tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/compassion-15392/articlesCompassion – La Conversation2024-01-29T02:29:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216052024-01-29T02:29:41Z2024-01-29T02:29:41ZWho we care about is limited – but our research shows how humans can expand their ‘moral circle’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571787/original/file-20240128-23-p9w2if.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C65%2C5005%2C3571&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/help-concept-hands-reaching-out-each-1588320151">Bignai/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A cost-of-living crisis, the ongoing impact of COVID, climate change, and numerous global conflicts and refugee crises. When it feels like so many people are doing it tough, how do we decide where to direct our compassion? </p>
<p>In a world that seems <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01012-5">increasingly fractured</a>, we wanted to find out if people can bridge the divide between “us” and “them” – to grow their feelings of wanting to help others, who would be typically beyond their “moral circle”.</p>
<p>We discovered that a surprisingly short period of compassion training can expand how much someone cares about people far beyond their immediate circle. </p>
<h2>Measuring who matters most to us</h2>
<p>Not all moral connections are equal. If the person suffering is our child, our partner, our friend, we are quick to help. But when faced with the suffering of a complete stranger, or someone on the other side of the planet, our motivation to help is likely reduced.</p>
<p>Taking this further, what if the person suffering was actually someone we disliked, or even someone who may have caused harm to others? Would we care then? </p>
<p>Philosophers such as Peter Singer have developed the popular term “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_circle_expansion">moral circle</a>” to refer to those we consider worthy of our concern and those we do not. Typically we prioritise the moral needs of our family and <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/ingroup">ingroup</a> (the social group we belong to) first, and we care much less about those different or distant to us.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-decide-who-and-what-we-care-about-and-whether-robots-stand-a-chance-91987">How we decide who and what we care about – and whether robots stand a chance</a>
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<p>Researchers have found we order groups <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspp0000086">in this fairly predictable way</a>: family/friends, ingroup, revered, stigmatised, outgroup, animals (high sentience), environment, animals (low sentience), plants, and villains. </p>
<p>Research also shows <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221101767">Australia is not particularly high</a> in terms of moral expansiveness – the size of one’s moral circle. In a 2022 study, Australia ranked 32nd on a moral expansiveness scale (MES), with countries like Canada, France and China ranking much higher.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571790/original/file-20240128-27-zdt35n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1163&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Average moral expansiveness scale (MES) scores per country. Higher numbers indicate greater moral expansiveness.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221101767">Kirkland et al. (2022)</a></span>
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<p>But are our moral boundaries fixed, or can we move up the moral expansiveness ladder? The question of whether our moral concern for others is stable or zero sum (that is, “my concern for someone comes at the expense of another”) is an empirical one.</p>
<h2>Can we expand our moral circles?</h2>
<p>When thinking about ways to grow our moral circle, things like empathy and mindfulness may come to mind. But our work shows that <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34279046/">compassion is stronger than both</a> at predicting the size of one’s moral circle.</p>
<p>Our work also shows that compassion predicts our <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-022-01900-z">willingness to help those we dislike</a>. And other research shows compassion training increases <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-45363-1">feelings of closeness toward a disliked person</a>. </p>
<p>Building on this, our latest research found that a brief <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-023-02300-7">compassion training intervention</a> can increase our moral expansiveness. </p>
<p>In this study, 102 participants were randomly assigned to complete a brief two-hour seminar on compassion training, or to a control group who didn’t attend a seminar.</p>
<p>In the seminar, we focused on defining compassion. The message was: things like anger, anxiety and sadness are normal human emotions, but we have a responsibility to learn and practice how to work with these feelings in helpful and supportive ways.</p>
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<span class="caption">Participants in the moral expansiveness study spent two weeks listening to audio exercises.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-forest-lean-against-tree-headphones-1889602081">Aleksandr Pobeda/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Participants then had two weeks to continue to practice what we did in the intervention by listening to guided audio exercises, which were a combination of compassionate breathing and imagery exercises, as well as meditations.</p>
<p>Compassion meditations typically follow a set structure. We begin by expressing compassion to a target – someone we like – but then expand out to other targets, such as strangers or disliked others, to other sentient beings like animals, and to elements of the natural environment, such as coral reefs or forests.</p>
<p>We found that two weeks after the program, participants who had completed compassion training has greater moral expansiveness towards family and revered groups in society (for example, charity workers). </p>
<p>At the three month follow-up, these outcomes improved further. Moral concern for others had increased across the board, including towards outgroup members (such as political opponents), stigmatised members of society, animals, plants, the environment – and even towards supposed “villains” in our society (for example, convicted criminals).</p>
<p>This shows compassion and moral expansiveness are closely connected. We don’t know for sure, but the improved results at the three month mark may have been due to continuing the audio exercises, or perhaps due to a “sleeper effect” – it takes time for people to shift their moral view.</p>
<h2>A hopeful future?</h2>
<p>The year 2024 is full of big choices, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-4-billion-people-are-eligible-to-vote-in-an-election-in-2024-is-this-democracys-biggest-test-220837">4 billion people eligible to vote</a> on who should lead their country.</p>
<p>Election years often spiral into divisions of “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12227-0">us” and “them</a>”, with “we” the public having to choose between the people and policies we hope will improve our world. </p>
