In this blog, I’ll make reference to a “DailyGood.org” article on mindfulness which I found in my email inbox. Mindfulness is defined as a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment. The mindfulness practices of meditation, contemplative sitting, and mindful breathing to name but a few are well known for their ability to release the tensions of mind and body. In fact various scientific studies have supported this assertion.
However less known is the capacity of mindfulness to increase one’s ability to act with compassion. Sages over the years have cited nature’s predisposition to give. “Today, a growing body of research agrees: we are hardwired to be kind. Cultivating a mindfulness practice helps quiet the various voices of the mind, enabling us to drop into our natural inclination to help others.” KindSpring.org Editors
Researchers discovered that after eight weeks of mindfulness training the compassionate responsiveness of participants to a stimulus situation was boosted to a rate of 50% in comparison to the 15% response rate of the participants in the control group. These results remained consistent regardless of the type of mindfulness training participants were previously given.
Lori Lennon, writing on behalf of Northeastern University of Science where the above research was undertaken, writes, “ These studies appear to prove what Buddhist theologians have long believed – that meditation is supposed to lead you to experience more compassion and love for sentient beings.”
My reflections on the article left me ever more conscious of the beneficial effects of breaking away from the rush, rush, rush of daily events to pause and drop into my zone of compassion. Periods of mindfulness will not only increase my comfort level but will affect the well-being of others.
Nancy Wales CSJ