Introspective Thoughts on Compassion

Compassion. That is my word for the year. It’s my current mantra/motto. It’s something that people often misunderstand because they tend to think of it as a sign of weakness. When people talk about virtues, they usually bring up courage, responsibility, and integrity. Compassion rarely gets brought up.

I’ve said many times over and over that compassion is everyone’s superpower. It’s a powerful ability that we all have. We are all capable of it, but not everyone uses it. 

In a way, we are all compassionate, but it exists in different ways in different levels. You may be compassionate towards your family and friends, but not everyone. That’s understandable. You’re human. The real challenge is being compassionate to everyone else. That is a challenge even for me, which is why I challenged myself to be more compassionate, especially to people I normally am not compassionate towards.

Compassion is being sympathetic and understanding other people’s misfortunes or pain. Being compassionate is a state of being. I argue that it’s not something you feel, but also an act. 

What does compassion look like? It looks like caring for the people in your life. You care for them as a whole person, not just a part of them that you like. You care for them all the time, not just when it’s convenient for you. You care about their feelings. You care about what’s going on in their lives, their challenges, and their triumphs. You listen and hear them. You care about their overall well-being, because that’s what compassionate people do.

This applies to your family, friends, colleagues, and everyone in your life. It’s easier to be compassionate when you see these people on a regular basis. It’s much harder to be compassionate towards people we don’t know. They may be strangers on the street. They may be people who are suffering on the other side of the world. Even if you can’t directly relate to their circumstance or experience, they are still human beings who have worth and deserve compassion.

Practicing compassion is hard. It’s hard to be compassionate every day, especially at a large level. The times that it is the hardest to be compassionate are also the most important times we need to be compassionate. We need to choose to be compassionate every day to everyone. That’s one of the beautiful challenges of life.