Watch the video above, or read the blog with the resources below.
Compassion, Evolution, and Sound Healing
(8 Ways Compassion Develops Our Body, Mind, Emotions, and Spirit) How You Can Develop Compassion
How is compassion a vital component of not only our healing but our progress in evolution?
Learning about developing compassion can be easy enough if we have an interest. But what if developing compassion is a higher order component of our evolution that is activated by our own attunement through our development and this system of development evolves when we are exposed to and use specific sound patterns and rhythm systems that connect us deeply into our inner selves where we access all the different components of compassion. More about how specific sound and vibration, rhythms and tones connect us to compassion and the elements of compassion later in this video.
But the role of compassion is being further defined because the pandemic accentuated compassion in new ways, and the lack of compassion, that brought our attention to compassion, compassion burnout, and compassion fatigue. Before I dive into the different kinds of compassion I will define compassion.
What is compassion? The spectrum of compassion and lack of compassion. Compassion is considered to be a benevolent emotional response towards another person, creature, environment, who is suffering. Another word that can be included with compassion is empathy which is connecting to others This emotional response is combined with a motivation to intervene and alleviate the suffering with the intention of supporting the well-being of the person, creature, or environment. Often combined with the word compassion is kindness.
Kindness is considered to be a type of behavior that has consideration for others, which can include assistance, or acts of generosity without any expectation for return of the same. This also includes no expectation for being compliant in response, or to receive praise, acknowledgement, or reward. In some circumstances people do acts of kindness without others knowing so as to remain anonymous. The feeling of compassion is the desire or willingness to reach out and make a difference.
Other components of compassion are empathy which is further separated into three areas. Mental empathy is also known as cognitive empathy which means you can experience another person’s point of view, and their situation, rather than just one’s own. Affective empathy is the ability to respond to the emotions of another person appropriately. And Somatic empathy means to feel what the other person or creature is feeling which is not projecting your own situation that you think is similar to their situation,, but to feel their feelings. Somatic empathy can be considered a detriment because a person is sensitive to their environment and the mental emotional status of other people. A further definition of empathy is when people are empaths they may not have awareness for their need for stronger boundaries so as not to be as receptive. This heightened receptivity is also known as highly sensitive person or HSP. This type of compassion is the ability to recognize and understand the feelings of another person, animal, or creature. (I include in reference to the word creature insects, mammals, amphibians, fish and birds, nature, and all beings).
One of the ideas of compassion and kindness is paying it forward.
Paying it forward is considered to be an act of compassion that allows the person to do something for someone else who may or may not know and ask nothing for it in return. The stories about having someone in front of you in line paying for your cup of coffee is one common example. Others can be helping animals shelters or charitable giving in other ways.
What Is Compassion Fatigue
In these times we also have compassion fatigue also known as compassion burnout. Compassion fatigue or burn out occurs in fields where there is a consistent requirement and exposure to others in high stress situations which can be in mental health and medical care settings however there are other settings as well that are surprising. Compassion burnout has become more prevalent since COVID19 because of the high intensity of that time and what was required of people in different fields that include caring for others as in a care provider,
the fire departments, police departments, and childcare systems. While people who are in these roles often have a desire and connection to compassion and empathy their exposure to other’s traumas erodes the quality of the person’s life and becomes intrusive in different ways. These can include numbness, hypervigilance, exhaustion, feeling disconnection and lack of productivity and interest in the life, and even depression and anxiety.
Other elements that contribute to lack of compassion are called secondary trauma. How compassion and trauma are connected.
As we progress with understanding lack of compassion the elements of trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout further defining the connection with compassion, how to sustain self-compassion when it deteriorates, and the methods that are not only restorative but build further benefits.
While we can hold compassion normally there are different situations that deteriorate our ability to connect to compassion which is now called Secondary trauma. It is often helpful to know what secondary trauma is so that we know our risks and also the potential risks for others which include
- a personal history of trauma
- not knowing our having negative coping behaviors
- lack of social support
- instability in non–work-related areas of one’s life
- working in situations with employees and/or patients who disproportionately experience trauma
- Other areas that result in lack of compassion towards others and ourselves include a working or professional environment with an excessive workload, unclear scope of work or practices, and dissonance in the workplace and between institutional relationships with employees and the public who are vulnerable populations.
Beyond risks for becoming compassion depleted are one component and there are other situations where compassion us blocked.
How Do We Block Compassion? Or Why Would We Block Compassion?
While we may have been rewarded through our life for our ability to help others this can be at the expense of ourselves, even suppressing ourselves. This often is trained into us from families who are acculturating us to their service and way of doing things that has nothing to do with our own inner purpose or how we perceive the world. As we grow older then we are imprinted with the wishes of how we fit into or fulfilled the values of our family and culture rather than even knowing that we are worthy of our own destiny separate from the old cultural values that no longer serve us. Holding compassion for our journey to know we are not only worthy to access and give our abilities to the world is a huge component of our growth as human beings. It can also be compassion for the roles we have played whether we felt empowered to do so at the time and how those roles have imprinted us. Compassion to ourselves is the first step.
