{"id":1122,"date":"2012-10-15T15:43:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T19:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2012-10-15T18:23:08","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T22:23:08","slug":"the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion – RIP Amanda Todd"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Musician, Demi Lovato’s write tattoos give hope and strength to many bullied teens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEveryday I think why am I still here?\u201d<\/p>\n

That’s just one of many thoughts 15 year old Amanda Todd wrote on plain white note cards, as she shared the hell that she had been enduring \u00a0via a YouTube video a month before she took her own life.<\/p>\n

To say that I am sad and sickened by the death of 15 year old Amanda Todd, from Vancouver, British Columbia is an understatement.<\/p>\n

If you haven’t heard about this story, Amanda made some really bad choices and as a result the kids in her life were relentless, cruel, ugly and brutal. \u00a0For two years, after making her first documented bad decision to flash her breasts on a web-cam, she endured physical, emotional and mental bullying that followed her from school to school and even to another city.<\/p>\n

What is worse, people continue to comment on all the\u00a0multitude\u00a0of videos shared, blogs written and facebook discussions that Amanda was a ‘skank’, that she got what she deserved, that she was stupid, that she was a whore.<\/p>\n

How have we gotten so lost that we lack compassion? How can our reaction to another person’s hurt be to beat them down even more, to add insult to injury, to blame and humiliate, rather than embrace them or protect them? How can we feel justified? How can we not feel her pain?<\/p>\n

I’m reminded of the The Lord of The Flies in which author William Goldberg explores\u00a0the fundamental human struggle between civility and savage instinct. \u00a0I can’t stress it enough that children need guidance, boundaries and healthy role models, without them, the human savage instinct can easily take hold.<\/p>\n

We can point the finger at reality TV, at music, at celebrity life styles, but these things are the symptom. \u00a0Today’s kids are falling through the cracks. They are thrust into an adult world without the emotional and mental capacity to navigate, and worse, there is no room for mistakes as they try to figure out who they are. Any mistake can rapidly be shared not only with one’s immediate peers, but with strangers around the world.<\/p>\n

As the adults, we have to step in and address hurtful language, questionable behavior; we have to help instill civility over savage instinct, whether we hear it or see it in our own children or in their friends. We cannot pretend like it doesn’t matter. We cannot say ‘kids will be kids.’<\/p>\n

I also keep thinking of the book ‘The Tipping Point’ \u00a0which talks about behavior and trends as infectious. \u00a0We are in an infectious bullying trend, it keeps growing and growing and we have to find a positive antidote to tip it, to make it stop.<\/p>\n

The world is different today and we all, parents, teachers, friends need to be instilling the importance of human value, that emotional connection.<\/p>\n

Years ago Amanda Todd could have been me. I made a lot of bad choices when I was a teenager as I was trying to figure out who I was. Maybe she could have been you too, or your friend or your child.<\/p>\n

We need to be examples of compassion, of understanding and of support and we need to be present in our children’s lives each and every day. We cannot leave the molding of who them become up to television, music, video games and their peers.<\/p>\n

Below is Amanda’s video from a month ago. I urge you to watch it and to remember that she is 15 \u00a0years old.<\/p>\n

I do not understand how anyone could respond to this with more vile words and taunting, yet that is exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

I am so saddened by this.<\/p>\n

I ask that we all find, teach and share compassion, understanding, respect, love and support.<\/p>\n

I can only hope that Amanda Todd’s story and her death will act as a catalyst.<\/p>\n

To stop bullying \u00a0and hate, the change must first come from within and we must help children find that spark of compassion that will bring an end to this\u00a0disturbing\u00a0and\u00a0debilitating\u00a0epidemic of feeling empowered by\u00a0diminishing\u00a0another.<\/p>\n

