Why Compassion is So Important

We live in a busy world, where we are constantly pressured to be more, do more, or buy more. With everyone in the family either going to school or working, “busy” is the new norm. 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 be gained from being compassionate to both yourself and others:

For Yourself

• You feel good about yourself.
• You exude more confidence.
• You have a softer, gentler, kinder demeanor.
• You attract more positive people, situations, and experiences in your life.
• Your health improvement brings more energy, better sleep, and life experiences.

For Others

• You are a contribution to others when you show compassion.
• You let them know they are not alone.
• Other people reap the rewards of feeling related, understood, and full of hope.
• Others who are equally kind and compassionate will draw near to you.
• You become a role model for others on how to treat themselves.
• You become a role model for others on how to improve their relationships.
• You create a ripple of compassion, that positively affects many people.

Being More Compassionate Changes Your Life

Being compassionate to yourself brings improvement to many areas of your life and allows you to reap countless benefits.

1. When You Fall Short

Self-Compassion allows you to be kind and gentle to yourself when you fall short. As humans, we all fall short; sometimes we do not reach our goal and at times the actions of others impact us negatively. We make mistakes, forget things, lose our cool, overreact. We are human. Understanding the basic fact that we are human allows us to accept, heal and learn from experience.

2. Better Use Of Energy

Being compassionate to ourselves is a better use of energy. Imagine the time and trouble it takes to feed a negative mindset that’s reacting to a mistake. We should, instead, take time to self-soothe. This allows us to move forward quickly rather than ruminating on our mistakes. We learn, grow and keep moving forward – the real definition of life.

3. Training Others

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 are modeling how we expect others to treat us.

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!

Final Word

When we offer compassion to ourselves and others, we feel good about ourselves and make a difference to them. It is a win/win situation!

NEXT THURSDAY: Myths About Self-Compassion