Day 31: How Compassion Can Help Us Reach Humility?

Today is Day 31, which is four weeks and three days of the Omer. . . Ha-yom echad u'shloshim yom, she-hem arba'ah sh'vuot u'shloshah yamim la-omer.

   

 

THE OMER INTERSECTION: Chod + Tiferet - Humility and Compassion:

Humility and compassion seem like they are already companions.  As we're seeing this week, humility is all about our ability to shift our mindset to thinking about how a moment is all about me to how a moment is about something bigger than myself.  It is about seeing the privilege in being a part of, as opposed to taking for granted that such moments in life just happen.  To reach such a state of humility, we have to reach outside ourselves, and this is what tiferet, compassion, pulls at us to do.

While we have also been exploring the boundaries in which too much chod can suppress us and can overly diminish our sense of self, today's intersection calls out to us to actively pursue the times in which we are not finding enough humility.  It is our sense of compassion that has the potential to move us out of our self-important bubbles and towards finding greater meaning outside of ourselves in all aspects of our lives.

THE OMER CHALLENGE:

So, today, let's work on our humility.  If we followed through with yesterday's paper-slip challenge (more on that in a bit), we may have found a few places in our lives where we realized that more humility might be a good thing.  Let's pick an area our lives in which we could use an extra dose of humility, and open our hearts to feeling compassion for others.  If we need to do this as a spouse, then spend time listening and openly inviting our partners to share with us, and as we listen try to experience the discussion from their perspective and point of view, and not how it makes us feel.  If we need the humility at work, let's seek out and listen to the ideas of others and genuinely consider what they have to say, seeking to find merit rather than listening just to shut it down.  Wherever we need it, let's work to bring that humble approach to our lives.

OMER REFLECTION: The Paper-slip challenge

I have to admit, I really LOVED the idea to actually put the pieces of paper in each pocket from yesterday.  I had to look at the "dust and ashes" slip a few times just to remind myself that the concept for this experiment was not my own, but based on century-old wisdom passed along to us.  For the most part I followed-through on the exercise, and I absolutely learned a few things about myself and about humility:

1) I think of myself as a humble person.  I don't crave the spotlight unless it is about a bigger cause than myself, I constantly and consciously fight to ensure that what I do is more about values and the needs of those I love and serve rather than my own ego, and I can be genuinely hard on myself.  I had expected to be reaching into the "world for me" pocket more often than the "dust and ashes" reminder.  But the opposite was true.  Maybe this is just what I do all the time to keep my ego in check, but it was an important self-realization.  (In fact, I just reached back into the "dust and ashes" pocket to remind myself that while I am definitely doing self-reflection here for self-growth, this blog space is also for others and I shouldn't just make it about me.)

2) Humility is all about an appropriate balance.  A number of times, I found myself reaching into one pocket, only to then feel the need to reach into the other!  For part of the day yesterday, we were shooting a video for the last day of religious school.  We were dressed in ridiculous costumes, and I figured, if I'm going to embrace the embarrassment and silliness of this moment, I needed the self-confidence "world for me" reminder.  As I did so, I then thought, "But I have to keep in mind that as fun as I'm having while doing this, it's not about me - it's about creating a moment for the kids in the religious school.  So, I reached my other hand in the other pocket and grabbed both slips of paper at the same time.  I found this happening a number of times during the day..  

3) Doing such a concrete, ongoing, accessible activity throughout the day really helped me gain consciousness about my thoughts and actions.  It did so in a wholly unexpected way.  Of course, there were times during the day when I forgot I even had the papers, but then I'd get back on track, and each time I had to decide, it brought a whole different awareness of the moment at hand.  I learned so much from this experience, that I have the papers in my pockets again today, hoping to continue to grow from it all!