We live in such a busy world. Everywhere you go you hear about either being more, doing more, or buying more. With everyone in the family either going to school or working, “busy” is the new normal. Self-care falls by the wayside, spending time with others is minimal at best, and worst of all, compassion becomes a luxury not a necessity.
The Benefits of Compassion
Compassion boosts your health and well-being. There are many benefits to taking on being compassionate both for yourself and, equally as important, for others:
For Yourself
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You feel good about yourself.
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You exude more confidence.
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You have a softer, gentler, kinder demeanor.
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You attract more positive people, situations, and experiences in your life.
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Your health improvement brings more energy, better sleep, and life experiences.
For Others
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You are a contribution to others when you show compassion.
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You let them know they are not alone.
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Other people reap the rewards of feeling related, understood, and full of hope.
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Others who are equally kind and compassionate will draw near to you.
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You become a role model for others on how to treat themselves.
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You become a role model for others on how to improve their relationships.
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You create a ripple of compassion, that positively affects many people.
How Being More Compassionate Changes Your Life
Being Compassionate to yourself as a new way of being brings improvement to many areas of your life. When you are compassionate to yourself, you reap the benefits and the rewards.
Self-Compassion allows you the opportunity to take care of your own needs in being kind and gentle to yourself when you fall short. As humans, we all fall short; sometimes we do not reach our goal, sometimes the actions of others impact us negatively.
We make mistakes, forget things, lose our cool, overreact. We are human. Understanding the basic fact, we are human allows us to be kind and compassionate and ask ourselves what we learned from experience.
Being compassionate to ourselves is a better use of energy. Imagine the time and trouble it takes to feed a negative mindset in reaction to a mistake. We can, instead, take time to self-soothe. Self-soothing is shown to have many benefits. We can move forward more quickly rather than ruminating on our mistakes. We can learn and grow and keep moving forward – the real definition of life.
More importantly, when we show ourselves compassion, we train others to do the same. If we beat ourselves up, we are basically giving others permission to do the same. When we show ourselves compassion, we model how we expect others to treat us, as well.
The Impact of Compassion on Your Relationships
While we are all interested in changing and improving our lives for the better, what about the impact compassion has on our relationships? Navigating through life means taking responsibility for our actions; however, we are also navigating many relationships within families, work, and socially.
Showing compassion offers us the opportunity to make a difference in someone else’s life. People need to know we understand and that we are there for them. Loving and supporting others is the catalyst for helping them through the rough patches of life. What is better than being a contributing factor to changing the direction of someone else’s life? Now that is powerful!
When we offer compassion to others, we feel good about ourselves and make a difference to them. It is a win/win situation.
The Law of Attraction & Manifestation Can Never Work if You “IGNORE” This 1 SIMPLE STEP…
Compassion vs Empathy: What is the Difference?
Compassion and empathy are often substituted for one another, but they do not have the same meaning. Compassion means having sympathy and concern for someone else’s suffering along with wanting to go alongside them on their journey. Whereas empathy is defined more by an understanding and relating to the feelings of another person.
Let’s take a look at both:
Compassion
To have compassion for someone means to show sympathy and concern for someone or something’s (i.e. a pet or an endangered species). Compassion is driven by wanting to make a change in that person’s life, standing along side them as they suffer and suffering along with them, and holding space for them as they go through a difficult time.
Compassion means being supportive in word, thoughts, and in action.
Words of comfort – compassion is shown in language by offering words of comfort. Have you ever attended a funeral and offered up condolences along with positive words of encouragement? That is compassion.
Compassion in thought – compassion is also shown by offering up effective listening. Letting someone know they are in your thoughts and prayers is a way of offering support and encouragement during their difficult period. Letting someone know you are thinking of them, praying for them, and holding space just to listen and be there for them is an act of compassion.
Compassion in action – Taking action steps by physically taking care of things while someone is experiencing difficulty in life shows compassion in action. For example, picking up your friend’s child from school while she is visiting her husband at the hospital is compassion in action. Taking care of the home, cooking a meal, making phone calls, and helping organize paperwork are all examples of compassion in action.
Empathy
To have empathy for someone means you understand what they are going through – either through a relatable experience you have previously undergone or through an ability to feel what they are going through because of your own empathic superpowers.
Sharing thoughts and emotions with someone else is an example of empathy. Understanding how someone else is feeling is another. Empathy uses emotional intelligence to understand, feel, or relate to someone else’s feelings.
How to be More Compassionate
One of the best ways to become more compassionate is to start with yourself:
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Think kinder, gentler thoughts when the inner critic tries to take over.
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Take more compassionate actions toward yourself.
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Tell yourself you are worthy of self-compassion and leave the guilt at the door.
Once compassion for yourself is a new habit, take on releasing that out to others. Once your compassion cup is full, you can then and only then share compassion with others.
How to be More Empathetic
If you find you are not the most empathetic person in the world and want to take on this characteristic, here are a few ways to become more empathetic:
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Listen – listening without judgment, without the desire to respond, and without thinking a million other thoughts is a great way to take on being more empathetic.
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Relate – try to understand what it might feel like to be that person or to have that experience. Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes goes a long way toward being more empathetic.
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Be Real – show up as raw and vulnerable and you are on your way to being more empathetic. Letting your guard down allows someone else to enter.
These are the differences between compassion and empathy and how to implement more of each throughout the day.
The Law of Attraction & Manifestation Can Never Work if You “IGNORE” This 1 SIMPLE STEP…