What is compassion?

“Compassion can be defined as the ability to feel involved in pain and suffering, both our own and that of others. It goes together with the desire to alleviate this pain and suffering and the willingness to take responsibility for it.

Compassion is a general human quality that is inherently present in everyone, but which often fails to blossom for various reasons. Research shows that (self) compassion is beneficial to our psychological and physical well-being and to our social functioning. (MacBeth & Gumley, 2012; Neff, 2012).

Self-compassion involves three things: understanding yourself when you're going through a hard time, accepting that suffering is an inevitable part of life, and facing your own emotions without judgment. Practicing self-compassion is not egocentric, but rather ensures a healthy relationship with yourself and an increase in empathy and openness towards others. Much other scientific research (Van den Brink & Koster, 2013; 2015) also shows that self-compassion is associated with:

• A soothing influence on the impact of negative events;
• More personal initiative, a greater ability to deal with difficulties and taking responsibility for one's own actions (even when they turn out unfavorable);
• Less fear of making mistakes and less fear of rejection;
• More self-respect, sympathy and understanding for one's own shortcomings;
• Better self-care and healthier eating behavior;
• More emotional intelligence and more effective emotion regulation, by approaching emotions with kindness instead of hostility;
• More positive emotions, wisdom, happiness and optimism;
• Healthier functioning of our brains and neurobiological systems.

The compassion training offers various options to develop gentleness and compassion.”

Frits Koster and Erik van den Brink in “Compassion in your life”

The training Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living (MBCL), which was developed by them, is an experience-oriented training, just like the mindfulness training. The exercises offered are aimed at developing acceptance of and connection with ourselves and others. There is room for difficult experiences and moments as well as for humor and pleasant experiences and moments. Self-examination is used to determine what is beneficial and what is not for one's own experiences.