How to deal with the world’s suffering

From Lissa Rankin, MD:

” I think about what spiritual teacher and collective trauma healer Thomas Hubl says about watching the news. When a student of his asked how to handle feeling overwhelmed by all the bad news in the media, he said it depended on whether we were capable of responding to the suffering of others with compassion- or not. If we are numb and unfeeling, then reading the news from a cold, detached place is like a voyeur goose-necking while passing a car crash, he said. If numb detachment is all you can muster, avoid gawking and give the people who are suffering their privacy. But if someone else’s suffering evokes genuine compassion, if you can feel their pain and respond to their suffering in ways that are helpful, even if you are only offering your prayers, then yes, he said, engage with the suffering of the world.

Right now our brother and sisters are suffering in Beirut, and many others are suffering as well. Can we be what Thomas calls “response-able”- able to respond- to this much suffering in the world? When we feel so helpless to ease the suffering of our global brothers and sisters- or even the brothers and sisters in our own backyards- can we at least let ourselves feel it so we are penetrated by it in ways that evoke our compassion?

I find that sometimes I am resourced to feel, be present, and respond. Other times, I am already flooded with my own suffering and the suffering of those up close to me. Letting go of trying to get it right, can we respond to others with our compassion when we are response-able and offer ourselves compassion when are maxed out and numb?”