RIP Amanda Todd<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEveryday I think why am I still here?\u201d That’s just one of many thoughts 15 year old Amanda Todd wrote on plain white note cards, as she shared the hell that she had been enduring \u00a0via a YouTube video a month before she took her own life. To say that I am sad and sickened…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,11,451,3],"tags":[452,525,9,453,454,358,25,455],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bullying","category-conscious-parenting-2","category-current-affairs","category-life-as-a-conscious-mom","tag-amanda-todd","tag-bullying","tag-christine-agro","tag-compassion","tag-lord-of-the-flies","tag-the-conscious-mom","tag-the-conscious-moms-guide","tag-tipping-point"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion - RIP Amanda Todd - Life As A Conscious Mom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion - RIP Amanda Todd - Life As A Conscious Mom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cEveryday I think why am I still here?\u201d That’s just one of many thoughts 15 year old Amanda Todd wrote on plain white note cards, as she shared the hell that she had been enduring \u00a0via a YouTube video a month before she took her own life. To say that I am sad and sickened…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Life As A Conscious Mom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-15T19:43:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-10-15T22:23:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/files\/2012\/10\/staystrong1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Christine Agro, The Conscious Mom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion - RIP Amanda Todd - Life As A Conscious Mom","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion - RIP Amanda Todd - Life As A Conscious Mom","og_description":"\u201cEveryday I think why am I still here?\u201d That’s just one of many thoughts 15 year old Amanda Todd wrote on plain white note cards, as she shared the hell that she had been enduring \u00a0via a YouTube video a month before she took her own life. To say that I am sad and sickened…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/","og_site_name":"Life As A Conscious Mom","article_published_time":"2012-10-15T19:43:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-10-15T22:23:08+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/files\/2012\/10\/staystrong1.jpg"}],"author":"Christine Agro, The Conscious Mom","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/","name":"The Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion - RIP Amanda Todd - Life As A Conscious Mom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/files\/2012\/10\/staystrong1.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-15T19:43:42+00:00","dateModified":"2012-10-15T22:23:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/#\/schema\/person\/9ab2ad4b6b50dd6754949eada3dd3331"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/files\/2012\/10\/staystrong1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/files\/2012\/10\/staystrong1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/2012\/10\/15\/the-importance-of-demonstrating-and-teaching-compassion-rip-amanda-todd\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Importance of Demonstrating and Teaching Compassion – RIP Amanda Todd"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/","name":"Life As A Conscious Mom","description":"Parenting, Parenting Advice, Tips For Moms and Lifestyle Advice for Women","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/#\/schema\/person\/9ab2ad4b6b50dd6754949eada3dd3331","name":"Christine Agro, The Conscious Mom","description":"Christine Agro has degrees in Naturopathy and Western Herbs from The School of Natural Medicine and is an internationally recognized Clairvoyant and Spiritual Teacher. Her work focuses on supporting women, families and children in all phases and stages of their lives. She is the author of 50 Ways to Live Life Consciously and the creator of The Conscious Living Wisdom Cards (Standard and Special Moms' Edtions). Using her unique approach, Christine provides clients with a truly holistic overview of their health, wellness, well-being and their life journey. Praised by grateful women, parents, and celebrity clients across the globe for her intuitive and extraordinary gifts as a healer, she has been hailed as \u201cmagical\u201d, \u201ctransformational\u201d and \u201cinspiring.\u201d Christine has been featured in The New York Times and hailed a gift to moms by RealSavvyMoms.com. She has been interviewed on radio shows around the world, quoted in health and consumer magazines and e-zines nationwide and she is the founder of The Conscious Mom\u2019s Guide website. \u2022 Christine enjoys supporting women in all stages and phases of life. \u2022 Christine sees the power of today\u2019s children and seeks to support them in retaining their inner light. \u2022 She believes in living life passionately and purposefully. \u2022 She believes in the body\u2019s natural ability to heal and supporting that ability. \u2022 She believes children are conscious beings who have an unlimited capacity to understand and learn. \u2022 She believes children should be treated with respect and given the support and guidance to help them understand the world they have chosen to live in. \u2022 She believes all relationships offer us insight into what we want to learn and heal this lifetime. \u2022 She believes we all have the power to live a passionate and purposeful life. Using her clairvoyance combined with her background in naturopathic healing, herbs, homeopathy, aromatherapy, nutrition and more Christine offers conscious insight and healing support into areas such as relationships, parenting, pregnancy and spiritual growth. Find out more about Christine Agro, her work and how to schedule a reading at www.christineagro.com and check out The Conscious Mom's Guide at www.theConsciousMomsGuide.net to join a growing group of conscious parents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.theconsciousmomsguide.net"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/author\/cagro\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1141,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lifeasaconsciousmom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}