Michael Stone of the Centre of Gravity Yoga Centre in Toronto (CentreofGravity.org) shares bountiful wisdom in this lecture that transcends yoga, buddhism and all labels and relates directly to the mission of the kindred spirits project and all animal lovers. He shares about the essence of how we can be of benefit to others in the most joyful way. Michael shares essential truths about how we can create more compassionate societies one by one. He also talks about many of the pitfalls of service such as burn out, vital exhaustion, empathy fatigue, pathological altruism, vicarious trauma, moral distress and systematic distress. I gained many insights from this lecture regarding burnout and compassion fatigue in animal lovers who volunteer or work in humane societies, animal shelters, rescue shelters as well as in animal hospitals or wherever there are animals suffering and in pain. I also gained another unique perspective on my own “burnout” and “compassion fatigue” as a veterinarian focusing on helping animals that did not respond to conventional western medicine, always exploring new approaches to “help” as well as “serve”. Watch this lecture, “Taking Care of Ourselves, Taking Care of the World” and see how it resonates with you. For those of you who are not familiar with all the language that Michael uses, he actually explains the terminology quite well. Please share your thoughts, insights and perspectives on how this might relate to yourself or other animal lovers and how it may benefit the way we of service to our kindred spirits. I so look forward to hearing from you regarding these beneficial perspectives. In the next few posts, we will explore some of the terminology he discusses.