Compassion
A day at Designs in Mind
Notice
who is coming in
how they are feeling
if they want a chair
if they need to laugh
if they need to cry
Understand
people might need to be quiet
people might need a ‘job’
people might need a hug
people might need a challenge
Accept
we all need to be appreciated
we might be very bad at accepting love
we might be very bad at receiving praise
that all of us need it
Encourage
others to believe they can help themselves
others to believe that you will support them
others to surprise themselves
others to excel
Everyone who walks in to our studio on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday says ‘there is something different about this place’ and all our members wish it was something we could bottle and share. There is a hive of activity, it’s busy but it’s the way we work that people want to be part of, or take with them. From how people describe ‘it’ I think it has something to do with compassion.
A visiting artist described it as warmth, wit and wonderment
A local Councillor described it as kindness and love
A local buyer who commissioned a product described it as human
We’re participating in the Working Conference on Compassion hosted by the Centre for Psychological Therapies in Primary Care at the Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury in October. We can’t wait. We’ll be facilitating a workshop that is practical, mixed with discussion and presentation. We will include work that has been specially made for the event by members of Designs in Mind and we will get the participants from the conference to add to this piece of work.
The conference aims to look at the relevance of compassion in today’s world, share ideas and learning around compassion, to debate and build bridges, to identify questions that require exploration and to form new alliances with leading experts and thinkers in the field of compassion.
Karen Armstrong is the keynote speaker- watch her TED Talk here