<p>Compassion might offer one way to ensure we don’t fall into the trap of turning against one another. We can all recognise the right for people and sentient creatures to live a life free of suffering. </p>
<p>And if compassion helps guide us in our decisions and actions, and even expand our moral sensibilities, we may be better placed to tackle some of the big challenges we are facing – and ensure those who are suffering most don’t get left behind. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-gooders-conservatives-and-reluctant-recyclers-how-personal-morals-can-be-harnessed-for-climate-action-164599">'Do-gooders', conservatives and reluctant recyclers: how personal morals can be harnessed for climate action</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Kirby receives funding from the Mind & Life Institute and is a board member of the Global Compassion Coalition. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlie Crimston does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it feels like so many people are in need of compassion, how do we decide where to direct it?James Kirby, Associate Professor in Psychology, The University of QueenslandCharlie Crimston, Lecturer in Psychology, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2128552024-01-04T13:45:22Z2024-01-04T13:45:22ZSeeing the human in every patient − from biblical texts to 21st century relational medicine<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564308/original/file-20231207-19-2ew23e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C3%2C2108%2C1406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making patients feel seen and heard -- not just "treated."</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/clinical-doctor-giving-test-results-to-patients-royalty-free-image/1062186846?phrase=doctor+patient&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">Tom Werner/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Patients frequently describe the U.S. health care system as impersonal, corporate and fragmented. One study even called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.168.17.1843">the care delivered to many vulnerable patients</a> “inhumane.” Seismic changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic – particularly the shift to telehealth – only exacerbated that feeling.</p>
<p>In response, many health systems now emphasize “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jradnu.2023.02.005">relational medicine</a>”: care that purports to center on the patient as a human being. Physician <a href="https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/people/112358510-ronald-mark-epstein">Ronald Epstein</a> and health communication researcher <a href="https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/communication/profile/richard-l-street-jr/">Richard Street</a> describe “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.1239">patient-centered care</a>” as advocating “deep respect for patients as unique living beings, and the obligation to care for them on their terms.”</p>
<p>In 15 years as <a href="https://www.religiousstudies.pitt.edu/people/jonathan-weinkle-md-faap-facp">a primary care physician</a>, I have seen the effects of dehumanizing medical care – and the difference it makes when a patient feels they are being respected, not just “treated.” </p>
<p>Though “relational medicine” may be a relatively new phrase, the basic idea is not. Seeing each person before you as someone of infinite value is fundamental to many faiths’ beliefs about medical ethics. In my own tradition, Judaism, “person-centered care” has roots in <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Genesis.1.28?lang=bi&aliyot=0">the biblical Book of Genesis</a>, where the creation story teaches that “God created the Human in God’s own image.” As <a href="https://www.chatham.edu/academics/graduate/physician-assistant-studies/faculty/jonathan-weinkle.html">a medical educator,</a> I teach students how to turn these abstract ideas into concrete clinical skills.</p>
<h2>Divine dignity</h2>
<p>Traditional Jewish law sets rules that shape my understanding of these skills. As the influential French sage Rashi wrote in an 11th century commentary on the Bible, <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.19.16?lang=bi&aliyot=0&p2=Rashi_on_Leviticus.19.17.1&lang2=bi&w2=all&lang3=en">it is forbidden to publicly embarrass a person</a> “so that their face turns white,” even while rebuking them. For doctors today, this might mean taking care not to <a href="https://doi.org/10.2337/diaclin.34.1.44">inflict shame on a person with a stigmatized illness</a> like substance use <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-does-weight-inclusive-health-care-mean-a-dietitian-explains-what-some-providers-are-doing-to-end-weight-stigma-207710">or obesity</a>.</p>
<p>The Bible <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.22.24?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en">forbids wronging</a> <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Metzia.60a.1?lang=en&with=all&lang2=en">or abusing strangers</a> not once, not twice, but 36 times – a reminder not to “other” people or obscure their basic humanity. A similar value appears in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44449883">18th century Physician’s Prayer</a>, written by the German-Jewish physician Marcus Hertz, who states, “In the sufferer, let me see only the human being.”</p>
<p>American Rabbi <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/26/us/harold-m-schulweis-progressive-rabbi-is-dead-at-89.html">Harold Schulweis</a> used the concept of “covenant” – a holy, mutual agreement – as <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1859917">a model for the bond between physician and patient</a>, working toward a common goal. This idea inspired my own book, “<a href="https://healthylearning.com/healing-people-not-patients-creating-authentic-relationships-in-modern-healthcare-1/">Healing People, Not Patients</a>.”</p>
<p>Similar connections between medicine, respect and religion are found in other traditions, as well. A 1981 <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/islamic-code-medical-ethics-kuwait-document">Islamic code of medical ethics</a>, for instance, considers the patient the leader of the medical team. The doctor exists “for the sake of the patient … not the other way round,” it reminds practitioners. “The ‘patient’ is master, and the ‘Doctor’ is at his service.” </p>
<h2>Seeing and hearing the whole patient</h2>
<p>In undergraduate classes that I teach for future health professionals at the University of Pittsburgh, we focus on communication skills to foster dignified care, such as setting a shared agenda with a patient to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2005.40266.x">align their goals and the provider’s</a>. Students <a href="https://www.matthewsbooks.com/productdetail.aspx?pid=6221TRZ8106&close=false">also read “Compassionomics</a>,” by medical researchers <a href="https://preprofessionalstudies.nd.edu/people/stephen-trzeciak/">Stephen Trzeciak</a> and <a href="https://cmsru.rowan.edu/faculty-profiles/emergency-medicine/teaching-faculty/mazzarelli-anthony.html">Anthony Mazzarelli</a>, which aggregates the data showing caring’s impact on the well-being of patients and providers alike.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a white medical coat leans forward, seated, as she talks seriously with a seated boy in a green t-shirt." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564321/original/file-20231207-17-v5t2n4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Respectful care isn’t just ‘nice’ – it’s more effective.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/smiling-doctor-talking-to-boy-in-exam-room-royalty-free-image/1293518268?phrase=doctor+patient&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">The Good Brigade/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>However, even health professionals steeped in these practices can encounter people whose humanity they struggle to see. Students wrestle with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM197804202981605">a classic article about “the hateful patient</a>” and practice an exercise called <a href="https://doi.org/10.7326/M13-0995">the “second sentence</a>.” This asks providers to look beyond their first impressions of a patient they might have trouble treating with compassion, imagining a “second sentence” that humanizes the person in front of them.</p>
