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Inner compassion is the foundation for how you treat yourself and everyone else. It’s how your energy enters a room and is felt before you say a word. In this podcast episode, Meg Reilly talks about extending the same kindness to yourself that you’d offer a good friend.
Building Inner Compassion
The podcast interview started even though I forgot hit record. When we finished, my heart sank as I realized that mistake meant there was no recording. We had to start over.
My first reaction was to feel embarrassed and unprofessional. What a dumb thing to do. With sadness in my voice, I told Meg what happened. We laughed a bit uncomfortably. Then I asked if she had time to do the interview again. She did – phew and on we went.
How interesting that our conversation was about compassion and that the best place to start is with yourself. Meg asked something that made me stop and think. If a good friend made that same mistake, would I give them a hard time about it or be kind and supportive? Most people do not treat themselves as well as they treat dear friends.
Treat Yourself Like You’d Treat Your Best Friend
Meg’s coaching and writing focus on helping people live with more inner compassion. She has a simple way to check for it. When you make a mistake, stop and ask yourself what you’d say to a friend who did that same thing. You wouldn’t call her names or rehash the mistake for the next several hour, right? No, you’d say, “It’s okay. What should we do now?”
That’s the kindness you owe yourself too. Meg admits this doesn’t always happen automatically. It takes practice. Building inner compassion is a lot like building muscle at the gym because it requires regular practice.
Compassion Can Be Just Showing Up
Not every kind of compassion involves fixing something. Meg spent time working in hospice care, simply sitting with patients who were unconscious or close to death. There was no problem to solve and nothing to say. She offered her calm presence and sometimes held a hand.
This kind of compassion doesn’t look like much when viewed from the outside, but it is felt. People who’ve had near-death experiences describe being aware of who was in the room with them. Being there IS the act of compassion.
Your Energy Enters the Room Before You Do
Meg described what happens when she walks into a room full of strangers. She can immediately sense who’s happy and who’s miserable even if no words are exchanged or no physical contact is made because the energy is there.
This is where the idea of self-compassion can often be underestimated. When you’re kind to yourself, that energy ripples out into how you treat everyone around you. And it continues rippling from there, like that proverbial pebble dropped in a pond.
I talked about my friend MarBeth Dunn whose message is that world peace starts with inner peace. We also talked about how each of us is a single drop in the ocean and the entire ocean at the very same time. That always amazes me and now I see the connection to inner compassion from this perspective.
Small Actions Create Big Ripples
When our conversation turned to big global problems like climate change, it’s easy to feel like nothing you do personally can make a difference. Meg brought up the phrase, “Think globally, act locally.”
The truth is that skipping paper towels, driving electric or hybrid cars, and recycling are small choices that actually can add up and make an impact.
I shared a story you may have heard before about working with two friends using an energy clearing practice to help heal the oceans. This seemed rather grandiose to me, but I went along with it and did my part for the 90 minutes we worked together.
Partway through, I got an intuitive message from a male figure resembling Poseidon (maybe it was the trident he was holding LOL), thanking us for our efforts. He let me know that even three people can really make a difference. My takeaway was that consistent, intentional energy matters, even if you’re a small group or just one person.
Choose Your Words Wisely
Your words and actions leave a bigger impact than you might think. Unkind comments tend to stick with you far longer and more vividly than kind words ever do. Meg says this is exactly why it’s worth slowing down with your language.
Since you don’t know how your words will land and be remembered, she recommends that you be more conscious about what you say. True for words about yourself as well, which is why more inner compassion is needed.
Inside The Echoes Deck
Then, I asked Meg about her new oracle cards called the Echoes Deck. Meg’s original 48-card oracle tool was created for personal inquiry, insight, and self-guidance. Most oracle decks feature a theme like angels, animal guides, or essential oils.
Meg’s deck has four realms: the external, the internal, the eternal (which covers body, mind, and spirit). But there’s a fourth realm called Echoes, that represents the energy you put out into the world and what comes back to you (just like an echo).
Each realm holds twelve cards and features a hand-drawn mandala. You might notice patterns in the layout such as repeating numbers, recurring imagery, or a particular realm that shows up repetitively. This is the same way a tarot reader might look at the suits and major arcana.
