LOLA
WHY DO WE NEED COMPASSION?
Compassion is the most powerful force in the world. It can defeat indifference, intolerance and injustice. It is able to replace judgment with acceptance because it makes no distinction between age, ethnicity, gender or disability. It freely embraces the rich diversity of humanity by treating everyone as equals. It benefits both those who receive it and those who share it. Every person on earth desires it, and every human being deserves it.
A single act of compassion can change a person’s life forever.
1. Start by practicing self-compassion
In modern society, self-compassion can be a stumbling block. We live in a competitive world where, from a young age, our accomplishments are compared against those of others. “It creates an environment where children have a sense of self-worth contingent on outer criteria, like getting affection from parents for good grades and punished for Cs,” explains Jinpa. As we get older, we tend to confuse self-compassion for selfishness. Women tend to suffer more because there’s more societal pressure to put others first—particularly children and significant others—so that a one-hour yoga class with your favorite instructor or tea with a friend is regularly back-burnered. Add in low self-esteem, also epidemic among women, and a person starts believing she doesn’t deserve self-compassion, Jinpa says. When we allow self-consciousness to usurp self-compassion, life becomes less joyful. It can make us uncomfortable in social situations and cause us to worry that people are judging us.
2. Put yourself in someone else's shoes
Life is hard, but we’re all doing the best we can. As the saying goes, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Learn more about the other person who is going through hard times. Imagine being them and how you would handle the situation. We are all different in how we react to things but that will open more space in your heart and develop more compassion.
3. Reflect on your past
Reflecting on your past and how you overcame hardships will help you develop more compassion for yourself and others. We could not feel happiness until we fully understand sadness, the same goes for compassion.
4. Practice presence.
Try being fully present with everyone you encounter. Avoid looking at your phone, multitasking, glancing at the TV behind your lunch date, or paying attention to anyone other than the one you’re with. Make eye contact. Notice body language. See if you can really feel what the other might be thinking beneath the words. When you are truly present, your presence has a tendency to be experienced as compassion.
5. Meditate
Meditation has been shown to have a positive impact on our mental health and happiness), and one of the most encouraging findings — from a 2013 study carried out by researchers from Northeastern University in Boston — is meditation’s influence on an individual’s sense of compassion for others.
The researchers behind the study were curious about whether meditation affected people’s behavior in terms of lending a helping hand to a stranger, so they organized an experiment in which participants were assigned three weeks of meditation for 10 minutes a day using the Headspace app. Afterward, participants were told their cognitive abilities were to be measured, unaware their “compassionate responding” was, in fact, being assessed in a mock waiting room. The study — which used the Headspace app, though the company wasn’t involved — concluded that meditation promotes pro-social behavior that benefits others.
HOW DOES COMPASSION HELPS OUR SUCCESS?
A number of studies have found that compassion not only helps to build your resilience and improve your physical health, but it's also a consistent characteristic of successful and resilient people.
Resources: HeadSpace, MindBodyGreen, Yoga Journal.
LOLA's superpower is Compassion. Our vision is to teach compassion at a young age so when our youngsters grow up they have an easier way of dealing life and copping with uncomfortable road blocks life throws at us.