<p>The course evaluation is based on a project in which students interview a friend, relative or neighbor about their experience of illness and care. Ultimately, they identify one element of the person’s care that could have been improved by attending more to the person’s individual needs and listening to their story. </p>
<p>One student recounted her brother’s experience after he suffered a serious sports injury. The trauma team followed protocol precisely, but this meant that they did not register him screaming in pain, telling them that what they were doing was making him feel worse. Only in the hospital did doctors discover that those screams were a clue to a specific injury that should have received radically different care in the field, which could have been caught earlier had the team attended more closely to his words. His sister explored the medical literature on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074019862680">when EMS needs to break its own rules</a> to care for a complex patient, and she suggested her own mnemonic – stop-ask-listen-evaluate (SALE) – for how to make “breaking protocol” one of the options in the protocol itself.</p>
<p>Another student related his father’s experience living with chronic illness. His condition frequently deteriorated because of delays in refilling medicine through his regular physician’s office. This student pointed to medical literature detailing how pharmacists can be given greater authority to refill medications for chronic diseases, preventing gaps in treatment, which would have saved his father significant hardship.</p>
<h2>Listening with both ears</h2>
<p>Down the road at Chatham University, I work with physician assistant students who are about to enter clinic for the first time. These students complete a workshop including many of the same communication exercises, including “listening with both ears”: listening not only to the patient, but also to what they themselves say to the patient, considering how it will be received. Students are encouraged to go home and practice until the words feel natural in their mouths, not scripted or mechanical – just like they drill anatomy facts and suturing skills.</p>
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<span class="caption">Part of a doctor’s responsibility is translating respect for patients into concrete techniques.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/female-doctor-teaching-nursing-students-royalty-free-image/1387152896?phrase=medical+student+clinic&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>After their clinical year, the students return to reflect. Many of them report using patient-centered skills in challenging situations, such as validating patients’ concerns that had previously been dismissed.</p>
<p>Yet they also report a work culture where effective communication is often seen as taking too much time or as a low priority. Sixty years ago, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and psychiatrist William C. Menninger <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.1964.03070010087041">presented on The Patient as a Person</a> to the American Medical Association. Heschel declared that the profession was suffering from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11017-018-9472-x">a “spiritual malaria</a>,” his term for precisely the “high-tech, low-touch” attitude that my students encounter. The emphasis on technology and a rapid pace of treatment leaves scant room for caring, whether in Heschel’s day or ours.</p>
<p>In both programs where I teach, I aim to provide new practitioners with tangible skills that their future patients will experience as real “whole-person care” and not just a slogan on a commercial. Those patients will know that the people caring for them value all of them – their livelihoods, their life stories and the worlds they inhabit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212855/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Weinkle is affiliated with American College of Physicians and American Academy of Pediatrics.</span></em></p>The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on how fragmented medical care can be. Relational, or person-centered, medicine is attempting to provide solutions.Jonathan Weinkle, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Part-Time Instructor of Religious Studies, University of PittsburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2169772024-01-03T13:43:29Z2024-01-03T13:43:29ZThe Lotus Sutra − an ancient Buddhist scripture from the 3rd century − continues to have relevance today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566359/original/file-20231218-23-ldln3o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C1189%2C601&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Lotus Sutra scroll praising the manifold mercies of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44849">Universal Gateway chapter of the Lotus Sutra/Calligrapher: Sugawara Mitsushige/The Metropolitan Museum of Art Collection</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>State legislatures across the United States have introduced <a href="https://www.equalityfederation.org/tracker/cumulative-anti-transgender">over 400 bills to limit transgender Americans’ rights</a>. Many of these bills’ sponsors, such as the Christian nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom, cite Christian values as well as the values of the other <a href="https://brill.com/view/journals/rag/11/1/article-p67_5.xml">Abrahamic faiths</a> – Judaism and Islam – to justify their anti-trans positions. </p>
<p>The Alliance Defending Freedom claims that Christians, Jews and Muslims view gender as binary and defined only by biology, though these religions’ <a href="https://therevealer.org/beloved-transgender-children-and-holy-resistance/">diverse followers</a> actually hold a <a href="https://theconversation.com/muslims-protesting-against-lgbtq-pride-are-ignoring-islams-tradition-of-inclusion-209949">range of views</a> on <a href="https://therevealer.org/turning-to-the-talmud-to-find-gender-diversity-that-speaks-to-today/">LGBTQ+ issues</a>. Historically, these religions were often more accepting of varied gender identities before <a href="https://publicseminar.org/2018/07/gender-as-colonial-object/">colonialism imposed binary gender</a> as a universal concept. </p>
