“If you’re forgetting the basic fundamentals of how we can be here together, that’s not optimization — it’s an illusion.” - Elijah Zimmerman

Elijah Zimmerman is an interfaith minister, nonprofit leader, and PhD in communication whose work lives right at the intersection of compassion, transformation, and leadership. As executive director of the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, he helps people and organizations use compassion as a real, practical tool for meeting change, whether that means leading through uncertainty, making space for discomfort, or calling a pause when things get tense.

We talk about why compassion is more than a feeling, how it can act as a quiet form of resistance to the culture of optimization, and what it looks like to bring a little more breath, pause, and presence into how we work together.

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Chapters

• (00:00:06) - Flying the Coop: Exploring Compassion
• (00:01:12) - What is the Difference Between Compassion and Empathy?
• (00:08:09) - Blue Jays' Captain on the World Series
• (00:09:29) - The Need for Self-Compassion in Work
• (00:13:00) - Ideas for a More Just World
• (00:18:00) - Self-Compassion and Its Myths
• (00:18:47) - Self-Compassion and Common Humanity
• (00:20:50) - Compassion as a Catalyst
• (00:24:03) - What Does Compassion Look Like in a Team?
• (00:30:00) - Non-Binary Business Structures
• (00:35:13) - Queer perspectives on the business
• (00:38:57) - Flying The Coop: The Need for Compassion in Work