What is the opposite of compassion The research shows when we don’t have compassion for ourselves we are prone to depression and depressive disorders. This is considered a vulnerability that can be overcome when we develop methods that release the conditions related to depression. Other psychological distress that can be associated with lack of compassion and depression are shame, guilt, worry, and rumination which is focusing on distress and the causes of distress rather than solutions, problem-solving, and insight from situations that allow for problem-solving and link to resilience.
Depression and anxiety, like shame, are associated with higher levels of cortisol in the system. Cortisol is produced when people have experienced trauma and are experiencing stress which causes inflammation. Inflammation is considered to be an underlying contributor to depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions but also the major (and minor) physical and mental health conditions including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, addiction, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, dementia, Alzheimer’s, as well as b-polar, and immune-compromised illnesses. Other conditions that often occur simultaneously are lack of being able to sleep and get good sleep, irritability, inability to make decisions, lack of interest, frustration, emotional isolation, exhaustion, and a decreased sense of accomplishment and meaning.
Why Would We Want To Develop And Enhance Being Compassionate People?
Here is what the opposite of being compassionate is. I looked up the antonyms in the Meriam-Webster dictionary and here is the list heartlessness, coldness, insensitivity, hardness, callosity, coolness, apathy, impassivity, hard-heartedness, indifference, numbness, impassiveness, bloodlessness, insensibility, half-heartedness, unconcern, emotionlessness, deadness, vacancy aloofness, emptiness, stiffness, and detachment. As human beings we know fostering compassion is not only an altruistic notion. Taking compassion further understanding that our relationship to Earth and the creatures, forests, lands, and air and seas are through compassionate stewardship not dominion allows us to see the interrelationships of all beings and their value in these interrelationships. Fostering compassion allows us to understand that we are not rulers with dominion over Earth but shepherds or stewards. As a culture we know these conditions or perspectives do not foster generosity, support, or growth. And that when we support others we benefit ourselves and make our world a better place for all beings. We also know many of the negative descriptors above may include people who have trauma to the degree they are frozen in place and can no longer connect, stay isolated from others, and for their preservation stay insensitive. Alternatively there are people who use lack of compassion to create an “us and them” and polarization that feeds their power and promotes these separations for their own agenda, thus telling people holding divisiveness serves their cause. This is the old paradigm that is falling away that no longer serves us, all of us.
Compassion As Strength
As the 14th Dali Lama, Tenzin Gyatso states in his writings compassion is a component of strength. We in the West are not trained to consider compassion as strength and often this results in the bullying culture that is pervasive in politics, and in social media with children and adults.
Besides the Dali Lama, research supports that people who have self-compassion also have emotional intelligence and wisdom, and demonstration of compassion fosters nonjudgmental behavior, forgiving, loving acceptance of oneself as well as others. In addition practicing compassion increases happiness and self-esteem.
If we consider that compassion is an aspect of love and is the core of human existence and that we are interdependent and share interconnectedness.
While we may think of compassion as a nice idea to cultivate but not relevant consider the acts of compassion if the Combatants for Peace that is composed of ex-Israeli military and Palestinians who have laid down their weapons to “build the
social infrastructure to promote peace.” In the US another group of Palestinian and Israeli women have been connecting through compassion to communicate for over 20 years. They call themselves Zeitouna which is the Arabic word for olive tree representing to them that they refuse to be enemies. Their ability to hold compassion has now inspired groups of Palestinians and Israelis to form for the same purpose. These are the acts of compassion that can help to change the world.
Our willingness to develop and work on developing compassion are key elements to our own survival and changing the world we live in. as we develop as individuals and make small changes these also effect and influence others who begin to notice and also value these acts of compassion and kindness and emulate that behavior that becomes cultural and world values.
What Conditions Build Back Our Compassion
Where does compassion occur in our physical body, mind, emotions and affect our body?
It is helpful for us to identify the location of compassion within our physical body experience which makes it easier to identify and develop.
When we are in non-compassionate states of awareness we are in a state of hypervigilance, that is a state where we are more critical, our systems are on high-alert. These states are not sustainable all of the time and are also where we hold and store trauma in our neurological system. The state of hypervigilance is also where stress is stored and leads to physical and mental illness. That is why when we listen to specific sound patterns the sounds carry the listener and hold the listener like a lullaby in a restorative state that is relaxed and receptive.
In response to the compassion fatigue the recommendations are to create time and space in macro and micro events that contribute and rebuild the mental emotional and spiritual systems. There are two different components of reconnecting to restoration that are easy and quick methods. When we have a relationship with specific kinds of rhythms and their patterns that change our respiration, heart rate, and brain waves out of the stress response cycle we build a rapport within us that we experience as a feeling. This relationship with the specific music and sound composition connects us to relaxation, restoration, and reconnection. The sound composition becomes a reliable resource as a tool that is available that changes us, releasing stress and connecting to how we experience compassion as a feeling, simply by listening.
