WOWWBLOG #72: The Inner Work of Outer Change: What 8 Weeks of Compassion Training Taught Me About Transforming Systems
How the CCT, the IDG TWG, and a daily practice of loving-kindness revealed that we cannot fix the world without first tending to the heart
WHAT: The Invitation to Begin Again
For the last eight weeks, six of my IDG co-volunteers and I trained in Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) with Mark McMordie of the Compassion Institute. We come from different backgrounds and disciplines, but we share a common purpose: to co-create a better world and sustain it.
This training emerged in the context of our work with the IDG Transition Working Group (TWG) . As the Inner Development Goals (IDG) movement transitions from a centralized foundation-led model to a decentralized, distributed global ecosystem, we volunteers found ourselves transitioning, too.
It was exhilarating and exhausting. We had to make sense of our roles, co-create simple rules, and mirror the very change we sought to facilitate. We navigated ambiguity, time zone differences (meetings at 8–10 PM Manila time), and my own voice disorder (ADSD), which left me voiceless for weeks.
I joined the TWG in January 2026. I did not think twice about CCT. Even as I have practiced contemplative and mindfulness meditation for decades, I felt I needed to "begin again."
SO WHAT: A Fractal of Change
In the process of transitioning the IDG, we found ourselves transitioning our own assumptions, behaviors, and ways of relating. This is not "change management"—an oxymoron, as we can never truly manage change. It is change navigation—a fractal of the larger transition happening in the world.
As I reflected on my CCT experience, I asked myself: Has cultivating compassion changed the conditions under which the IDG living human system can transform itself?
1. Self: How am I showing up differently?
After decades of practice, CCT deepened rather than fundamentally changed my experience. I notice greater ease in being present, listening without needing to respond, and holding differences without immediately resolving them. Decades of practice do not make me immune to reactivity. Every moment remains an invitation to begin again.
2. Relationship: What has changed in how we listen, relate, and repair?
My daily practice (2x daily, plus at least two 5-10 day silent retreats per year) has prepared me to be more fully present and patient. It allows me to dance in the moment, actively listen as a Coach and Group Process Facilitator, and in all my roles be truly other-centered. The connection and relatedness is what makes me see even the worst behaviors a person shows up with differently. Just like you and me, they too have their ups and downs.
3. Team: What patterns are shifting within the TWG?
Since January 2026, I have observed a shift from cautious participation toward more spontaneous exchanges, deeper trust, and collective sensemaking. The difference that made the difference is how we related: from respectful harmony-seeking or awkward silence to more skillful ways of sense-making and courage to name what is observed. Even when I sensed impatience and trust issues, we somehow set conditions for safer space. That felt like coming home.
4. System: Are we mirroring the system we hope IDG will become?
Each arriving, each leaving, each word said or unsaid reflects the reality we bring to every interaction. The TWG, IDG is not out there. I am it. We humans cannot be "fixed." We can only be aware of the space between perceived stimulus and how we choose skillfully and wisely our next thought, word, and action. Yet by default, we might still hold patterns of "fixing others."
5. Emergence: What possibilities are becoming available?
Our connections have increased ten-fold, across disciplines, organizations, and geographies. I am able to draw from others' experiences. I remain connected via WhatsApp and the platform Sutra with all TWG and other IDG members and know I can freely drop a text or voice note anytime. We bring our IDG ways to our families, friends, colleagues, and clients. They sense a palpable change in how we engage with greater presence.
NOW WHAT: The Answer Is Not "Managing" Change
We can never really "manage" change. We can only co-create conditions for emergence. The same is true for compassion: we cannot "manage" compassion. We can only cultivate it.
Here is what I have learned:
1. Practice Daily, Not Perfectly.
· Action: Commit to 20 minutes of guided compassion practice daily. Not to achieve a state, but to return, again and again, to the intention to be kind.
· Why: The benefits of contemplative practice are dose-dependent. Consistency matters more than intensity.
2. Begin Again, Every Moment.
· Action: When you notice reactivity, impatience, or judgment, pause. Whisper: "Begin again." Return to the breath. Return to the intention.
· Why: We are not fixing ourselves. We are practicing.
3. Hold Both Grief and Gratitude.
· Action: Acknowledge what is hard—the systemic suffering, the entrenched patterns, the exhaustion. Then ask: "What is also true? What is beautiful? What is emerging?"
· Why: Compassion is not just feeling others' pain. It is also the willingness to see possibility through wise action.
4. Let Your Practice Ripple Outward.
· Action: Bring the IDG ways—presence, listening, suspending judgment—into your family, your work, your community. Notice how others respond.
· Why: We are part of the larger ecosystem. Our inner work shapes the outer world.
5. Ask: What Are We Not Seeing?
· Action: In your team or community, ask: "Whose voices are missing? What assumptions are shaping what we see and don't see?"
· Why: True compassion requires the courage to challenge the conditions that create suffering.
I close with the words of my own reflection:
"After decades of contemplative practice, CCT has deepened rather than fundamentally changed my experience of compassion. I notice greater ease in being present, listening without needing to respond, and holding differences without immediately resolving them. Every moment remains an invitation to begin again."
The world does not need more people who manage change. It needs more people who cultivate presence, calm, compassion, and courage.
That is the work. That is the practice. That is the path.
Every moment remains an invitation to begin again. With Metta🙏
🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
-Susan Grace Rivera
Posted by: October 18, 2026
