Karmic Muscle Group: Compassion and Relatedness
Today’s Exercise: Empower A Clerk
- Go to a grocery store and check out with a real cashier.
- Ask the clerk how their day is going. Be prepared for a brush-off answer. Then say, “No, really, how are you holding up? Are people treating you well today?” Be prepared for a shock. Thank them for taking care of you and for the job that they do. Let them feel that you like them.
- You can substitute a customer service representative on the phone with a big company for this exercise.
- Spend 1 full minute meditating on the abuse that these service people endure and how it hurts them to be treated like non-humans. [hr]
Training Note:
People abuse clerks. They think it does not matter, but it does. The harm that a clerk endures by being yelled at and abused is real harm, over what, a toaster? When a clerk has been harmed they tend to be cold or mean to the next ten people they deal with. It is a gift that keeps on giving. This exercise cuts off the chain of harm and reverses it. It also serves to make us aware of the harm we do to others when we do not pay attention.[hr]
Karmic Benefits:
- Heal the harm: a tiny act of acknowledging humanity can erase a lot of harm. It gives people energy that they then share with the next 10 people in line.
- Plant the seed of benefit: a simple act of kindness puts compassion on the mind of the recipient.
- Give the gift that keeps on giving: they then come from that compassion instead of the nastiness that a more thoughtless person left behind. This state of mind transfers from person to person as the day progresses.
- You come to know yourself as an antidote to indifference and harm. It is a real transformative power.[hr]
Share Your Experience:
Leave a comment when you have completed the exercise.
