Kelsey Crowe

“If we really want to have authentic connections with others, then we need to talk about two kinds of psychological baggage we tend to carry around, which make us completely self-conscious about our capacity to connect with people: (1) guilt about how we’ve let others down, and (2) resentment about being let down by others in the past.”
― Kelsey Crowe, There Is No Good Card for This: What To Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love

“We consider compassion to be the heart’s natural, instinctive response to the pain of others. It’s most likely to occur when you encounter a person in a difficult situation very similar to one you have suffered. You know what it felt like when your husband left you, so you naturally feel compassion for your coworker when the same thing happens to her. Empathy is when you use your imagination to expand your ability to feel compassion for people in situations beyond those you have experienced, maybe even in situations completely different from those you have known. It’s a useful mental tool for developing more compassion.”
― Kelsey Crowe, There Is No Good Card for This: What To Say and Do When Life Is Scary, Awful, and Unfair to People You Love