<p>Religious <a href="https://www.ihs.gov/lgbt/health/twospirit/">values from multiple</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/for-indonesias-transgender-community-faith-can-be-a-source-of-discrimination-but-also-tolerance-and-solace-193063">traditions</a> have supported <a href="https://therevealer.org/many-paths-to-freedom-transgender-buddhism-in-the-united-states/">transgender identity</a>. <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/buddhist-masculinities/9780231210478">As a scholar of Buddhism and gender</a>, I know that several Buddhist texts treat gender as fluid. One such text is the Lotus Sutra, one of the most popular Buddhist scriptures in East Asia. Its core message is that everyone, no matter their gender or status, has the potential to become a Buddha. </p>
<p>The Lotus Sutra conveys its <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/greater-awakening/">message of universal Buddhahood</a> in several stories that depict transformations between male and female bodies. For example, a dragon girl instantly transforms into the masculine body of a Buddha, proving that female bodies are not barriers to awakening.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, the Lotus Sutra describes how the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.167">bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara</a>, known as Guanyin in Mandarin and Kannon in Japanese, takes on male or female forms depending on the needs of the audience. </p>
<h2>The dragon girl’s gender transformation</h2>
<p>To understand the story of the dragon girl, it is important to understand how Buddhas’ bodies were defined as masculine in early Buddhism. Most people are familiar with the historical figure Siddhartha Gautama as “the Buddha,” but Buddhists believe that <a href="https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/why-do-buddhists-talk-about-many-buddhas/">several “Buddhas,”</a> or enlightened teachers, have been born throughout history. All of these Buddhas are said to possess 32 marks that distinguished their bodies from regular bodies. </p>
<p>One of these marks was a sheathed penis, which meant that Buddha bodies were male by definition. In addition, Buddhist texts identified five roles, including Buddha, that were off-limits to women. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-lotus-sutra/9780231081610">Lotus Sutra</a>, the Buddha’s disciple, Shariputra, refers to these limitations when he rejects the idea that the dragon girl could quickly attain Buddhahood: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You suppose that in this short time you have been able to attain the unsurpassed way. But this is difficult to believe. Why? Because the female body is soiled and defiled, not a vessel for the Law. How could you attain the unsurpassed bodhi? … Moreover, a woman is subject to the five obstacles. First, she cannot become a Brahma heavenly king. Second, she cannot become the king Shakra. Third, she cannot become a Mara demon king. Fourth, she cannot become a wheel-turning sage king. Fifth, she cannot become a Buddha. How then could your female body attain Buddhahood so quickly?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the dragon girl proves Shariputra wrong by instantly attaining Buddhahood, transforming her young, female, nonhuman body into the male body of a Buddha. Women in premodern East Asia <a href="https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/rec3.12270">found inspiration</a> in the dragon girl’s story because it showed that their own female bodies were not barriers to enlightenment. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A scroll with golden etching on a black background depicting a scene from the life of the Buddha." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=655&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557848/original/file-20231106-21-qgdfq9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This scroll from the ‘Devadatta’ chapter of the Lotus Sutra depicts the 8-year-old daughter of the Dragon King emerging from her palace beneath the sea to offer a precious, radiant jewel to the Buddha on Eagle Peak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/44851">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The bodhisattva’s gender fluidity</h2>
<p>Another inspiration from the Lotus Sutra can be found in the Chapter of Universal Salvation, which focuses on the <a href="https://south.npm.gov.tw/english/ExhibitionsDetailE003110.aspx?Cond=c176e479-7c87-462c-9b58-9b3900ca851e&appname=Exhibition3112EN">bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara</a>. A bodhisattva is an advanced spiritual being who postpones enlightenment to help people in the world. </p>
<p>According to this chapter, Avalokiteshvara will adopt any form to save people. Avalokiteshvara can become a monk, nun, layman, laywoman, rich man, rich man’s wife, young boy, young girl, human or nonhuman, depending on the audience’s needs. </p>
<p>In China, this passage provided scriptural support for Avalokiteshvara’s perceived <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/kuan-yin/9780231120296">transformation from a male to female figure</a>. Indian Buddhist texts described Avalokiteshvara as male, but in China people came to see Avalokiteshvara as female. </p>
<p>Though scholars have not found one single explanation for this transformation, the Lotus Sutra passage offers justification for Avalokiteshvara’s gender fluidity. Images of Avalokiteshvara from China, Japan and Korea can depict the bodhisattva as masculine, feminine or androgynous.</p>
<h2>The Lotus Sutra and transgender inspiration</h2>
<p>Due to the Lotus Sutra, Avalokiteshvara has become an inspiration and icon for transgender, gender-fluid and nonbinary people in and beyond East Asia. At Japan’s <a href="https://matcha-jp.com/en/9828">Shozenji Temple</a>, head nun Soshuku Shibatani, who underwent gender reassignment surgery, has said, “The Kannon Bodhisattva has no gender identity,” using Avalokiteshvara’s Japanese name. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://blog.stheadline.com/article/detail/1116787/%E9%9D%9E%E7%94%B7%E9%9D%9E%E5%A5%B3">blog post</a> from Taiwan quotes from the Lotus Sutra in describing Avalokiteshvara as a nonbinary figure who transcends any single gender identity. </p>
<p>However, Avalokiteshvara’s role as a transgender icon is not universally accepted. Another <a href="https://n.yam.com/Article/20130509462739">Taiwanese blogger</a> reported that a friend of theirs argued with their description of the bodhisattva as transgender. In April 2022, an Avalokiteshvara statue in The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, Scotland, labeled as a transgender icon, <a href="https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2022/04/glasgow-life-defends-trans-label-in-burrell-collection-after-politicisation-row/">resulted in protests</a>. The anti-trans group For Women Scotland argued that the label unnecessarily politicized the statue. </p>
