Good evening, everybody. Welcome back to Thoughts
If It Were You, Food for Thought by Neogentrics.
We're going to continue on with the next moral.
We've already covered a good sum of them. There's
only a few left. I do believe about three or
four, including this one. We're going to go ahead
and finish up with compassion. It's one of those
things that is said to be understood, but in
the long run is sadly overlooked as kindness,
friendliness, such is the nature of mankind.
But the sad truth is that has nothing to do with
it whatsoever. Compassion by definition. is sympathetic
pity and concern for the suffering or misfortunes
of others. This is the true definition of compassion.
Compassion means, quite literally, to suffer
with others. It is therefore a sense of feeling,
a fellow feeling, with other people's pain and
suffering. It's often linked with empathy, which
we covered earlier. and also with sympathy in
many people's minds this however an element of
action uh there is however an element of action
and compassion that is missing from sympathy
and empathy altogether which are totally focused
on feeling okay compassion leads you to take
actions to help the other person not just feel
for them okay Aristotle suggested that there
was a distinction between compassion and other
virtues, in that compassion could also be an
emotion. In other virtues, he suggested there
is a separate emotion, anger, and is often felt
as injustice, for example. The virtue of compassion,
therefore, is a tendency to feel the emotion
of compassion at the right times, in the right
ways, and to the right extent. as Aristotle put
it originally, compassion is a pain at an impression
of destruction or painful evil as befalling one
who doesn't deserve it, and which one might expect
oneself or someone close to oneself to suffer
when it seems nearby. Loosely translated, it's
usually pain inflicted on someone that you know,
or don't know that's close to you, whether it
be yourself or someone else. A more modern slant
on compassion would be, compassion then is the
result of seeing someone suffering, deciding
that they do not deserve it, and feeling that
something similar could easily happen to you
or to someone that you care about. The nearness
of the problem may be crucial to the desire to
take action. There is an implication that without
this closeness, you would simply feel sympathy
and not the need to take action, which is part
of compassion. While this sounds plausible, for
example, let's use this. desire to do something
to alleviate the suffering of those caught up
in the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s. He was
driven by television pictures, not by first -hand
experience or by reading about it. Comic Relief
and similar organizations have spent considerable
effort taking celebrities to witness both suffering
and the programs that alleviate it firsthand
in order to bring the situation closer to home
and create more impact and desire to do something
to help. Let's take this second here while we're
talking about compassion and let's talk about
religion related to it, okay? It's valued in
many world religions, including Hinduism, Judaism,
and even Christianity. God is seen as being compassionate
and merciful, and there are many teachings about
the importance of compassion towards others as
well. For example, Jesus told a parable about
a man who fell among thieves and was rescued
by a good Samaritan who had compassion for him,
even though the man was a different race and
creed. The Dalai Lama said compassion is a necessity,
not a luxury. Whereas in Matthew 7, 12 in the
Bible, using the, well, it doesn't really matter
the version, that's fine. So whatever you wish
that others would do to you, do also to them.
Another verse that talks about this is Colossians
3, 12. Put on them as God's chosen ones, holy
and beloved, compassionate hearts. I couldn't
have worded that any better. However, there is
another issue about compassion in the Christian
tradition. It lacks any sense that the suffering
should not be deserved. Okay. Christians believe
that God welcomes sinners and forgives them because
he is compassionate. It does not matter whether
they have sinned deliberately or brought their
troubles on themselves. This is an important
trait to have nonetheless. Let's take compassion
to the workplace. Compassion is perhaps the virtue
that is most important for doctors, but it's
also important for others, too. Anyone who manages
others must be able to feel compassion for those
that they manage when it is appropriate. This
will motivate them to do something in their role
as line managers to help that person. It is also
possible to argue that we should all be aware
of the need of compassion towards others. Workplaces
are often cited as harsh and hard places. It's
a dog -eat -dog world, as you all know. And a
little compassion exercise appropriately could
go a long way towards making them feel more human.
Research shows that the workers who feel that
they are treated with compassion are more committed
to their jobs, which is good news for their employers.
The importance of compassion. Research shows
that compassion has a neurological basis in that
feeling of compassion affects particular parts
of our brains. It also shows that being compassionate
makes us feel good. It activates pleasure sensors
in the brain, a bit like eating chocolate, which
has a positive effect on self -esteem. Being
compassionate could actually be good for your
health because it seems to slow your heart rate
down, which could reduce the risk of heart disease
and stress. One compassion training program was
found to help reduce stress in those who attended
the program. Compassion tends to make us better
at communicating and relating to others. Partners,
children, parents, or friends. Improving social
relationships are generally agreed to be good
for you. And societies which are on the bounce
more compassion, that take steps to care for
vulnerable members of society and help those
in need, tend on average to be happier. Okay,
if you're only concerned about someone else,
wanting to do something to help them and then
doing it is good for you, for those around you,
and for the society as a whole. Let's find a
balance. There is, however, a balance point for
compassion. Feeling too much compassion can be
as bad as feeling too little. for those who have
to witness or hear about a lot of suffering.
To protect themselves from the personal emotional
impact of what they are reading, they close down
their emotional response and try not to feel
compassion, whether consciously or unconsciously.
This can have knock -on effects on them and those
around them because it affects their other emotions
and cognitive responses. Compassion fatigue is
now a recognized medical condition. This is something
to make note of. This is, of course, more, how
do I put this, most important for those managing
clinical staff and other professionals who work,
brings them into contact with the illness and
suffering. So many people, let me see here. But
many people have suggested that constant media
images of suffering may have similar effects
on the rest of us in making us more cynical about
the real impact of suffering. In other words,
the pictures are less able to bring suffering
closer and we become more likely to insist on
first -hand experience before feeling compassion.
In other words, we become complacent and used
to seeing it where it becomes the norm. This
should never be the case. It is important to
be aware of these responses and resist the urge
towards cynicalism. Feeling compassion is a vital
part of being human. It is also important to
take appropriate action as a result of feeling
compassion as the proverb goes. Give a man a
fish and you will feed him for a day. But teach
a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime.
Compassion wrongly expressed. The provision of
fish may result in immediate alleviation of suffering,
but no long -term effects. Compassion expressed
in the right way, teaching the skill, can and
should provide long -term solutions. Remembering
this could save a lot of pain later on in the
future. And this is something to make note of.
Compassion is one of those skills that is required
in order to move forward in life. Evil villains
in the world show compassion, believe it or not,
whether it be to their own men or his own family,
regardless of how much evil he does or ensues
in the world. Well, that brings a close to this
particular topic on compassion. Next, we only
have two others left to cover. We have courage
and equality. Like I said, I'm holding off on
doing integrity for a while. That's fine. But
next time we should be covering patience. As
it's one of the few morals out there that is
easily forgotten about or overlooked. And we're
going to look at the importance of it too. Thank
you for listening and enjoy the rest of your
day.