Conversations in Compassion

Early trauma can cause fear to become our first thought because we are afraid of getting hurt again and may feel that we don’t matter. Can we find the compassion and courage to focus on the memories and voices of those who believed in us more than on our fear, and anger, and negative self-talk?

A world-class athlete is struck down by injury due to an unknown genetic condition triggered early by the effects of childhood trauma. After a decade of missed diagnoses, abusive treatment, judgment, and self-doubt, she learns to harness her own tenacious determination to accept and have empathy for her body, herself, and others with struggles of their own.

How do we handle the shame that seems to keep derailing our own personal journey toward wellness? Every time we take a positive step forward, or sometimes even when we just contemplate taking that step, shame arises and we often retreat into our learned avoidance behavior: isolation, overeating, substance misuse, distracting ourselves with work, shopping, or other activity. Can we learn to sit with that sense of shame, share it with others, listen as they share their own? In that shared experience we can shift our shame to gratitude and allow ourselves to move toward wellness and embrace others on their journey.

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the inequities experienced by many in our community. Access to the great equalizer that is public education is no longer a matter of heading down to the local school in the morning, but of technology and resources that are not always readily available to all. Even when access can be arranged, the lack of relationships fostered in the local school community can lead vulnerable students to remain silent and invisible.

The stories in our own head around shame can become so unbearable that it leads to avoidance; of family, of friends, of our own better self through addiction. Someone who can quietly listen to that story with empathy can allow us a path back. Exposing our vulnerable self to others and letting them do the same with us can be the hardest, but most valuable service we can perform.

Trauma, anxiety, shame. Sitting with ourselves when we couldn't imagine anyone wanting to. Sitting with someone who is in the midst of that struggle.

A brilliant young woman talks about the process of opening up to her own emotion life. Coming to terms with her childhood traumas, issues with alcohol, and motherhood lead her to examine her way of living and to consider breaking open to her long buried emotions.

Stephen talks with an old friend, Rodney Mashia. A Black man who grew up in the rural South in the fifties and sixties, Rodney reflects on his journey and his renewed desire to share his voice and his story.