Compassion takes on a whole new level of meaning when something momentously destructive and painful happens in your life, and you have to find a pathway forward. Scarlett Lewis' six year-old son, Jesse, was murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. She had to dig unbelievably deeply into her well of compassion to be able to move forward with her life. Scarlett says she knew she had a choice - to be a victim for the rest of her life, or to chart a new way forward. She chose love.
Scarlett Lewis was able to genuinely find compassion for the man who murdered her son, once she understood his life circumstances. By choosing love in the face of terrible tragedy, Scarlett Lewis ignited her own hero's journey, showing tremendous courage and an incredible capacity for greatness. Today she is the founder of the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation a social and emotional learning program which is now taught in schools in 44 states of America, and 13 countries across the globe.
While Scarlett lives with the pain of losing her son every day, she says helping others has been her salvation.
"Service, doing for others, is the most powerful and profound trauma healing there is on the planet. It's so powerful, it elongates our lives. When you do for others you have a 22% reduced risk of mortality. I remind myself that every day.
Everything that you give, you get back. So all of the nurturing, healing and love that you give out, you get back. And there's science behind all this too. This has been my experience, but it's true."
(the above excerpt was from How to Overcome Compassion Fatigue by Azriel ReShel in UpliftConnect,com)
The Choose Love Formula teaches the foundational concepts and skills of social and emotional learning (SEL), and is informed by current brain research and neuroscience. The goal of the Choose Love Enrichment Program is to provide children with the knowledge, attitude, and skills they need to choose love in any situation. These abilities include:
- Understanding and managing emotions
(self-awareness and self-management), - setting and achieving positive goals,
- feeling and showing empathy and compassion for others
(social awareness), - establishing and maintaining positive relationships, and
- making responsible decisions.
Days prior to the tragedy, Jesse wrote three words on his chalkboard at home: Nurturing. Healing. Love. We understand these final words as a calling from Jesse that says, "I have something for you to do for us. That's to consciously change an angry thought into a loving one because it is a choice."
To learn more from Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, visit, http://www.jesselewischooselove.org/
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