8 psychological benefits of being compassionate
Posted by Josh Taylor / February 7, 2014 compassionloving compassionpsychological benefits
Your momma always told you to be nice to others. Turns out, she was incredibly right. These eight psychological studies prove that being compassionate has tremendous benefits. For example:
Happier and healthier
Along with being beneficial to others, experiencing more compassion benefits your own psychological and physical health.
A study by Fredrickson et al. (2008) had participants direct their loving compassion towards themselves over a week, then in the next week towards their loved ones.
The researchers found that those participants who had been randomly assigned to meditate compassionately showed increased levels of daily happiness compared with a control group.
Not only this, but those meditating compassionately also experienced less depression, had higher satisfaction with life and were in better physical shape.
Boost immune response
The power of compassion also reaches into the body’s immune and stress response systems.
Pace et al. (2009) found that participants who’d been doing more compassionate meditation had stronger immune responses to a stressor, as measured physiologically by interleukin and cortisol levels.
Full story at PsyBlog.
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[…] Your momma always told you to be nice to others. Turns out, she was incredibly right. These eight psychological studies prove that being compassionate has tremendous benefits. For example: Happier … […]