<p>Despite these objections, more and more people have found inspiration in Avalokiteshvara as a transgender, nonbinary or gender-fluid figure. Just as the Lotus Sutra’s story of the dragon girl inspired Buddhist women in premodern East Asia, Avalokiteshvara’s gender fluidity offers inspiration to people today. </p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/authwall?trk=bf&trkInfo=AQHFNdxAPOLqfAAAAYyDQhP4XlW43CSxFWDpq9-1rWWyWub3I-5Wq7BJL_wg5vkC0-EEWdyTHjmNbcHqNfYuNJ4krmD_PiPpjOatEpoVecRRhBp70u5VgTWb2HOF7POqNQMpnmg=&original_referer=&sessionRedirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fmarissa-posani-8473432a6%2F">MJ Posani</a>, an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee, contributed to the research for this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Bryson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For many Buddhists today, both in East Asia and across the world, the Lotus Sutra offers religious support for various gender identities.Megan Bryson, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2175252024-01-03T13:11:18Z2024-01-03T13:11:18ZStressed out? Why mindfulness and meditation help us cope with the world<p>In a world fraught with anxiety, stress, and environmental and humanitarian disasters, people are looking for ways to cope. Many have turned to practices originating in ancient eastern philosophies for guidance. Among these is <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/basics/mindfulness">mindfulness</a>, which is linked to <a href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/17906-meditation">meditation</a>. Lucy Draper-Clarke, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Lucy+Draper-Clarke&btnG=">researcher</a> and author of <a href="https://www.lucydraperclarke.com/product-page/the-compassionate-activist-1">The Compassionate Activist</a>, spoke to health & medicine editor Nadine Dreyer about looking inwards and cultivating compassion, awareness and gratitude._</p>
<h2>What does mindfulness actually mean?</h2>
<p>The original translation of the Pali word <em>sati</em> is “remembering”. It was about remembering your ethics, the right way to behave in each moment. </p>
<p>It’s shifted within the modern context and is usually translated as “being conscious and aware of the present moment”.</p>
<p>The word I prefer to use is “awareness”.</p>
<p>A mindfulness practice would be a way to bring you back to the present. You’d use your senses, your breath, or your body as in a yoga practice.</p>
<p>To be mindful is to be present, to be open. You’re not trapped in the past or in the future.</p>
<p>And that helps to calm you down because a lot of depression or depressive thoughts are linked to the past and things that we regret.</p>
<p>A lot of anxiety is linked to the future. </p>
<p>There is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4012253/">research</a> on these particular tendencies. If people experience a lot of anxiety, it’s often that their mind is in the future, worrying about what will happen next.</p>
<p>And the same thing for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4012253/">depression</a>. The mind goes back into the past and goes into ruminating cycles of things that have happened or that we’ve done wrong, or what we perceive as wrong.</p>
<p>The present moment frees you from those aspects. Your attention is focused on exactly what’s here and now. Within that you can bring a sense of discernment. </p>
<p>My work is also linking it to <a href="https://www.journals.ac.za/sajhe/article/view/2525">compassion</a>. So if the present moment is uncomfortable – experiencing a friend suffering or our own suffering – you bring compassion to that. I find mindfulness and compassion go together.</p>
<h2>How do we include meditation in our daily lives?</h2>
<p>Mindfulness is often achieved through meditation, a practice of sitting still and focusing the mind on the senses or the breath, but we can also remain mindful throughout the day. </p>
<p>I think the word “habit” is a really good one. To make your meditation as familiar a practice as brushing your teeth or having a shower. It’s mental hygiene.</p>
<p>Making it a daily practice, at a particular time of the day, helps people: it’s less negotiable. As soon as we start negotiating with ourselves – should I practise, shouldn’t I practise – we often default to the less healthy habits like scrolling the internet or watching repetitive news stories.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.lucydraperclarke.com/product-page/the-compassionate-activist-1">The Compassionate Activist</a> I distinguish between five categories of contemplative practices: calming, insight, positive qualities, engagement and shadow integration.</p>
<p>The soothing practices are ones that calm us down. For most people a deep abdominal breath can be like a switch that shifts them from chaos to calm. It can really help. Not everyone. If you’ve had asthma, if you’ve had trauma associated with your breath, then that’s not always the best method to use. </p>
<p>Moving practices also help activate and then quieten the body, which in turn calms down the heart and mind. When expressive movement (a form of dance) or <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/286745">yoga</a> are carried out with a real conscious awareness of the body, they can be very useful to prepare the mind for meditation. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DyRe361bSQA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Mindfulness and meditation. What’s the difference?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How important are insight and self-awareness?</h2>
<p>Insight practices help us gain an understanding of our own habits. If you tend to find yourself in a state of depression or anxiety, just bringing your mind back to the present again and again can shift you out of those tendencies. We often don’t believe it’s as simple as that, but it’s amazing how much support we can give ourselves just by coming back to the present moment. Of course, if we have experienced traumatic incidents, then these practices are best done in parallel with psychotherapy.</p>
<p>There are also practices for cultivating positive, pro-social qualities such as curiosity, wonder, compassion, joy and gratitude, which are innate aspects of being human.</p>
<p>The mind has a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-17502-013">negativity bias</a>. The brain likes to learn quickly, so it tends to learn from negative experiences, but we have many wonderful experiences as well.</p>
<p>Training the mind to focus on gestures of care that people show us every day, even if it’s just being let into the traffic, or someone making you a cup of tea, opens the mind to gratitude, appreciation and wonder.</p>
<p>Anger is often a result of fear. We go into fight and flight mode. Hurt is a result of sadness. So we don’t need to demonise any of our difficult emotions. We use them to gather information. What am I feeling in this moment? And what do I need?</p>
<p>We learn to look at our experience rather than being swamped by it.</p>
<h2>What is your advice for people wanting to refocus their lives?</h2>
<p>There’s a lovely saying, that there are <a href="https://www.dharmanet.org/coursesM/Shin/JodoShinshu2.htm">84,000 Dharma doors</a>. Dharma means the truth. So 84,000 different ways to find the truth. Your own truth.</p>
<p>But the reason that number is given is that apparently in the audience where the Buddha spoke, there were 84,000 people. So what it’s saying is: find your own way.</p>
<p>When do I feel content? When do I feel at ease? When do I feel joy? Use those positive emotions as a way to reassure you that you’re on the right track.</p>
