Compassion
[12][page needed] Identifying with another person is an essential process for human beings, something that is even illustrated by infants who begin to mirror the facial expressions and body movements of their mother as early as the first days of their lives.
[12][page needed] The role of compassion as a factor contributing to individual or societal behavior has been the topic of continuous debate.
[16] Compassion may induce feelings of kindness and forgiveness, which could give people the ability to stop situations that have the potential to be distressing and occasionally lead to violence.
to have only been relieved, minimized, or overcome in their damaging effects through the presence of compassion,[12][page needed][19] although recently, drawing on empirical research in evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, social neuroscience, and psychopathy, it has been counterargued that compassion or empathy and morality are neither systematically opposed to one another, nor inevitably complementary, since over the course of history, mankind has created social structures for upholding universal moral principles, such as Human Rights and the International Criminal Court.
[30] People with a higher capacity or responsibility to empathize with others may be at risk for "compassion fatigue", also called "secondary traumatic stress".
Examples of people at risk for compassion fatigue are those who spend significant time responding to information related to suffering.
[31] However, newer research by Singer and Ricard suggests that it is lack of suitable distress tolerance that gets people fatigued from compassion activities.
[32] Individuals at risk for compassion fatigue usually display these four key attributes: diminished endurance and/or energy, declined empathic ability, helplessness and/or hopelessness, and emotional exhaustion.
Improving consciousness[clarification needed] helps to guide people to recognize the impact and circumstances of past events.
After people learn the experience from the situation in the past[clarification needed], they are able to find the causes of compassion fatigue in their daily life.
[36] Some methods that can help people to heal compassion fatigue include physical activity, eating healthy food with every meal, good relations with others, enjoying interacting with others in the community, writing a journal frequently, and sleeping enough every day.
These include (less): likability, competence, deservedness, empathic-capacity; (more) self-focused competitiveness, anxiety-depression, overwhelmed[needs copy edit]; and inhibitors in social structures and systems.
[45] In laboratory research, psychologists are exploring how concerns about becoming emotionally exhausted may motivate people to curb their compassion for—and dehumanize—members of stigmatized social groups, such as homeless individuals and drug addicts.
[36] In one study conducted by James Rilling and Gregory Berns, neuroscientists at Emory University, subjects' brain activities were recorded while they helped someone in need.
One brain region, the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex/basal forebrain, contributes to learning altruistic behavior, especially in those with trait empathy.
[dubious – discuss] In a 2009 small fMRI experiment, researchers at the Brain and Creativity Institute studied strong feelings of compassion for social[clarification needed] and physical pain in others.
Both feelings involved an expected change in activity in the anterior insula, anterior cingulate, hypothalamus, and midbrain, but they also found a previously undescribed pattern of cortical activity on the posterior medial surface of each brain hemisphere, a region involved in the default mode of brain function, and implicated in self-related processes[clarification needed].
[12][page needed] The relationship between suffering patients and their caregivers provides evidence that compassion is a social emotion that is related to[vague] the closeness and cooperation between individuals.
[55] Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer identified three levels of activities that thwart self-compassion: self-criticism, self-isolation, and self-absorption; they equate this to fight, flight, and freeze responses.
[58] Judith Jordan's concept of self-empathy is similar to self-compassion, it implies the capacity to notice, care, and respond towards one's own felt needs.
Jesus also demonstrated compassion to those his society had condemned—tax collectors, prostitutes, and criminals—by saying "just because you received a loaf of bread, does not mean you were more conscientious about it, or more caring about your fellow man".
A 2012 study of the historical Jesus claimed that he sought to elevate Judaic compassion as the supreme human virtue, capable of reducing suffering and fulfilling our God-ordained purpose of transforming the world into something more worthy of its creator.
[65] In the Muslim tradition, foremost among God's attributes are mercy and compassion, or, in the canonical language of Arabic, Rahman and Rahim.
"[67] Certainly a Messenger has come to you from among yourselves; grievous to him is your falling into distress, excessively solicitous respecting you; to the believers (he is) compassionate.The Arabic word for compassion is rahmah.
A good Muslim is to commence each day, each prayer, and each significant action by invoking Allah the Merciful and Compassionate, i.e., by reciting Bism-i-llah a-Rahman-i-Rahim.
Asked for a summary of the Jewish religion "while standing on one leg" (meaning in the most concise terms) Hillel stated: "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.
"[70] Post 9/11, the words of Rabbi Hillel are frequently quoted in public lectures and interviews around the world by the prominent writer on comparative religion Karen Armstrong.
He would certainly be moved to compassion, not because he wanted to get into the good graces of the parents, nor because he wished to win the praise of his fellow-villagers or friends, nor yet because he disliked the cry of the child".
"[86] But he also warned that compassion is difficult to develop: This is no easy task... there is no blessing or initiation — which, if only we could receive it — or any mysterious or magical formula or mantra or ritual — if only we could discover it — that can enable us to achieve transformation instantly.
The virtue of compassion to all living beings, claims Gandhi and others,[96][page needed][97] is a central concept in Hindu philosophy.
