Compassion is a great thing. It benefits everyone. Having more compassion can help us be kinder and more patient. I know a woman who is gaining more compassion because of the work she’s doing to make her unique positive impact. I share what she shared with me because I think it can help all of us.
She is an author who has written a lot of people’s stories, stories of the things they do to benefit other people. They are regular everyday people who are making a difference. She’s been writing these stories for a long time and recently expanded her efforts to write biographical books for older adults.
She noticed that as she learns about the great things normal people are doing, she’s found she’s having more compassion for people she encounters in the community. When someone is standing in line in front of her at the grocery store, she finds herself getting curious about that person’s story. She realizes there is a whole story there inside that person that she doesn’t even know yet.
I love the state of being curious. I think it’d be great if we all got more curious. We can be curious about the checker at the grocery store, the bank teller or the waiter who’s bringing lunch. What’s his or her story? How about coworkers and bosses? Neighbors? It’s amazing how little we know about other people.
This mindset has an underlying assumption that there is something good about the other people that we simply don’t know yet. It could be something they are passionate about or something they are doing they believe is important.
similarly, we can have more compassion when we recognize that other people may have a story of difficulty and pain. Maybe another driver is distracted because she’s just coming back home from visiting her husband who’s dying in the hospital. Maybe the checker who is really slow today is worried about his teenager who’s about to be expelled from school. We just won’t know what other people are going through.
We can gain more compassion for other people by getting curious about their stories. We will also gain compassion by giving people the benefit of the doubt and acknowledging they may be going through something very difficult. Wouldn’t it be great if other people considered us in the same way?