<p>Be tuned into your own happiness, your own joy, your own contentment and ease, and let them guide you to the type of practices that are going to bring you the most benefit at different stages in your life.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U9YKY7fdwyg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Draper-Clarke received research funding from the Mind and Life Institute in 2018.</span></em></p>Mindfulness, being in the present moment, is often achieved through meditation, the practice of sitting still and focusing on the breath. Both help relieve feelings of anxiety and depressionLucy Draper-Clarke, Research Associate in Compassion, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172122023-11-15T17:55:58Z2023-11-15T17:55:58ZCompassion fatigue can happen to anyone — here’s how you can overcome it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559086/original/file-20231113-19-pa97qj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5751%2C3837&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compassion fatigue doesn't mean you lack sympathy.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sad-female-checking-smart-phone-content-1949404468">Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When tragic events happen, no matter how far away from us they are, it’s hard not to pay attention. Many of us empathise with the people in these situations and wonder how we can get involved, or if there’s anything we can do to help.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, we’ve borne witness to a series of pivotal global events, from the COVID pandemic to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as many natural disasters. Just when it seemed that things could not get worse, last month conflict in Gaza escalated.</p>
<p>With so many tragedies following so closely after one another, some of us may be finding that as much as we want to engage with what’s going on, we have no more sympathy left to give and would rather switch off from what’s going on around us.</p>
<p>If you’ve been feeling this way, just know it doesn’t mean you lack sympathy for others. Rather, it may be a sign that you have “compassion fatigue”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002074891730010X">Compassion fatigue</a> is a stress response that results in feelings of apathy or indifference towards those who are suffering.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is particularly common in healthcare. Health and social workers may be particularly prone because the nature of their work often means sharing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/compassion-fatigue-the-cost-some-workers-pay-for-caring-30865">emotional burden</a> of their patients. </p>
<p>Psychologists have also found that people with certain personality types may be at higher risk of experiencing compassion fatigue. For instance, people who tend to hold their emotions in, but are prone to pessimism and worrying, are <a href="https://synapse.koreamed.org/articles/1051746">more susceptible</a>.</p>
<p>The term is also increasingly used to describe a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769909607300314">general desensitisation</a> of public concern for social problems. </p>
<p>But why, as journalism professor Susan Moeller writes in her book <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203900352/compassion-fatigue-susan-moeller">Compassion Fatigue</a>, do we “seem to care less and less about the world around us” – even when the news stories and images we see are so haunting and shocking?</p>
<p>Science offers us one explanation, and that is that an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2022.09.007">excess of compassion</a> can lead to depression, burnout and feeling overwhelmed. Compassion fatigue acts as a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203777381">survival strategy</a>” to overcome being exposed to the suffering of others. </p>
<p>The media may also partly play a role in this phenomenon. Many publications are aware that when there’s a cascade of crises, our level of <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203900352/compassion-fatigue-susan-moeller">concern appears to diminish</a>.</p>
<p>So, publications strive to capture attention with <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23736992.2020.1731313">increasingly vivid content</a> to keep viewers engaged. According to Moeller, journalists do this by discarding events that lack drama or lethality compared to previous ones, or by employing bolder language and imagery in their stories. </p>
<p>This is then paired with near-constant exposure to the news – our phones giving us ready access to catastrophes and world events as they happen. This intensified and recurrent exposure to ever more vivid, distressing events creates an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2022.09.007">ideal environment</a> for compassion fatigue to surface.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person puts their smartphone into a basket next to their headphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559092/original/file-20231113-21-6h6tji.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Setting limits on your usage may help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/digital-detox-technology-concept-close-hand-2293123313">Syda Productions/ Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Regardless of the reasons you may be experiencing compassion fatigue, it isn’t a permanent phenomenon. There are many techniques you can use to cope and overcome it. Here are some.</p>
<h2>1. Acceptance</h2>
<p>Don’t feel guilty for feeling disengaged from the news. It’s normal to find it distressing when hearing traumatic news stories, or seeing distressing images. </p>
<p>This coping technique is called <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02699930701499857">avoidance</a> and explains why so many of us want to <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(14)00770-2.pdf">switch away</a> from troubling things. </p>
<p>Knowing and accepting that this is a normal response given the circumstances is the initial step to overcoming compassion fatigue.</p>
<h2>2. Set boundaries</h2>
<p>Take charge of your news intake by deactivating notifications and controlling when and how often you engage with it. Not only can this improve feelings of compassion fatigue, it may also have other benefits. </p>
<p>For example, excessive social media use can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106487">disrupt sleep</a>, so managing news consumption, especially before bedtime, can help.</p>
<h2>3. Slow down</h2>
<p>Witnessing others’ suffering can trigger stress responses in our body, including an <a href="https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.HYP.35.4.880">accelerated heart rate</a>.</p>
<p>If you find you’re feeling anxious or stressed when consuming news, relaxation techniques, such as meditation and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10072-016-2790-8?code=daa444bd-df80-4b1e-b724-79afe9d38c99&correlationId=8806e3e9-7c91-4807-8462-792e593fc8a9&error=cookies_not_supported">deep breathing</a>, can help.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01375-w">Loving-kindness meditation</a> may be particularly helpful for improving wellbeing and compassion. This meditation technique involves focusing on the positive and cultivating feelings of love, compassion and goodwill towards oneself and others. </p>
<h2>4. Connect with nature</h2>
<p>Taking a walk in nature can help <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013916518800798">reduce stress levels</a>. This may also help to alleviate compassion fatigue, as elevated cortisol levels (known as the “stress hormone”) are linked to chronic stress, burnout and emotional stress – all of which can worsen compassion fatigue. </p>
<h2>5. Be nurturing</h2>
