After chewing on it this morning I think:
Compassion is a wonderful virtue, but it shouldn't be confused with self-sacrifice. Compassion being the generosity and selflessness that allows you to lend your best friend your entertainment money that you know you may never get back, and self-sacrifice meaning being blind to your "self" and needs in order to lend her your rent/food money.
You have a responsibility to nourish and care for your own psyche in order to remain a healthy being. Not only is self-sacrifice harmful to your overall progress through life, it can damage your psychic health through these potential two pitfalls:
- If you're sacrificing for other people you might be of the mindset that you are entitled to the same in return. Self-Sacrifice is an extreme trait that you may never find in any of your relationships. No matter how grateful or generous people may be in return, the only match for self-sacrifice is self-sacrifice and this imbalance can be a strain on relationships. What's more, self sacrifice is an unreasonable expectation, and people fall consistently short of unreasonable expectations, this constant disappointment can be damaging to your sense of self-worth.
- You may be self sacrificing and not expecting anything in return. Not even the bare minimum, if you're prostrating yourself to meet other people's needs, and not expecting even the bare minimum in return you're diminishing your worth and esteem of yourself. I'm not advocating only doing for who will do for you, but while it's important to be generous and selfless it's also important to your psyche to understand that you're worthy of the same support and generosity you dish out.
