Healthy Perspectives: Happiness

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” (Dalai Lama) Although new to me, this comment touches a deep and tender spot in my heart. It conjures up stories of heroes who, in the face of tragedy or overwhelming conditions, have given to another even at their own expense.

Compassion feels good to both the giver and receiver. It motivates us to endure even the seemingly interminable and tedious demands in life. And, it can be the fuel that allows us to sustain joy over stress as well as health instead of sickness.

Such benefits are not new; they’ve been known for decades. Businesswire.com, recently reported on a new study showing that kindness and compassion improve health. According to Dr. James Doty, founder and director of Stanford University’s CCARE program, “In every domain of life and especially in health care where fundamentally we are focused on those suffering, kindness and compassion have a profound positive effect.”

But, did you ever think of compassion as a quality needed for survival? In a TED Talk Emma Seppala, PhD speaks of the benefits we receive from “social connection”. In that connection she includes expressing compassion for ourselves and others and describes compassion as a quality we need to survive.

A little over a decade ago, I met with a test of survival and experienced the beneficial effects of compassion to which Seppala refers. Over an extended period while holding down the responsibilities of a job, home and family, I was suddenly faced with needing to care for a relative who was ill. Feeling overwhelmed to a point of incapacitation was not an option. However, I often felt as though I was figuratively on the edge of a pit about to fall in.

One day, while listening to a radio broadcast centered on the findings of health researcher and theologian Mary Baker Eddy, I latched on to a new idea. In her textbook on spiritual healing she wrote, “In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes, — Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply.” There is certainly a great deal to ponder in that message, but the words that grabbed my attention were, “whatever blesses one blesses all”. I wondered how I was being blessed by the overwhelming situation I was facing.

Thus it was that I began the practice of going for a “gratitude walk” to help me account for whatever blessings were supposed to be coming my way. During these walks, long or short, I would force myself to make a list of things for which I was grateful. Sometimes all I could come up with in an entire block was that the grass was green or that the sky was blue. But, always, by the end of the walk a bountiful list was flowing and I had felt a sense of release and found a deep well of resources – kindness, compassion, stamina - to face the demands ahead of me.

The “gratitude walks” were a blessing to me. My contribution to that particular relative went on for 4 years during which I enjoyed good health and was able to sustain what was required of me.

Take a minute to support your own health and the health of others by counting your blessings and cultivating compassion. Here are a few questions that helped me get started. Ask yourself:

· What am I grateful for?

· Can I express more patience and respect toward myself and others?

· Was I kind to someone today?

· Have I been even a little bit more loving than yesterday?

May the “blessings” of compassion and good health be yours throughout the coming year.

Debby Kowit blogs on the link between spirituality and wellness and the positive impact of healthy thinking on our lives. She is the media and legislative liaison for Christian Science in Pennsylvania. You can follow her on Twitter @PAComPub

Accompanying photo © GLOW IMAGES models for illustrative purposes only