Why Compassionate Energy Spirals Upward
When you recognize your own humanity, which means your mistakes, hard-won lessons, and moments of sorrow, that’s what makes it possible to extend real compassion to someone else.
Once you offer it outward, people start to experience you as a genuinely compassionate person. That perception reinforces the whole cycle and causes the energy to spiral upward.
In contrast, you can walk into a room and feel whose energy is spiraling down just as easily as you can feel who’s happy. Choosing to meet that with compassion, rather than getting pulled down along with it, takes practice, but it is learnable.
Set Your Radar to See Good in the World
We discussed how so many spiritually minded people are saying how everything is “crumbling”. But language shapes energy too and those words can lower your vibration and the energy around you. On the other hand, if you reframe this as “things are shifting,” that keeps you oriented toward what’s possible rather than on what’s collapsing.
I shared a mantra I borrowed from a friend at the start of 2025: “I am open to the possibility of positive outcomes.” This idea has helped me through so many downward news cycles! What I find helps is to set my internal radar to notice the positive. And that helped me see the good things in my life and the world.
The Choice That’s Always Available
Uncertainty and worry can’t be eliminated from being human. However, in any given moment, you can choose compassion. Offer a kinder response, toward yourself and others around you.
These small, conscious shifts are what end up shaping how happy you actually are, and that positivity ripples out into the world around you. It really starts that simply with one compassionate choice at a time.
Where Does the Compassion Begin?
Inner compassion is a practice, not a personality trait. Treat yourself the way you’d treat your best friend on her worst day.- Presence alone counts as compassion, even when there’s nothing to fix or say.
- Your energy is felt by others before you say a word, so how you treat yourself shapes who you appear to be to everyone else.
- Small, consistent actions, energetic or practical, genuinely add up, even when facing enormous problems.
Words leave an impact whether you intend them to or not, so choose them with that in mind. - Reframe words like “crumbling” to something more positive like “shifting.” This small change in language repositions what you notice and experience.
BIO- Meg Reilly
Meg Reilly counsels people to live with compassion for themselves and for others. She leads a weekly meditative, contemplative practice called Lectio 360. She’s also the creator of a new set of oracle cards called, The Echoes Deck.
Meg writes a weekly post on compassion available on her social media and in her email newsletter. She served for 20 years as a wellness counselor to campers, counselors and admin staff at Camp AmeriKids, a week-long camp for kids with sickle cell anemia and other medical challenges.
She has a Masters in Counseling and is a Certified Hypnotist.
Website & Social Media
Website: https://MegReilly360.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063472415054#
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-reilly-375254140/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/megreilly360/
FAQs
What is self-compassion, according to Meg Reilly? Meg defines self-compassion as treating yourself the way you’d treat a close friend who made the same mistake. Offer grace and curiosity about what to do next, rather than criticism. She frames it as a daily practice, not a fixed trait, comparing it to strengthening a muscle at the gym.
What is The Echoes Deck? Meg Reilly created The Echoes Deck, a 48-card oracle deck organized into four suits or realms including the external, internal, eternal, and Echoes. Every realm has 12 cards with hand-drawn mandalas cards, designed for personal insight and guidance.
How does self-compassion affect the people around us? Meg describes energy as contagious. The kindness or harshness you direct at yourself shapes the energy you bring into a room. Other people sense and respond to this. Practicing self-compassion ripples outward into how you treat everyone else.
Can small individual actions really make a difference against big problems like climate change? Yes, according to Meg. She points to the familiar phrase, “Think globally, act locally,” meaning that recycling, driving electric, buying in bulk are proof that consistent small actions add up, even when a problem feels too large for one person to affect.
Why does Meg say compassion “spirals upward”? Once you extend compassion outward, others begin to perceive and treat you as a compassionate person, which reinforces the pattern and strengthens it over time. This creates an upward spiral of energy, lifting the vibration for yourself and everyone around you.
This Is Your Invitation
If you have questions you might ask of an oracle deck, there’s another way to go. Check out the Intuition Café which is open the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month at 10am ET on zoom. Bring a metaphysical question and your morning cuppa, and I’ll answer as many questions from the group as I can. Ask about intuition, past lives, angels, divination, animal or plant communication, fairies, energy healing, and more. Just $11 a session.
Learn more about the Intuition Cafe