To have compassion means to “suffer with” or to be present in the midst of someone else’s suffering. When being compassionate, you work on reducing your judgment while practicing acceptance, mindfulness and kindness, all of which is easier said than done. This beautiful conversation with Sara Schairer delves deep into the practice of compassion; she shares how she not only practiced compassion to heal herself during challenging times in her life, but has built a non-profit so she can spread the value and teachings of compassion to others. Compassion It became an overnight global movement in 2012 and is built on the foundation that compassion is the most important lesson we can teach others and it. Sara has brought these tools and training with big tech, inmates and educators. Our conversation covers all areas from the impact compassion has in our day-to-day lives and as well as how to begin to practice.
About Sara: Sara Schairer is the founder and executive director of Compassion It®, a nonprofit organization and global social movement whose mission is to inspire daily compassionate actions and attitudes. A facilitator of the Compassion Cultivation Training® (CCT) course developed at Stanford University, Sara leads trainings for audiences of all walks of life, from big tech leaders to inmates. She led compassion trainings in Africa sponsored by the Botswana Ministries of Health and Education and spent a week at a Rwandan refugee camp working on unleashing compassion within its healthcare system.
Sara gives talks and leads experiential workshops on everyday compassion, self-compassion, burnout prevention, and mindfulness. She also created the one-of-a-kind reversible Compassion It wristband that prompts compassionate actions on six continents, 50+ countries and all 50 states. Sara is a contributing author to the book The Neuroscience of Learning and Development: Enhancing Creativity, Compassion, Critical Thinking and Peace in Education, and writes for Deepak Chopra’s Center for Wellbeing website.
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