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Want to be more compassionate? Practice mindfulness.
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I hope I don’t need to work very hard to convince you that compassion is a desirable thing. Compassion causes you to treat others with respect and help them when they’re in distress. Compassion makes you feel good, because you have fewer negative reactions to others and you get satisfaction from being able to contribute to their well-being. It also helps you solve problems; when you care about others, you opt to partner with them instead of opposing them, and that typically results in more effective solutions.
But compassion is on the decrease. Researcher Sarah Konrath and her associates (2010) have discovered that self-reported concern over the welfare of other people is now lower than at any other time in the last 30 years. It’s been dropping since the 1990s and is dropping faster now than before.
The Science of Compassion Meditation
Fortunately, studies show compassion can be learned through practices such as compassion meditation (Weng et al., 2013). It’s only recently that scientists have undertaken research on this type of meditation, but findings are encouraging. They’ve discovered compassion meditation leads to increased engagement of brain regions involved in processing emotion (Weng et al., 2013), and found it enhances people’s ability to accurately infer others’ mental states, that is, it improved the accuracy of their empathy towards others (Mascaro et al., 2013).
Compassion meditation leads people to help more. Those who practice it are more likely to assist someone in pain (Condon et al., 2013), and to show helping behaviour in situations where there’s no reciprocity (Leiberg, et. al, 2011). Those who practice this training react with less negative emotion when they encounter someone in distress (Klimecki et al., 2013), which may be why they’re able to take action to help.
Compassion meditation also has personal benefits. Those who practice it show increases in positive emotions over time (Fredrickson et al., 2008), and compassion meditation can also strengthen the immune system (Pace et al., 2009).
Peaceful Moment of the Week: Primroses in My Garden
How to Boost Compassion
If you’d like to strengthen compassion, begin with standard mindfulness meditation, which helps you to empathize with other people. Being mindful of what’s happening in the present moment allows you to see others with clarity. It allows you to ditch your assumptions in favor of objectivity. When you can see clearly, you have an easier time understanding the other person’s point of view.
Mindfulness meditation also teaches you to manage your own emotions. How does this help? Compassion is difficult. To generate compassion, you need to care as much about the other person’s welfare as they do. You have to care about them as much as you’d care about a loved one who is in mortal danger. Just imagine how that feels. That kind of caring is uncomfortable, but it’s the discomfort that motivates action. A regular mindfulness practice can help you learn how to handle the kinds of difficult, negative emotions involved in compassion.
So, mindfulness practice sets the groundwork. Compassion meditation is the next step. It’s a practice that can help you begin to care more.
Let me just take a minute to highlight the difference between empathy and compassion. To empathize is to see things from another person’s point of view, to understand their position and their feelings. Compassion is more than that. It involves caring about the other person’s welfare.
Compassion meditation,
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Listen:
Watch:
Read:
I hope I don’t need to work very hard to convince you that compassion is a desirable thing. Compassion causes you to treat others with respect and help them when they’re in distress. Compassion makes you feel good, because you have fewer negative reactions to others and you get satisfaction from being able to contribute to their well-being. It also helps you solve problems; when you care about others, you opt to partner with them instead of opposing them, and that typically results in more effective solutions.
But compassion is on the decrease. Researcher Sarah Konrath and her associates (2010) have discovered that self-reported concern over the welfare of other people is now lower than at any other time in the last 30 years. It’s been dropping since the 1990s and is dropping faster now than before.
The Science of Compassion Meditation
Fortunately, studies show compassion can be learned through practices such as compassion meditation (Weng et al., 2013). It’s only recently that scientists have undertaken research on this type of meditation, but findings are encouraging. They’ve discovered compassion meditation leads to increased engagement of brain regions involved in processing emotion (Weng et al., 2013), and found it enhances people’s ability to accurately infer others’ mental states, that is, it improved the accuracy of their empathy towards others (Mascaro et al., 2013).
Compassion meditation leads people to help more. Those who practice it are more likely to assist someone in pain (Condon et al., 2013), and to show helping behaviour in situations where there’s no reciprocity (Leiberg, et. al, 2011). Those who practice this training react with less negative emotion when they encounter someone in distress (Klimecki et al., 2013), which may be why they’re able to take action to help.
Compassion meditation also has personal benefits. Those who practice it show increases in positive emotions over time (Fredrickson et al., 2008), and compassion meditation can also strengthen the immune system (Pace et al., 2009).
Peaceful Moment of the Week: Primroses in My Garden
How to Boost Compassion
If you’d like to strengthen compassion, begin with standard mindfulness meditation, which helps you to empathize with other people. Being mindful of what’s happening in the present moment allows you to see others with clarity. It allows you to ditch your assumptions in favor of objectivity. When you can see clearly, you have an easier time understanding the other person’s point of view.
Mindfulness meditation also teaches you to manage your own emotions. How does this help? Compassion is difficult. To generate compassion, you need to care as much about the other person’s welfare as they do. You have to care about them as much as you’d care about a loved one who is in mortal danger. Just imagine how that feels. That kind of caring is uncomfortable, but it’s the discomfort that motivates action. A regular mindfulness practice can help you learn how to handle the kinds of difficult, negative emotions involved in compassion.
So, mindfulness practice sets the groundwork. Compassion meditation is the next step. It’s a practice that can help you begin to care more.
Let me just take a minute to highlight the difference between empathy and compassion. To empathize is to see things from another person’s point of view, to understand their position and their feelings. Compassion is more than that. It involves caring about the other person’s welfare.
Compassion meditation,