"What does compassion look like? Imagine a child scrapes their knee and begins to cry. We observe this and feel the child's pain through our mirror neurons. We can act with empathy where we start crying with the child. But this does not reduce suffering, it actually exacerbates the suffering. Now we can compassionately respond to the child by patting the child on the back, reassuring them they are okay and offering to attend to their wound."
"We can shift our empathy into a mindset of compassionate action with practice. Compassion is a skill that can be cultivated through practice. It wires our mind for positive neural plasticity and each time we activate the compassion pathway. This releases neurotransmitters like dopamine for positive reward and connection, serotonin for the feel good feeling and oxytocin for social bonds and trust."
Compassion is defined as action taken to relieve suffering through the most skillful means in the moment. Empathy is the capacity to feel another's experience via mirror neurons, but feeling alone can amplify suffering if not followed by skillful response. Compassionate responses include comforting, reassuring, and offering practical help, which reduce pain immediately. Regular compassion practice strengthens neural pathways, promotes positive neurochemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin, and supports neural plasticity. People who cultivate compassion show increased prosocial behavior, stronger interpersonal connections, greater positive emotion, and improved ability to understand complex thoughts in themselves and others. Daily practice enhances meaning, presence, and social trust.
Read at Psychology Today
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