13 Actions to Evolve a More Compassionate Outlook
A compassionate outlook encourages us to cultivate a genuine interest in others without being self-centering.
Evolving to a Compassionate Outlook – The benefit of developing a compassionate view of the other
Compassion is the ability to understand the emotional state of another person or of oneself. Often confused with empathy, compassion has the additional element of having a desire to relieve or reduce the suffering of the other person. Compassion should be as regards a verb.
Having compassion for someone involves more than putting yourself in their place and genuinely wanting to understand and to help. It consists of getting an entirely different perspective when it comes to how you may perceive others around you.
The look of compassion
Through life passages, we are developing thousands of relationships that are not necessarily healthy ones. We tend to look at others, and ourselves always from narrow perspectives. We forget to recognize the other person as a free and complex being, as unique and full of experiences as we are. We tend to judge and reduce their complexity as an element disconnected from our humanity.
What is compassion?
To have compassion is precisely to give this freedom to our feeling and others’ feelings. It is to create responsiveness for people’s experiences unconditionally and go beyond, searching for ways to help them.
Etymologically, the word compassion originates in the Latin “compassionis”, which means “common feeling” or “union of feelings.” Compassion, this junction of ours with the feeling of the other, automatically leads to solidarity, to altruism, which are essential actions to the existence and survival of humanity.
Compassion for others does not depend on the conditions, it’s not about liking someone or not. You do not have to like someone to have compassion for that person. We must feel and do good to all, even to those who bring us negative feelings. This main characteristic, called equanimity or impartiality, is one of the most fundamental within the scope of compassionate acts.
The Compassionate Relationship
It is possible and healthy to build relationships out of compassion. When we are not relating to each other through our limited vision and limited worlds, we are able to look compassionately at suffering, to feel together with others, and from there to find more clear solutions to problems.
When we build relationships with the desire for the other to be happy regardless of their actions or our feelings about the person, we release the other from the prisons of our judgment and thus free ourselves from being a prisoner as well. Supporting and being supported by other people is one of the ways to find true happiness.
The joy that comes from this altruistic intention of compassion is a powerful remedy for our afflictions, our personal pains. To see the other as equal generates the feeling of not being alone, locked into our individual problems.
How to Generate a Compassionate Look
When we train the compassionate look, it comes naturally as a mother’s care for her child: it is a spontaneous concern, natural for the well-being of our neighbor. The moment we realize that all beings are seeking health, happiness, comfort and avoiding the pain and suffering, we can be more empathetic and act in favor of this movement.
The Compassionate gaze also encourages us to cultivate a genuine interest in others without being self-centering. When a person hears what you are talking about, looking into your eyes and genuinely listening to each word you are saying, the conversation seems sincerer, more connected, does not it? There are moments where we truly open ourselves to the other, and above all, we allow the other to open themselves sincerely to us with mindfulness.
Realizing this makes us speak less about ourselves, to think less about what our responses will be as we talk, but listen quietly, understanding openly and without judgment.
” Our attention is the best gift we can give the someone. Our ability to love depends on the quality of our attention. ”
I sincerely hope that this text and these guidelines help you to be a Compassionate person and to consider others in this same way as well. Here are 13 different actions that can help you develop a more compassionate outlook on life.
13 Actions to Develop a More Compassionate Outlook
1. Know and accept human nature (starting with self)
2. Seek self-knowledge and experience your emotions
3. Approach people who need compassion in fundamental aspects of life
4. Start with small kind gestures
5. Control and reduce your personal feelings of sadness
6. Approach art as a skill to be developed
7. Recognize that others have their journey and are guided by the beat of their drums.
8. Practice active spirituality
9. Reduce your stress load
10. Practice yoga and compassionate meditation
11. Remember that we were all children and that, we will be elderly one day
12. Decrease and control critical judgment and the delivery of incisive opinions and judgments
13. Take care of yourself as your best friend would have
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About the Author
Cathedral of the Soul intends to undertake the challenge of creating a multidimensional healing space that is dedicated to those who seek to enrich, enlighten and heal themselves while serving and assisting in the healing of others. Cathedral of the Soul is one of the many spiritual outreaches of Humanity Healing International, a registered 501C3 nonprofit with Church status. https://cathedralofthesoul.org
