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Compassion Circle Toolkit
 

A resource for carers, nurses, family supporters & community healers

Caregiving can be isolating, but you are not alone.

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Welcome

Dear caregiver, helper, healer

This toolkit is for you.
For the ones who sit beside others in their hardest moments.
For those who offer comfort, presence, and care, often unseen, often unspoken.

Whether you are a nurse, carer, family supporter, or community worker, you hold space for others to breathe, feel, and sometimes, to heal.

But you, too, deserve care.
You, too, need space to rest, reflect, and restore.

This Compassion Circle Toolkit was created to enable those who give so much to others to also give back to themselves with gentleness, awareness, and compassion.

You are not alone in this work.
You are becoming, too.

With warmth,
Vimbai Gutu (Vim)
The Butterfly Room: Root & Rise Collective

 

🌸 What is a Compassion Circle?

A Compassion Circle is a gentle space where carers, supporters, and helpers can:
✅ Reflect on their caregiving journeys
✅ Share emotional experiences (if they wish)
✅ Rest and breathe
✅ Build resilience
✅ Connect with others who understand

It can be a:
✅ Group circle (small, safe space)
✅ One-to-one conversation
✅ Quiet self-reflection practice

There is no pressure to share — it is enough to simply be.

 

🌿 How to Use This Toolkit

✅ You can use it alone for personal reflection
✅ You can offer it to a group as a Compassion Circle
✅ You can adapt pages for your setting (hospice, hospital, community, home)
✅ You can print pages or use the digital version
✅ You can use it a little at a time — no rush

 

🦋 Holding space with care & boundaries

Caring for others is heart work.
But to continue, we must also care for ourselves.

When holding a Compassion Circle or using this journal, remember:
✅ You are allowed to set boundaries
✅ You are allowed to say “I need rest”
✅ You are allowed to have your own feelings
✅ You are not failing if you feel tired; you are human

✨ This is a space for healing, for you.

Section 1: Foundations of Compassionate Care

 

Caregiving can be beautiful, but also heavy.
It can be rewarding, but also exhausting.

Holding compassion for others begins with holding compassion for yourself.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) helps us care with presence, empathy, and boundaries so we do not burn out, lose ourselves, or run empty.

This section offers reflections for deepening self-awareness in caregiving.

 

🦋 Emotional Intelligence in caregiving

EI helps us:
✅ Recognise our own emotional state
✅ Notice how caring for others affects us
✅ Respond to challenging emotions with grace
✅ Hold empathy without losing our centre
✅ Build resilience through awareness, not avoidance

 

🌿 Boundaries & self-care

Setting boundaries is not selfish, it is an act of self-respect.
Without boundaries, compassion can turn into overwhelm.

Examples of healthy boundaries:
✅ Saying “I need to rest before I can help again”
✅ Recognising when you are emotionally full
✅ Knowing what kind of help you can offer and what is too much
✅ Taking time for your own needs

Reflection space:
One boundary I want to practice is...

 

🌸 Empathy without burnout

Empathy is beautiful, but if we absorb every feeling around us, we can become emotionally exhausted.

Ways to hold empathy with care:
✅ Ground yourself before helping others
✅ Use breath practices
✅ Notice your own emotions
✅ Release what is not yours to carry
✅ Create emotional recovery time after difficult situations

Reflection space:
What helps me recharge after caring for others...

 

🦋 Cultural sensitivity & trauma-awareness

Not all caring looks the same in every culture or family.
Be mindful:
✅ People express pain differently
✅ Trauma may not be visible
✅ Language and customs shape how people ask for help
✅ Your own cultural lens may affect how you give care

Reflection space:
Something I’ve learned about care across cultures is...

 

🌿 The cost of caring: compassion fatigue

Sometimes caring becomes too heavy a condition known as compassion fatigue.
Signs may include:
❌ Feeling emotionally numb
❌ Irritability or frustration
❌ Feeling hopeless or disconnected
❌ Avoiding certain situations
❌ Physical exhaustion

It is normal to feel this way at times.
This toolkit offers practices to help prevent and heal compassion fatigue.
If the feelings are overwhelming, please seek professional support — you are not alone.

 

Section 2: Practices & Reflections

 

This section offers simple practices and reflections you can use:
✅ To support yourself as a caregiver
✅ To share in a Compassion Circle
✅ To help restore your energy and presence

You can use them alone, or with others.
You can adapt them for your own rhythm and needs.

 

🌿 Breath & grounding for carers

When emotions are high or exhaustion sets in:
✨ 3 Slow Butterfly Breaths
✨ Resting Wings hands on heart, breathing slowly
✨ Feet on the Earth feel grounded support

These simple practices can:
✅ Calm the nervous system
✅ Bring you back to centre
✅ Help release tension after caregiving moments

 

🌸 Rest practices

Rest is not a luxury; it is an essential part of sustaining care.

✨ Lie down with soft music
✨ Sit quietly in nature
✨ Guided body scan (relax head to toe)
✨ Short naps
✨ Resting without guilt

Reflection space:
Ways I can build more rest into my week...

