I am compassionate and understanding, but never allow another person’s negativity to affect me.

A raincoat and a wall solve the same problem differently. The wall keeps everything out, including weather you might have wanted to feel. The raincoat lets you stand in it and stay dry.

Compassion needs the raincoat. Understanding what somebody is carrying does not require carrying it home.

The people who last longest in difficult work - nurses, teachers, anyone answering phones for a living - are almost never the ones who feel the most.

They are the ones who found a way to feel it fully for an hour and then put something between themselves and it. That skill is learned rather than given, and usually learned after one bad year.