10 Ways How to Practice Compassion

How often have you seen someone suffering emotionally and your heart just goes out to them? Perhaps you want to do something for them, or comfort them in some way. Maybe you know what the person is undergoing, or you’ve been in their shoes, can feel their pain and want to fix it somehow. This is compassion–you can feel another’s pain and want to do something to alleviate it. You’re essentially “suffering together.”

Sometimes the concept of compassion gets mixed up with ideas like empathy and altruism. Empathy, however, is just the ability to feel someone else’s emotions, yet there is no action taken. Compassion is both the feeling and the desire to help. 

Altruism is the unselfish desire to help another (perhaps out of concern, duty, or loyalty). It may even be just a manner of unconscious acting (perhaps like holding the door open for someone else–you know it’s nice). Here there is no empathic feeling.

Why Is Compassion Important?

Now that you know what compassion is, why is it so important? Why don’t you just let other people deal with their own issues by themselves and not get bogged down in their problems? Humans are social animals at heart and need to interact with others. 

Human beings evolved to become socially interconnected. Humans find safety in numbers, try to keep the “pack” safe by caring for the sick and raise the young by groups of caregivers (“it takes a village to raise a child”). Our species seems hardwired to detect suffering in others and further have a need to correct it for the good of the “tribe.”

Compassion appears to be part of our DNA, even if we aren’t always feeling it. While you might complain you aren’t compassionate or don’t think you can be, evolution argues otherwise. Compassion is ingrained into your brain, even if you don’t feel it or practice it.

10 Ways To Practice Compassion

Since the compassion “muscle” may be a bit out of shape, let’s take a look at ways to exercise it and help it get back into shape. Since this is already part of you, it won’t require much effort. It may only need an increased awareness to get the “muscle” to start firing automatically.

There are several steps you can take to exercise this “muscle” and show compassion to others:

1. Speak with kindness. Speech is one of the most impactful ways you express your feelings. If you speak with kindness, you’re offering someone thoughts and words that are caring, helpful and supportive. They imply you both understand the suffering and are trying to offer a solution.
2. Apologize if you make a mistake. “To err is human. To forgive, divine.” Enough said….
3. Listen fully and without judgment. You have two ears and one mouth. You should utilize them in that ratio. Moreover, you should remain accepting and withhold judgment. Step into the other person’s shoes and begin to understand where they’re coming from. You may be surprised.
4. Encourage others. By offering positive statements, you support other people who may not feel they can do anything to alleviate their problems. This positive support is your way of both feeling their pain and trying to help fix it.
5. Offer to help someone with a project. Helping others is always a kind and generous act from the heart.
6. Accept others for who they are. When you accept others fully, you remove judgment by default. Focus on who the person is underneath rather than criticizing or blaming them.
7. Forgive others for their mistakes. After you’ve accepted others, you are freer to forgive them. Starting to see a pattern here?
8. Show respect for others. As you respect others, you’re acknowledging their accomplishments. This alone demonstrates understanding, while simultaneously offering hope for the future.
9. Express gratitude and appreciation. Gratitude creates positivity and generates a feeling of happiness. It enables both you and the other person to start feeling better by your actions. 
10. Be patient. Focus on the now. Practice mindfulness by focusing on the present and just being an observer of the current time, without judgment. Let go of the past (you can’t change it) and ignore the future (it’s not here yet and there are endless possibilities). There is only the now you can control. 

I hope you now have a better understanding of how you can begin to practice compassion, both for others and for yourself. Compassion is not something reserved only for others. It’s important to offer yourself compassion as well.

In this era of conflict, divisiveness and intolerance, it’s becoming ever more important to learn how to practice compassion so that we can begin to bring more love and peace into our world. Otherwise, we may all find ourselves in an environment of hate, fear and negativity–something none of us wants.

Sending you Love and Light, 

Chris

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Tags: Forgiveness, understanding, self-awareness, acceptance, non-judgment, compassion, loving kindness, respect, gratitude, golden-rule, spirit, spirit guides, spiritual growth, enlightenment, living spiritually