Purpose Statement: To inform my audience about the nature of compassion, positive effects of being compassionate, and compassion meditation. Thesis Statement: Compassion is human capacity that has evolved with our species,which has wonderful psychological and physiological effects on both a receiver and a giver. Introduction: Attention Getter: In his book The Art of Happiness, The Dalai Lama states, “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive” Reveal the topic: Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help the physical, spiritual, and emotional pains of another. Relate the topic to your Audience: We need compassion because life is hard. Experiencing compassion from other people calms us. When we are upset we turn to our family or friends for help, support, and attention. They listen carefully, validate our feelings and make …show more content…
For millennia, the deliberate development of compassion for all living beings, including oneself, has been one of the great healing traditions of Eastern wisdom. The Dalai Lama, for example, points out that compassion can quite literally transform our minds, and recent neuroimaging and behavioral research has supported this observation. A study by Dr. Fredrickson and her colleagues at the University of North Carolina found that participants who had been assigned to meditate compassionately showed increased levels of daily happiness. They also experienced less depression, had higher satisfaction with life and were in better physical shape. The power of compassion also reaches into the body’s immune and stress response system. Dr. Pace and his colleagues at Emory University found that participants who practised compassionate meditation had stronger immune responses to a stressor, as measured physiologically by interleukin and cortisol
Compassion impels us to work to alleviate the suffering of our fellow man, to remove ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the sanctity of every single person treating everybody, without exception, with justice, equity and respect.
Within literature, Compassion has been described in many ways though very few descriptions have agreed on how it is best identified (Volpintesta 2011). Crowther et al (2013) describe compassion as a deep emotion that is felt by the individual practitioner allowing them to understand what the patient may be experiencing. Nussbaum (2003) argues that compassion goes beyond just understanding and identifying that emotion, it requires the practitioner to produce a response to the feeling or emotion in order to improve the situation. Dewar (2011) points out that compassion is not only about the recognition of the patients suffering but includes small
Dalai Lama once said “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” But how does one learn how to love or feel compassion for others? People all around the world wonder why the feel compassion for others. Most people feel compassion because it helps them understand how others are feeling so they can respond appropriately to a certain situation. Barbara Lazear Ascher, a former attorney and a current author, focused on compassion and how it is developed by people. Ascher’s purpose is to show that compassion is not something that you are born with, it is something that you have to learn and practice throughout your lifetime. A way to practice compassion is when you see homeless. Ascher’s reaches her
Compassion, though seemingly straight-forward, is actually a complex beast, springing from a variety of sources, including some less than flattering ones. These sources can include pity, fear, and self advancement, which are rarely associated with something as “good” as being compassionate. However, in “On Compassion”, by Barbara Ascher argues that compassion is something that must be learned through experience, not something one is born knowing, by giving examples of the actions of those who have enough towards those who do not, in order to stress the importance of taking note of others and their situations.
“A kind gesture can reach a wound only compassion can heal.” -Steve Maraboli. Our world is a place where everyone is left to fend for themselves in order to survive. Compassion is often forgotten when everyone focuses only on themselves until we witness the suffering of another human being.
Attention getter: Compassion is not taught; it is gained through experiences which soon becomes to define one as an individual. The more we hurt, they more we begin to acknowledge the presence of others.
Lately, I've been reading some of the Dalai Lama's books, and I have to admit, they've really gotten to me. The Dalai Lama and the Buddhist practice places a huge emphasis on compassion. But what is compassion and how do you actually use it?
Compassion is learned through experience and seeing those less fortunate; it brings out sympathy because one cannot ignore it when unfortunate people are everywhere.
Compassion, or caring can be viewed as “nursing’s most precious asset” (Schantz, 2007), a fundamental element of nursing care (Dietze and Orb, 2000), and as one of the strengths of the profession. According to Torjuul et al (2007), it involves being close to patients and seeing their situation as more than a medical scenario and routine procedures. Compassion is to feel passion with someone, to enter sympathetically into their sorrow, suffering, pain or situation and desire and attempt to alleviate the sorrow, suffering, pain or need. Compassion knows when to be the shoulder to cry on and when to be the motivator for life changing health habits. Compassion is; treating not only the diagnosis but the person, the person with feelings, the person who is going to cry sometimes.
Compassion represents an “acknowledgement of another’s suffering and is accompanied by the expression of a desire to ease or end that suffering.” (Van der Cingal, 2009, p. 124) This is a fundamental characteristic usually found in health care workers and nurses especially. In one twelve hour shift, a nurse’s job can change from taking vitals and administering medications to performing life saving measures
Last week the topic was a compassion topic. The meaning of the compassion, “Compassion is a relational process that involves noticing another person’s pain, experiencing an emotional reaction to his or her pain, and acting in some way to help ease or alleviate the pain” (Kanov, Maitlis, Worline, Dutton, Frost & Lilius, 2004). It means people understand others’ feeling, know why they have the feeling and try to help them to release the feeling. Before people have a compassion to others, they have to have on self-awareness (understand their self). Then, they will have abilities to understand others’ feeling. The reason that should have a compassion leadership in organizations, Dobbs said that “Compassionate leadership is characterized by openness,
The purpose of this essay is to look at barriers of compassion and what nurses could do overcome these barriers. Three sub topics will be looked at over the course of this essay and a conclusion will be made to evaluate these essays findings and to provide some input into battling these barriers so that patients can receive high standards of patient care.
Welp and Brown (2013) described the three qualities of self compassion: kindness towards oneself in spite of facing difficulties, perceiving oneself as part of the over all human experience, and regulating painful emotions. Additionally, Barnard and Curry (2011) suggest that the quality of self-compassion also entails allowing oneself to be mindful and aware of painful experiences and thoughts. Specifically the term, “self compassion”, involves practicing
Practicing compassion for an entire day did not seem like it would be very challenging. I originally assumed that this assignment would be an easy to complete and write about; however, I underestimated what entirely engaging in compassion meant. In order to wholly engage in a day of compassion, I first researched the definition of what it means to be compassionate. To be compassionate is defined as “having or showing compassion,” while compassion is defined as “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering” (Dictionary.com, 2016). In my own words, this means that I would show kindness and empathy to everyone that I encountered throughout my day, as
We need to learn that as we receive, we should also give in return to others who are in desperate need of understanding, compassion, and acceptance. Society needs to exhibit compassion; the ability to feel the pain suffered by others. The atrocities of man’s inhumanity to others occurred in the total absence of compassion. Compassion is not weak or sentimental. It is a process in which we put ourselves in the other person’s shoes and ask, “How would I want to be treated in a situation like that?” Compassion also gives us the ability to learn from mistakes, ours and others, and then allow ourselves to learn from all situations. From compassion, we can open our hearts and minds to truth. We must replace the critic’s nagging, with the voice of compassion and forgive all mistakes. Society must stop trying to live up to standards of unattainable perfection and strive to have open, honest relationships; relationships that learn from one another.