<p>Caring for <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/jeh/article/37/1/30/430948/An-Update-of-the-Literature-Supporting-the-Wel">plants</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08927936.2020.1771061">pets</a> profoundly affects wellbeing. Nurturing living things fosters personal fulfilment, and companion animals can reduce negative emotions, mitigating some of the effects of compassion fatigue. </p>
<h2>6. Take action</h2>
<p>Try addressing problems you can solve instead of dwelling on insurmountable issues. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11266-018-0041-8">Volunteering</a> might be one way to do this. It’s also linked to better mental and physical wellbeing.</p>
<p>Charitable giving can also increase <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09637214221121100">happiness</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11266-013-9382-5">wellness</a>, which may mitigate the effects of compassion fatigue. </p>
<p>These concrete actions can restore a sense of agency, reducing the helplessness associated with compassion fatigue.</p>
<h2>7. Seek support</h2>
<p>If you’re finding it difficult to cope or your compassion fatigue has been happening for some time, you might consider seeking support. A specialist or therapist may be helpful, but guided videos, tutorials or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXgKPSLxIY&list=PLW8o3_GFoCBNWV3KtiiXNsg3zDgZqEyFf">online meditation resources</a> can also work.</p>
<p>Hopefully, by implementing these tools, you can reclaim agency over your emotions, accept them and work towards restoring your wellbeing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carolina Pulido Ariza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>‘Compassion fatigue’ may act as a coping mechanism to being exposed to the suffering of others.Carolina Pulido Ariza, PhD Candidate, Compassion Fatigue, University of PlymouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1990642023-02-21T16:39:41Z2023-02-21T16:39:41Z‘Compassionate listening’ is a Buddhist tenet: What it is and why it matters<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510571/original/file-20230216-16-fpe4im.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C6099%2C4035&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compassionate listening is the practice of shifting our focus from talking to listening. In so doing, we overcome egocentricity.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767908">the importance of communication in fostering better relationships</a> and solving problems is well-recognized, much focus has been placed on “<a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/talk-therapy">talking it out</a>” — <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00944.x">while the role of listening tends to be overlooked</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/suffer-the-children/201901/6-tips-compassionate-listening">“Compassionate listening”</a> is critical to interpersonal and political communication, because without it, more talking can exacerbate the existing divides and misunderstandings. </p>
<p>Compassionate listening is a practice of shifting our focus from talking to listening. In so doing, we can overcome egocentricity. It helps us change habitual self-referencing to engage with the world from the perspective of others. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A bald man in an orange robe has his hands clasped in front of him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510436/original/file-20230215-15-6g2h2u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thích Nhất Hạnh is seen at a chanting ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in March 2007.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Compassionate listening can be informed by Buddhist philosophy and practice. In particular, it can take the form of “deep listening,” proposed by <a href="https://plumvillage.org/thich-nhat-hanh/">Thích Nhất Hạnh</a>. He’s the late Zen Buddhist monk who initiated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.755">engaged Buddhism</a> and illuminated for decades how to practice mindfulness in daily life.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/thich-nhat-hanh-who-worked-for-decades-to-teach-mindfulness-approached-death-in-that-same-spirit-175495">Thich Nhat Hanh, who worked for decades to teach mindfulness, approached death in that same spirit</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<h2>Deep listening</h2>
<p>Nhất Hạnh emphasized the importance of deep listening, or what he called “compassionate listening.” He was referring to deep listening and compassionate listening interchangeably, because compassion is needed to listen to others deeply. </p>
<p>For Nhất Hạnh, deep listening means understanding the other person, and <a href="https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-14-mindfulness-trainings/">listening without judging or reacting</a>. </p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/74750/the-heart-of-the-buddhas-teaching-by-thich-nhat-hanh/9780767903691"><em>The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching</em></a>, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am listening to him not only because I want to know what is inside him or to give him advice. I am listening to him just because I want to relieve his suffering. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He also explained that compassionate dialogue is composed of loving speech and deep listening, making mention of what’s known as “right speech” in Buddhism, which advocates abstaining from false, slanderous and harsh speech along with idle chatter:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Deep listening is at the foundation of right speech. If we cannot listen mindfully, we cannot practise right speech. No matter what we say, it will not be mindful, because we’ll be speaking only our own ideas and not in response to the other person.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When we listen deeply to better understand others, including their suffering and difficulties, we feel with them and compassionate speech comes more easily. </p>
<p>Compassionate listening also requires refraining from being judgmental while we listen. That doesn’t mean giving up engaging with what others say. Instead, it involves switching the focus from self to others.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1614619914207215616"}"></div></p>
<h2>Trying to understand when it’s difficult</h2>
<p>Compassionate listening also involves a tension between the attempt to understand others and the acknowledgment of the limited ability to do so.</p>
<p>It requires a willingness and effort to understand others. As Nhất Hạnh put it, compassionate listening happens when we listen with the sole purpose to understand others. Underlying genuine deep listening is the genuine concern for others’ well-being: If we don’t care about others’ suffering, why would we listen to what they have to say? </p>
<p>In Buddhist philosophy, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01544-x">every being is interdependent and interconnected</a>. In this light, caring for others is also caring for ourselves since our own well-being is interrelated to the well-being of others.</p>
