When I say the word ‘compassion’, what do you think of? What kind of things do you imagine someone doing which involves compassion? Why is being compassionate so important? Today I have decided to write a post which is all about compassion, which will answer all of these questions.
Have you ever heard the saying “treat others how you want to be treated”? I believe that this saying is in the center of compassion. If you do not respect people for who they are, and do not show kindness, don’t expect people to treat you any better than you have treated them. People must realise that everything doesn’t revolve around themselves. The key words that need to be focused on in compassion are kindness, empathy and generosity. I have explained these three words below:
Kindness– Kindness involves treating people in a manner that would make them feel comfortable. Showing kindness could simply mean saying greeting someone friendly, including them, starting a conversation with them etc.
Empathy- I would say that empathy is one of the most important points in compassion. The word empathy basically means understanding how others feel and trying to put yourself in their shoes. Instead of only thinking about yourself, you are imagining what things would be like for someone else. When I say “putting yourself in someone’s shoes”, I don’t mean this by physically putting on their shoes, but I mean imagining that you are actually this person, and how things would feel like from their point of view.
Generosity- Generosity is giving up something of yours for someone else. This may simply mean sharing your money with a friend so they can buy a chocolate muffin from a cake stall, or it could mean giving up your bedroom so that your new brother has a place to sleep at night. No matter how big or small the sacrifice is, it will always make someone else happy.
Now, can you imagine a world where there is no compassion at all? Try to imagine what things would be like for not only you, but everyone else as well. Everyone only helps other people for money, the poor people get left to starve because no one cares about anyone but themselves, everyone uses everyone else to please themselves… it wouldn’t be a very nice world at all! Everyone is capable of showing compassion, but not everyone is willing to do so. That is why today I would like to thank everyone who have taken time to read this, and everyone who has shown compassion in this world, or will do after reading this.
So next time there’s a job that needs doing, do it out of good-will instead of only doing it to gain money for yourself. I know that this week I’m going to set myself a goal of to do things out of good-will instead of money, and I hope that I have aspired you to do the same.