Why and How to Cultivate Compassion?
Why and How to Cultivate Compassion?
Compassion is essential for happiness. It helps us better connect with other people and with ourselves, as well. According to studies, people who have developed compassion look younger because their level of DHEA (a hormone in charge of aging processes) is 100 percent higher than in people without it. Furthermore, many diseases appeared as a result of a lack of compassion. Compassion also lowers stress hormone, cortisol, and decreases our chances of developing depression and anxiety. To cultivate compassion, we need to set our intention first. Without it, we will not be able to develop compassion on a daily basis. One of the ways to cultivate compassion is to reflect on our closest person and his specific problem. The point is to focus on emotion that occurs during the practice. The longer we stay in that emotion, the more empathy we will feel. But, the key to developing compassion is to feel a sincere wish to alleviate someone’s pain. According to experts, it is what we call compassion. To learn more about why and how to cultivate compassion, the article “Awakening Your Compassion: 8 Steps to Cultivate a Daily Practice” gives us the following explanation.
Why and How to Cultivate Compassion?
1. Start a Daily Heart-Opening Practice
2. Meditate
3. Awaken Your Empathy
4. Tat Tvam Asi Affirmation
5. Relief of Suffering Practice
6. Act of Kindness Practice
7. Grievance Awakening
8. And Lastly, Recapitulation
A good way to cultivate compassion is to remind ourselves whenever we meet someone new that this person seeks happiness and wants to avoid suffering just as we are. We may remind ourselves often about our shared humanity with other people. If practiced on a regular basis, it will help us feel truly connected with others and our relationships will blossom. The effects of compassion are strong. They can change our life perspective and protect us against many life’s adversities. Compassion will seed unconditional love in our hearts and help it grow. Compassion cannot guarantee that we will live without illness, but our health will improve significantly because of it. And all of these are sufficient reasons to understand why to cultivate compassion.