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Cultivating compassion improves relationships, your career, your health, and overall well-being. Compassion instills empathy and love that many admire and wish to emulate. With compassion comes the need to improve and make the world a better place. Compassion is captivating, and is a characteristic everyone can improve upon.
Implement the ideas below into your daily routine to develop more compassion.
Practice Daily Gratitude
Every day, make it a point to be grateful for the people, opportunities, and things you have in your life. These special gifts may be your friends and family, your job, or the food on your table. You might appreciate the fresh air, walking to your house. You may be thankful for the chance to learn something new or participate in a hobby. Whatever it is, make an effort to recognize and appreciate your gifts and your life. Recognizing advantages is the first step in cultivating compassion for others.
Volunteer or Get Active in Your Local Community
Community involvement can help you figure out where people need the most help. Often, a lack of compassion is due tunnel vision or the all-too-common phrase “out of sight, out of mind.” If you can’t see it or it doesn’t affect your daily life, it can be easy to misunderstand or overlook what life is like for others.
Listen More
Learn to listen and watch attentively, when others talk. Have more conversions with others. Encourage them direct the conversation and be the storyteller. When it is your turn to talk, reflect on what they just said, and ask more questions to keep them talking. The more you listen and interact with others in a meaningful way, the more you will both benefit from the experience. You’ll also understand what it means to truly want to help.
Put Yourself in Other Shoes
Imagine what your life would be like if you were less fortunate. Be honest and look deeply within yourself to see how you would deal with another’s’ situation. Would you hope others were understanding and offer to help? What if the place you were born changed? What if you had different parents? How would things change for you?
Always Practice Kindness
Practice kindness whenever possible, even to people you don’t know. Be kind even when people don’t return your kindness. Open a door, buy someone a drink, or simply smile and say thank you more often. One act of kindness can cause a chain reaction of positivity. Your simple act of kindness can turn someone's gloomy day into a positive one and, in turn, uplift more. The possibilities are truly limitless, so always be kind to others.
Overall to cultivate compassion and empathy, you need to recognize that no matter where people come from, you have something in common with them. You all want to be healthy, happy, and valued as you live your lives to the fullest.
