"If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete." - Jack Kornfield
This week is hard for many of us. Some, because they can't be with the family they love due to work or the pandemic. Some, because they don't have family they are close with, and wish they had loved ones to spend the holidays with.
But in healthcare, it is hard for other reasons. This week, we have to tell family members that their loved ones have died on a day normally reserved for giving thanks. We have to tell families that their loved ones won't be there for Christmas or Hanukkah.
We will spend so much emotional energy comforting loved ones who miss us, sick and dying patients, and grieving family members, it can be easy to forget ourselves. But it's hard to fully have compassion for others without having compassion for ourselves too.
