduate psychology classes. It is an impactful, practical guide for helping direct practice professionals effectively address any type of challenges that individuals seeking therapy present. They define natural compassion as follows:

For twenty-seven years I worked as an addiction counselor and clinical supervisor at an inpatient drug treatment center in Utica, New York. I had the necessary education, experience, and credentials to work in the addiction field. Most of the individuals I worked with would (and rightfully so) ask me about my qualifications. However, qualifications mean nothing if a therapist doesn’t possess the necessary skills to establish safe and secure environments for individuals to openly share their stories. Qualifications mean nothing if a therapist can’t respond to those stories with genuineness and warmth. Qualifications mean nothing if our attempts to help others are not driven by the instinctive, compassionate response of our open hearts.

As helping professionals, we also must be capable of responding to the open hearts of others who wish to comfort us or be present for us during our times of challenge. Sometimes that comfort is given, when we, the helpers seek therapy for our own challenges, or simply when human connection occurs organically and serendipitously.

What follows are two instances where I was fortunate to be impacted by the open hearts of others during my times of need.

Related posts:

To understand the inception of artificial intelligence, we must first understand the development of computers and digital technology. The first computers were built in the 1940s and were initially…

Unlike so many unpredictable events in life, getting into university and acquiring my bachelor’s degree I thought would be a smooth ride. I would have predicted my exact graduation day from the day I…