Day of Compassion

Social Psychology Day of Compassion

On November 11, 2011, I had the opportunity to observe and participate in a "Day of Compassion," which challenged individuals to live each minute of that day in as compassionate a way as possible, in other words, spending a full 24-hour period doing one's best to care for other people, be considerate and respectful, and to avoid causing harm to any living being. While I generally pride myself on acting with kindness and empathy in my daily encounters, spending an entire day conscious of the fact that each and every one of my actions should act in accordance with compassion, rather than only those that would more directly inspire me to act in such a way, I found the task alarmingly difficult at the start, but by the end of the day, I had noticed a true change in myself and in the way I interact with other living things.

Social psychologist, Jeanine Young-Mason (2001), describes compassion in a way that is easily relatable. She notes that understanding compassion means one must understand the nature of suffering, the inter-twining of moral, spiritual, psychological, and physical suffering of others, as like freedom, compassion is a word whose meaning becomes clearer and finally clarified only through practice (Young-Mason, 347). All living things have the capacity to receive compassion, though in my actions last Friday, I found myself interacting only with other human beings.

During the Day of Compassion, my behavior stemmed from the fact that throughout the day, I was hyper-aware of my actions and interactions with others, which leads me to believe that this is in at least minimal contrast with how I act on a regular basis. In certain ways, I preferred myself on this day, and in other ways, I did not. Overall, I found myself acting generously and compassionately toward others, helping them when I could, and trying to do so selflessly, but in others, I found myself doing so in a manner that seemed forced because of the hyper-awareness I experienced. For example, I found myself in a confrontation with another individual, and rather than asserting myself, feigned compassion took over. In this instance, I realized that I was not acting sincerely, and I consider faking compassion far worse than acting without it in such a circumstance. While the fact that I already possessed empathy and responsibility aided in my acting compassionately, at certain times throughout the day, I didn't feel like my true self.

In my mind, there are no costs to behaving compassionately, as I saw nothing but benefits from my Day of Compassion. Some researchers have found that acting with compassion and altruism not only reduces stress, but can have positive health effects on an individual such as the suppression of disease activity and the activation of immune responses (Sternberg, 4). In understanding this, it's clear to see that we as human beings are wired to act compassionately, and can only benefit from doing so. Further, the individuals with whom I interacted seemed to notice my compassion in our interactions, especially in situations that would not normally garner such actions, such as simple, quick conversations throughout the day with individuals who I would normally not deeply interact with, such as cashiers, individuals around me in line at the movies, waiters, etc.