 

🦋 Circle opening & closing rituals

If sharing in a Compassion Circle:

Opening:

• A moment of breath

• Lighting a candle

• Sharing “one feeling word” each

Closing:

• Gentle gratitude round: “One thing I will carry from this circle is...”

• Breath together

• “We release what no longer serves us.”

 

🌸 Sharing stories with care

In Compassion Circles:
✅ Participation is voluntary
✅ No pressure to speak
✅ Confidentiality is honoured
✅ Feelings are respected without judgement

Reflection space:
When I feel heard, I feel...

 

🌿 Reflection prompts for caregivers

• One moment of care I am proud of...

• A moment that was hard for me was...

• What helped me in that moment...

• What I need more of...

• How I can care for myself this week...

 

🦋 SIP model for emotional moments

When overwhelmed:

✨ S — Silence: Pause, breathe
✨ I — Identify: Name what you feel
✨ P — Proceed: Choose a kind response for yourself or others

 

🌸 Co-regulation & calming presence

Sometimes your calm presence helps others feel safe.
But you need to stay grounded first.

Before entering a care situation:
✅ Breathe
✅ Ground
✅ Remind yourself: “I am present. I am enough. I will honour my own limits.”

Reflection space:
How I stay grounded when caring for others...

 

Section 3: My Caregiving Journey

 

Your caregiving journey is unique.
Your experiences, your feelings, your growth  all matter.

This section invites you to reflect on:
✅ What caregiving means to you
✅ How it has shaped you
✅ What supports you need
✅ How to honour your own needs and limits

You can use these pages privately or share in a Compassion Circle if you wish.
There is no “right” way; your journey is your own.

 

🦋 My role in caring

Reflection space:
I care for...
I support others by...
I am proud of...

 

🌸 My strengths

Reflection space:
One strength I bring to caregiving is...
One thing I have learned through caregiving is...
Others have told me I am good at...

 

🌿 My limits & boundaries

Reflection space:
One boundary I need to honour is...
I know I am reaching my limit when...
When I feel too tired, I will...

 

🦋 How I care for myself

Reflection space:
Things that help me rest...
Things that bring me joy...
People who support me...
Self-care practices I want to build...

 

🌸 What I need from others

Reflection space:
It helps me when others...
One thing I wish people understood about caregiving is...
One thing I would like to ask for is...

 

🌿 When to ask for help

You do not have to carry everything alone.
Asking for help is an act of courage and care for yourself.

Reflection space:
Signs I need to ask for help are...
People or places I can turn to for support...

 

Section 4: Reflection Pages

 

These pages are here for you to pause, breathe, and reflect on your caregiving journey.

You can use them:
✅ In a Compassion Circle
✅ As part of a support group
✅ Privately, in your own time
✅ As a regular self-care practice

There is no right way.
Write, draw, think; whatever feels helpful for you.

 

🦋 Caregiver reflection journal

Prompts:

• Today I feel...

• One thing that felt good in my caring was...

• One thing that was hard was...

• What helped me today...

• What I need right now...

 

🌸 Group Compassion Circle notes

Prompts:

• What I shared in this circle...

• What I heard that resonated with me...

• One thing I will take from this circle...

• One small step I want to take...

 

🌿 Self-awareness worksheets

Prompts:

• How caregiving affects my emotions...

• How caregiving affects my body...

• How I notice stress building...

• Things that help me release stress...

• How I feel about asking for help...

• My current self-care practices...

• What I want to give myself permission for...

 

Section 5: Quotes & Affirmations

 

Words can offer comfort when we feel tired.
Words can remind us that we are not alone in this work of care.

You may wish to:
✅ Read these words quietly to yourself
✅ Share them in a Compassion Circle
✅ Write them where you will see them
✅ Offer them to others who care

 

🦋 Encouragement for carers

"Root.Rise.Grow.Transform."  Vimbai Gutu (Vim)

"It is brave to care, and brave to rest."

"You cannot pour from an empty cup; your care for yourself matters too."

"Your presence is enough. You do not need to fix everything."

"Every small act of compassion leaves ripples."

"Rest is not weakness; it is part of the rhythm of caring."

 

🌸 Rest affirmations

✨ I give myself permission to rest.
✨ It is okay to pause.
✨ My worth is not measured by how much I do.
✨ Rest allows me to return with greater care.
✨ I am allowed to receive as well as give.

 

🌿 Boundaries affirmations

✨ I can set boundaries with kindness.
✨ Saying no is an act of self-respect.
✨ I am allowed to protect my wellbeing.
✨ Honouring my limits helps me care for others more fully.
✨ My needs matter too.

Caregiving can be isolating, but you are not alone.

These resources may offer further support, ideas, and care for you on your journey.

 

🦋 Suggested reading

• Root & Rise: Becoming the Butterfly — Vimbai Gutu (Vim)

• Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle — Emily & Amelia Nagoski

• Self-Compassion — Kristin Neff

• Atlas of the Heart — Brené Brown

• Radical Compassion — Tara Brach