NOTE: Today marks the 10th anniversary of Pondercentral.com. A hearty “thanks” to blog consultants Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell of Business Blogging Consultants for suggesting I create this site to allow for easy email delivery of the daily “Ponder on This” messages. Without them, this website might never have come into existence.
“Oftentimes, when people are looking for someone to commiserate with them, they have a vested interest in their suffering. They don’t really want to change, or they’re seeking validation for their problems; they’re looking to keep things the way they are, instead of getting better. They want to continue to receive the money, the medicines, the perks, or the attention that they’ve become accustomed to receiving.
That’s how we can tell the difference between commiseration and compassion. The person who evokes your compassion is truly suffering and looking for a way out of it. The person who wants you to commiserate with them is usually protecting the status quo. To discern which is which, check in with your feelings. Compassion elicits a feeling of love and empathy toward the sufferer, while commiseration leaves you feeling down and asking yourself why you felt you had to add to another’s problems (and your own) by agreeing with them.”
Tony Burroughs, in “The Law of Agreement”
For more information about this book visit Amazon.
Jeff Maziarek, author of Spirituality Simplified and Codi’s Journey, launched Pondercentral.com in April 2007 as a Web-based forum for “PONDER on THIS,” a series of weekday inspirational email messages he began sending to subscribers in March 1999. A FREE service since its inception, “PONDER on THIS” provides subscribers with meaningful content to assist them on their individual paths of spiritual growth. In addition, it benefits subscribers, authors, and publishers by including links to Amazon.com where subscribers can learn more about the book being quoted, and also purchase it.