Fear and judgement

Has your behaviour changed? Has the way you feel changed? You might find that you're short-tempered, confrontational and just different from how you usually are. It doesn't help that others seem to be behaving irresponsibly, potentially putting us and those we love at risk.

People are experiencing a sense of loss right now. It could be a loss of freedom, a loss of income, a loss of their way of life or even the loss of someone they love. On top of all this, there's a loss of connection with others, in the way we'd usually connect with each other. We're facing a great deal of uncertainty, and it's understandable that we may feel afraid, whether we acknowledge the feeling or not.

It helps to separate the actions of others from who they are. We may not like the behaviour, but we have no idea what is behind the behaviour. You may notice that condemning others, feeling animosity towards them, doesn't bring us peace. Quite the opposite, in fact. We may start to lose our faith in humanity. This is all the more pronounced when the positive aspects of humanity - warmth, affection, connection - aren't so readily available to us.

What we have left is compassion. If we recognise that behaviours we find difficult to tolerate are almost always a manifestation of inner suffering, we are more able to separate the behaviour from the person. This is also showing compassion for ourselves, because we reduce the damage that fear, hatred and anger may inflict upon our mental and emotional health.