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Follow these steps to feel more compassionate toward others and toward yourself. Even if you don’t necessarily see yourself that way, I bet you’re compassionate at least some of the time (e.g., when you’re well-rested and not in a hurry), or with certain people in your life (e.g., with your closest friends). Compassion can be thought of as a mental state or an orientation towards suffering (your own or others’) that includes four components:

• Bringing attention or awareness to recognizing that there is suffering (cognitive)
• Feeling emotionally moved by that suffering (affective)
• Wishing there to be relief from that suffering (intentional)
• A readiness to take action to relieve that suffering (motivational)

Contrary to what many may believe, compassion is considered to be like a muscle that, as any other, can be strengthened with relevant exercises—or can deteriorate and atrophy. In other words, your capacity for compassion can expand, if you choose. You likely never learned in school that you can intentionally strengthen inner skills such as compassion. The good news is that there are specific habits that you can practice in order to begin honing your abilities to expand compassion for yourself and for others.

Read full article at the Greater Good Magazine:

• https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/six_habits_of_highly_compassionate_people