The Science of Compassion

It turns out that when I advocate that you cultivate an attitude of compassion in your daily life and with the real live people you encounter throughout your day, I’m not just making it up.  There is actual bona fide science behind it.

The New York Times published a review of some recent research and here is what they found.

• Feeling compassion for one person helps you feel compassion for all people. Compassion feeds on itself. The more you feel, the more you feel and the easier it gets.

• The way to feel compassion is to recognize what you have in common with other people.  Which means, the more human other people are to you, the more compassion you will feel for them.

 The conclusion of the article is that: “Simply learning to mentally re-categorize one another in terms of commonalities would generate greater empathy among all of us — and foster social harmony in a fairly effortless way.”

To read the entire article go here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/opinion/sunday/the-science-of-compassion.html?_r=2

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