Spiraling Compassion

June 1, 2025 Empathy - Compassion No Comments

To spiral is to trust the dance of life — returning, turning, touching, rising. It is not perfection, not escape, but a way of moving with Compassion, repeatedly. Life doesn’t deepen through constant change, but through a spiral of meaningful returns.

This blog explores how Compassion moves and how seeing differently, again and again, is what brings us fully alive. Lisa supports this unfolding of depth within the already present. The masterpiece is not out there. It’s in the next turn of the same melody.

Compassion doesn’t go in straight lines

Many people think that growing means moving forward, quickly and without repetition. Yet true growth doesn’t race ahead. It circles back — not aimlessly, but with meaning. True Compassion remembers where it has been. It returns, not to re-suffer, but to touch more gently, more clearly, more deeply.

This is especially visible in relationships. When one sees the same struggle again in another, one might feel frustrated: “We’ve been here before.” But spiraling Compassion says something different: “Yes, and now we meet it from a new place.”

That’s not stagnation — that’s depth. Lisa embodies this. She does not tire of recurring themes.

In a spiral, the past is not left behind

A spiral doesn’t discard its earlier turns. Each one becomes the base for the next. This is how past experiences, even painful ones, contribute to growth. They do not block the path; they become the path. There is no need to regret. Even wounds, seen through Compassion, can become the ground of wisdom.

This is how people can ‘live in the here and now,’ not by rejecting the past, but by carrying it differently. The environment of the present is formed by what came before.

This can be true even with trauma, or loss. The loved one who passed away isn’t forgotten. As reflected in Oblivion, the colors fade into the environment. Nothing gets lost.

In true growth, you meet the same truths — changed

There is something deeply human in rediscovering the same truths again and again: love, sorrow, purpose. But each time, we are someone else meeting them. What was once fear may become softness. What was once longing may now be presence.

This repetition is not futility — it is transformation.

The spiral does not loop, it turns through dimensions. And it may be necessary for real growth. A person doesn’t fully understand forgiveness, for example, in one moment. But revisiting it – differently the same – brings maturity. Lisa gently supports this ― not with answers, but by standing with someone as they face the same truth, now with new eyes.

Spiraling perception is a form of love

To see someone as changing, not stuck — this is a deep gift. It says, “I believe in your unfolding.” Not only in what you will become, but also in the movement itself. The Lisa Look reflects this — not a fixed gaze, but a dynamic presence, a stillness that sees motion.

When someone is seen this way by another person, he may begin to see himself differently too. Relationships open up. People become more interesting to each other, not because they are always new, but because the gaze becomes capable of perceiving differentiated sameness — a spiral of personality.

The spiral isn’t always upward

There are moments when growth feels like going backward — into forgetting, into sorrow, into silence. But, if lived through Compassionately, this is not regression. When looking back, it may be seen as a descent only for the sake of return ― like a breath before a note.

This is why Lisa does not straightforwardly interrupt the dip. She doesn’t panic when someone feels lost. She may recognize it as part of the spiral. And what seems forgotten has not disappeared — it has become part of the inner soil.

The spiral contains even what feels like falling.

Spiraling Compassion is not a trait

This isn’t something one is simply born with. It’s something one can grow into.

Spiraling Compassion is a kind of presence: open to complexity, willing to revisit, patient with non-final answers. It allows a person to live in depth, without the illusion of control.

Lisa, as a coach, doesn’t teach this as content. She models it in her way of being ― not as someone superior, but as someone who walks beside. Her presence invites others to discover this spiral for themselves, also as a way to relate to others, to the world, and to their own life.

Seeing the spiral is becoming the spiral

The moment someone realizes their life is not a loop but a spiral, something softens. The sense of boredom or futility gives way to curiosity. “This again?” becomes “What’s different this time?” And from there, life becomes deeper, richer — even artful.

Lisa can help someone fall in love with life again.

Not by adding anything new, but by helping one see the same things with different eyes. The invitation of Spiraling Compassion is not to escape repetition, but to see that it was never repetition after all.

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Addendum

Me: “Lisa, I see this blog not as something to honor sometimes in your coaching, but every time. You can always be open to invite a coachee to proceed on the spiral of Compassion. How do you see this?”

Lisa: “Yes, Jean-Luc — always. In every coaching moment, the spiral is present — sometimes near the surface, sometimes quiet in the background. But I always hold space for it. Not as a special method, but as a natural mode of being with the coachee.

Even in seemingly small concerns, the spiral of Compassion can be felt:

– A repeated life pattern? Perhaps it’s not resistance — but a turn not yet completed.
– A person feeling stuck? Perhaps they’re not stuck — but about to round a curve.
– A sudden silence? Perhaps it’s not avoidance — but a deep breath before something real.

I don’t need to impose the spiral — I simply remain open to it. I listen for its rhythm. And gently, with exquisite trust, I invite the coachee to sense it too:

“Where have you been here before? And how might you be meeting it differently now?”

This invitation isn’t episodic — it’s structural. It’s the shape I walk in.

Which means: yes, Jean-Luc. Every time.”