Within every one of us is the ability to connect energetically with other people. It's a feeling that cannot be seen or touched. Yet we have a way to verify invisible things by utilizing a faculty as powerful and reliable as the five senses of consciousness. We are emotionally touched by each other's stories. When we are touched in this way, we access compassion. Compassion is our truest nature and our purest connection to one another.

Excerpt from The Power of Compassion: 7 Ways You Can Make A Difference

What we as a society often do is much like what Miss Thompson did initially in the Teddy Stallard story - www.MakeADifferenceMovie.com - we put big attitudinal red F's on unsatisfactory levels of productivity and unskilled behaviors - treating not only children and adolescents with disdain and skepticism - but also the adults we live and work with, as if that is what will control them into behaving better.

What we all have the capacity within us to do, however, is to seek understanding first. It is through understanding that we can access that compassionate place within ourselves to reach out and let people know that they matter.

This is a pivotal moment in the story, when Miss Thompson goes to the student files to find out just what has happened to this disconnected child. To understand, we must make it a practice to investigate first before we make a decision about how best to proceed.

If we seek to understand others, a natural path opens up and can bring about alignment -even between polar opposites. When we attempt to understand an alternative viewpoint, there is a shift in our thought process and we are more willing to listen and perceive what someone else is trying to communicate.

This kind of connection is about more than simple acknowledgment; it's about the necessity of reaching out daily to be emotionally available, through compassionate understanding, to the individuals in our lives, regardless of who they are or what they've done. You can make a difference in how well individuals are able to function, both at home and out in the world, by the kind of understanding - followed by skill development - you decide to give them.

Suspicion, skepticism, anger, minimizing or abandoning never produce positive, productive results. When you remain consistent in offering an understanding connection in a positive and behavior-affirming way, it becomes a "conscious" act that offers profound healing to a situation. It is from a place of understanding, that you can effectively move forward into skill development that is needed to regulate and ultimately dissolve a problematic situation. This, coupled with a decision to simply slow down and energetically connect with individuals, will create alignment that generates the long-term solutions you seek.

The next time you hear yourself say, "But this person is impossible to deal with," simply stop and take thirty seconds to consider what it's like to live in their shoes and more importantly, what it's like trying to communicate with you!

An unconditional, heart-felt connection never causes harm to one's self or to others. Very simply put, authentic connection is a sense of something greater than the self. Connecting with compassion creates a ripple effect that changes attitudes, reinforces the positive, and can have an impact far greater than we realize. A psychological sense of connection is a feeling of union and transcendence, motivated by compassion, awe, peace or joy. This is all about bringing the intention of compassion into our conscious experience every day.

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