Compassion fatigue and burnout are stress responses. We can intervene upon the stress response when we listen to specific sound compositions because they lessen the production of the stress responses, which is cortisol, and release dopamine and serotonin which are the feel-good chemicals This intervention on the stress response allows us to build our immune system while building our resilience, our ability to get to sleep and get good sleep and develop problem-solving abilities. These interventions are psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual.
Identifying Where Compassion Is Experienced
Our heart areas is considered to be connected with love and all the aspects of love. Love is an over-arching word that is further defined by compassion, kindness, consideration, forgiveness, and empathy. Also consider that within the scope of love there is the expression of happiness and joy, and even creativity and knowing which can be experienced as an overwhelming or deep sense of connection and willingness to support and care for another person, creature or even idea, or altruistic passion of dedication. These are considered feelings not just words but actual feelings.
These words that describe feelings are often associated with the heart region, the solar plexus on the front of the body, and the back. There also may be an outpouring of that feeling through the body and arms, hands and voice, through the tone and words.
How Do Particular Sound Healing Patterns, Tones, Rhythms, And Vibrations Elicit Our Compassion?
- Within the structure of listening to particular sound rhythms and frequencies there is a dynamic interface with our thoughts, emotions, and physiological responses that changes our receptivity. When we simply listen to particular patterns of sound they contribute to shifting our consciousness from our ordinary state where we have these limitations of experience and store trauma in our neurological system into receptivity.
- The repetition of curated sound vibrations as a continuous sound pattern holds and sustains the listener in the restorative states where stress is released, inner connection is established, and there is a shift from the dominance of the mind and thoughts into the area of our heart. This connection is also a component of trust, and receptivity that occurs from shifting out of beta brain waves into alpha brain waves.
- Stress diminishes while there is a simultaneous co-occurring inner that allows the listener to release the burdens of sustaining the ordinary state of consciousness where lack of compassion, compassion fatigue, trauma and burnout occur.
- Lack of compassion is also connected with depression, anxiety, worry, sleep disturbances, irritability, inability to make decisions, lack of interest, frustration, emotional isolation, exhaustion, and a decreased sense of accomplishment and meaning. When listening to specific sound patterns systems, there is synchronization of the heart rate, brain waves, pulse, and respiration as positive changes that shift the lack of connection into building the connection with compassion, insight, resilience, and even boost the immune system.
- There is a diminishing of production of cortisol the stress hormone and inflammation that causes physical and mental illness.
- While this is occurring the release of dopamine and serotonin create beneficial responses that are restorative, develop intuition, problem-solving, build resilience, create emotional and mental regulation, that all contribute to feeling better mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.
- As in any practice or method the experience deepens over time with consistent use. Repeating the practice of connecting into alpha brain waves ( and sometimes deeper with practice), where we release stress and develop many areas including compassion continues to expand and deepen overtime.
- Besides deepening the connection to all the benefits that include compassion with particular sound listening protocols it becomes easier to connect to and more quickly because we create a relationship with the practice that becomes easily accessible and second nature to us as a reliable method.
What Are The Components Of Compassion And Why Are They Valuable To Us As Evolving Human Beings? How Is Compassion A Component Of Our Evolution?
Consider compassion as a component of our ability to connect with others and as a component of our ability to evolve because accessing compassion is also the same place where we do the following
- Diminish stress and the production of cortisol and inflammation that cause physical and mental illness
- Release dopamine and serotonin the feel-good chemicals
- Restore our neurological system and restore from stress and trauma
- Build resilience and problem-solving
- Boost the immune system
- Connect to our own inner wisdom and intuition development
- Compassion is a component of our epigenetic response
Sound Healing And Compassion As Evolutionary Connection
Accessing compassion and developing and sustaining compassion as an evolutionary component is considered one of the elements that binds communities and allows them to flourish. However, it is significant to not confuse compassion with feeling sorry for others or to justify an individual or group who is in need of pity and is not helpful for the group or person who is identified in this way or the person or people who are feeling sorry or pity. Compassion is not the cultivation of identifying lesser groups who then become dependent instead of empowered.
As previously mentioned drawing upon ancient curated sound practices significantly changes how we respond from stress to restoration changing how our genes respond! In consideration of using particular sound healing systems that build these responses while also connecting us to and developing our compassion as another vital element. When we draw upon the ancient practices of sound healing protocols that restore our mental emotional and physical systems and connect us to compassion and as a way to restore ourselves from compassion burnout and fatigue, we are benefiting many layers of ourselves and contributing to the evolution of the world.
Research
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self-compassion is strongly associated with emotional intelligence and wisdom
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