How to Practice Compassion

By itself, empathy cannot improve the world. It's only when you put it into action that your empathy can become a force for change. Being compassionate is putting your empathy into action. A simple step-by-step process can lead you to practice compassion.

Instructions

1. Notice when you are not acting compassionately. Everyone has such moments, when they disregard or make light of others' pain, or when then act without consideration of consequences for others. Seek out your own weaknesses so you know where to focus the practice of compassion.

2. Recognize your compassion for the people you love. Most people offer compassion to those around them on a daily basis, acting from thoughtfulness and ideas about the others' feelings. If you become aware of this compassion, you will be able to extend it even to people you don't know.

3. Find the compassion you have for those who are like you or who belong to a group that you are a member of. For example, many people feel compassion for citizens of their country, members of their ethnic group, practitioners of their religion or holders of similar ideas. Notice how this compassion feels similar to the compassion you have for those you love.

4. Extend compassion to people you don't know and those who are not like you. You need to be imaginative to reach out beyond your group with compassion. Focus on the fact that their emotional experiences are much like your own; only the specifics are different. Understanding the similarities allows you to foster more compassion.

5. Work to give compassion to the people or groups of people you dislike. Though it is difficult to be compassionate to them, keep in mind that even those you dislike are much like you. Also realize that being compassionate to a group you dislike doesn't mean that you must accept their views or even personally like them.

6. Give compassion to other species once your compassion extends to humans as a whole. Though other species have a different experience of the world, we can witness joy and sorrow in them, two of our own most powerful experiences.

7. Act consciously on your compassion, whether politically or in your daily life, and keep it in mind as you make decisions. Choices you make, from what you eat to who you interact with, can reflect your compassion and can encourage others to be compassionate as well.