Kindness and Compassion

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Kindness is a way, not a thing. And as we show kindness in our lives, the way becomes clearer. Negative behaviour fades away as it is replaced by the warm feeling that kindness brings

– David Hamilton, Why Kindness is Good For You [Code: 200301, £6.99]

Star Letter: Finding New Directions

In summer 2012, my body began to try and tell me something. I had lots of MS-like symptoms that no medical test, including an MRI, could find a cause for. This limbo land was an unpleasant and frightening place to be but I soon found others there with me as I found private and informative forums on the internet. The kind welcome and compassionate understanding I received from others, who were taking similar journeys, nurtured my own heart skills.

Alongside this, I was reading (and recommending) Neal Donald Walsch’s book ‘When Everything Changes, Change Everything’ [Code: 200205, £8.99], one of those intuitive Cygnus purchases from months before this all started. ‘The Universe is conspiring in your favour’ (p.267) says he. I couldn’t have imagined what would blossom from this health crisis.

In January I finally received a diagnosis – Functional Neurological Disorder and with it, I found FNDhope, a new charity and support forum for this little understood and somewhat controversial condition.

I ran a distant Reiki trial with a few online Reiki friends and some FNDhope Facebook group members, anonymously, as part of their Awareness week.

This life challenge has brought me new friends, opportunities for healing, an abundance of kind words and compassionate listening and allowed me to do the same for others.

My Cygnus magazine keeps me going, uplifts me on bad days and gives me something to share on good days. So thank you kindly, lovely people, for your words of love and hope.

Sally-Ann

Self Compassion

I read this week the phrase ‘Self Compassion’ in a book I bought from Cygnus on Mindful Meditation.

It was a lightning bolt to my understanding about loving oneself. Like a lot of people loving oneself is sadly difficult if not impossible. However, such people often have compassion and love in abundance for all of creation. The phrase ‘Self Compassion’made me realise that Self can and should be included in that list of all that squeaks, grows, moves and laughs and is not any different to forgetting to feed the children or letting the chickens out in the morning or any of the many things that we do and feel for everybody and everything else. Self Compassion sums up for me that ‘God’s eye View’ of loving oneself.

Jenny

Your Space

We’re as different as the grains of sand
Encircling our fair island land
I never notice age or height
My soul seeks others’ inner light
‘Love is blind’ you’ve often heard
And powerful is the spoken word.
The feelings that we cannot see
Hold the keys to you and me
What we seek is deep inside
Where our hidden meanings hide.
Take the time to smell the flowers
Watch the birds don’t count the hours
When you can, make time for YOU
And find the things you love to do.

© May 2014, Lucy London

WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO OUR CHAT PAGE?

Our upcoming themes:

Issue 7, Connecting with the Animal Kingdom (submission deadline June 16th 2014).

Issue 8, Finding Peace of Mind (submission deadline July 9th 2014)

We Need Your Contributions

We know that many of you may be facing difficult questions that require deep new answers, and we often hear how the Chat Page has a way of helping people right when they need it most. When you share your profound spiritual experiences, in messages from your heart, you reach across the entire Cygnus family, to uplift, support, help, reassure and inspire. So we ask:

• What has filled your life with joy?
• What rescued you from sadness or difficulty?
• What gift can you share with your Cygnus friends?

If you have an insight, experience or poem connected with any of theses themes, please write it down in not more than 250 words (or, if it it is a poem, in not more than 24 lines) and send it to reach us by the copy deadline. If you send it by email, to
info@cygnus-books.co.uk, please include ‘Chat Page’ and the theme in the subject, dropping your text into the body of the email rather than using attachments.