Compassion at work

This is a story that I originally posted on kindspring.org, one year ago. Work takes one third of my weekdays and it is important for me to handle it as a positive moment, useful to everyone. As I started to experience again this feeling during the past days, it came into my mind to share it here :-).

Earlier this week, I made a new experience at work.

In the morning, I asked a colleague whether he was doing well. He started to complain and to comment his day in a negative way. I could feel some dark clouds in his mind and he was about to drag me in his negative thoughts.

But I reacted pretty calmly, pat at his back, took a sheet of paper and wrote at the top of it “ GRATITUDE ”. I drew 3 bullets and asked him to reflect on 3 positive things over the course of his day, and then to come back to me only when he would fill the sheet.

Before he left in the evening, he went to my desk with the sheet, not only with 3, but with 5 positive thoughts on his day. His face totally changed and I felt a clear sky in his mind.

I was really moved. I felt like this small spontaneous act, these 2 minutes of attention I gave in the morning, changed one’s day… for the best!

(comme vous pouvez le voir ci-dessous, ses gratitudes étaient simples. Mais a-t-on vraiment besoin de choses compliquées dans la vie ?…)