Answer

My Day of Compassion

I began my Day of Compassion right from the moment the morning dawned on me on 1^st November, 2020. Personally, I am naturally compassionate, always wanting to care for others and coming to the aid of helpless or less fortunate people around me. However, for today, I decided to been more attentive and go an extra mile, and people responded with appreciation and love to my actions, noticing that I was different that day. From my experience, I realized that compassion is an overwhelming yet invigorating feeling that goes beyond pity, to being part of someone’s pain and suffering; living right through their lives with them. It awakens one’s true humane feelings, creating a realization of the minute details around us that we often ignore (Gilbert, 2017).

My actions this day were deliberately compassionate, from saying good morning to our guard, to offering him coffee, picking dangerously placed tools on the compound, to asking my neighbor who has been ill how he is fairing, and visiting a homeless camp as well as offering my services and donations to the nearest orphanage. The whole experience was truly touching, exuding the best feelings I have ever had, and proving to me that perhaps the sole purpose of mankind is to be good to others, and support each other. While I thought I was doing this for others, I noticed that such compassionate actions and thoughts are very effective in generating a positive aura in me at little costs, which reminded me of Ronnie Edry, an Israeli that has been showing love and compassion to Iranians. The benefits, thus, outweigh the costs.

From my experience, I definitely love the “Day of Compassion me”, than the “normal me”, as it resonated well with empathy and happiness, being able to trigger in me a contagious positivity that touched everyone around me. My positivity, I observed, was able to dispel off antisocial behaviors triggered by group pressure and individuation. In order to be more compassionate, I would encourage people to be more empathetic, and promote connectedness (intragroup dynamic), which teaches us that humans are social beings who are interdependent (Gilbert, 2017). I feel that one month from now, the experiences of this day would have changed my perspective of life forever, and I will endeavor to be more compassionate and aware of needy cases around me, because being compassionate brings out the best in me.