<p>When we show compassion for others and help relieve others’ suffering, we actually help relieve our own suffering as well because in changing our focus from self to others, we start to see and learn to transcend our previously under-recognized <a href="https://tricycle.org/beginners/buddhism/three-poisons/">greed, hatred and ignorance — in Buddhism, the three root causes of <em>dukkha</em> (suffering)</a> that arise from self-centeredness. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white woman with pink hair and a Black man listen to someone off-camera. The man has a laptop on his lap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510185/original/file-20230214-27-ke2aj5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Showing compassion for others and listening to them can actually help relieve our own suffering.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ultimately, caring for others and listening to them deeply is to practice compassion not only for others but also for ourselves. </p>
<p>But compassionate listening also requires the humility to acknowledge that we may not be able to fully understand others. <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/modesty-humility/">Humility is crucial for communication</a>, especially against backgrounds of broad diversity and growing inequalities in liberal democracy. </p>
<p>The humility to accept our limited ability to understand others, especially those who are very differently situated from us — along with the aspiration to better understand them despite our limited ability to do so — fosters and energizes ongoing communication across differences. </p>
<h2>Equanimity</h2>
<p>The Buddhist concept of equanimity can also be helpful.</p>
<p>In Buddhism, <em>karuṇā</em> (compassion) is not an overwhelming or reactive emotion, but is one among <a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/four-immeasurables/">the “four immeasurable minds”</a> – with the other three being loving/kindness, joy and equanimity. In the Buddhist tradition, equanimity is generally associated with non-attachment, or letting go of ourselves. </p>
<p>As Nhất Hạnh wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The fourth element of true love is <em>upeksha</em>, which means equanimity, non-attachment, non-discrimination, even-mindedness, or letting go. <em>Upa</em> means ‘over,’ and <em>iksh</em> means ‘to look.’ You climb the mountain to be able to look over the whole situation, not bound by one side or the other.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He explained that equanimity doesn’t mean indifference, but is about detaching from our prejudices. He emphasized that clinging to false perceptions about ourselves and others can hinder us from arriving at a deeper understanding of reality and can lead to misunderstanding, conflict and even violence. </p>
<p>While compassionate listening seems passive, focusing on receiving what others say instead of interjecting to change the conversation is actually an active way to engage in the discussion. That’s because it involves actively looking into our own biases and prejudices, which can open up further possibilities to improve the conversation. </p>
<p>Compassionate listening means not only opening our ears to what others have to say, but also reflecting on and challenging problematic self-narratives that we carry with us. In fact, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44982086">equanimity can reasonably be seen as an essential condition for genuine open-mindedness</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women sit at a desk beside a window. One speaks while the other listens." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5760%2C3759&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510324/original/file-20230215-4170-b2dsap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Compassionate listening requires us to both open our ears to others and reflect on our own patterns.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Listening for better communication</h2>
<p>Compassionate listening has broad implications for interpersonal and political communication. </p>
<p>With the practices of deep listening, humility and equanimity, compassionate listening alerts us to the tendency to project ourselves into conversations instead of hearing the other person.</p>
<p>When we focus too much on what to say to persuade others while neglecting to listen deeply, talking can lead to more severe interpersonal tensions or exacerbate political polarization. </p>
<p>Compassionate and effective communication is listening-centred. Listening with compassion does not guarantee solving all problems at hand, but it does help us better understand problems from other perspectives — and to better support one another to address problems collectively.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199064/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yang-Yang Cheng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Compassionate listening is an overlooked practice, but urgently needed in both interpersonal and political communications.Yang-Yang Cheng, PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955852022-12-06T17:32:54Z2022-12-06T17:32:54ZElon Musk: business leaders should be compassionate – here’s the evidence to prove it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498505/original/file-20221201-12-e7zqzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=81%2C32%2C5340%2C3579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Compassionate leaders make employees happier.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-successful-business-people-happy-office-761153062">NDAB Creativity / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the month after Elon Musk triumphantly announced his takeover of Twitter with his now famous “the bird is freed” tweet, he implemented a large-scale cull of the social media platform’s global workforce. While Musk’s rationale for this move was to make Twitter more efficient, how he carried out the cuts was widely criticised as showing a lack of compassion for employees.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/twitter-job-cuts-what-are-digital-layoffs-and-what-do-they-mean-for-employees-and-companies-193994">Twitter job cuts: what are digital layoffs and what do they mean for employees and companies?</a>
</strong>
</em>
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<hr>
<p>Instead, Twitter might benefit from a more thoughtful and caring approach to leadership. Research shows compassionate leaders boost staff morale and productivity, not to mention projecting a more positive image of an organisation and its brands to the world. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1585841080431321088"}"></div></p>
<p>Compassion in this context can be taken to mean a leader who is understanding, empathetic and that strives to help their employees. This kind of leadership is needed now more than ever. Businesses are facing difficult times because of the lasting effects of the pandemic and the rising cost of living. The UK was already experiencing a slump in productivity growth since the 2008 financial crisis and a decline in the standard of living, which is set to continue over the next two years. Brexit has not helped this situation. </p>
<p>Such testing times warrant organisational leadership by compassionate and competent people with sound judgment and effective coordination skills. This also applies to political leadership. The UK has seen a lack of this in recent months while dealing with “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61560535">partygate</a>”, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/senior-member-of-uk-prime-ministers-government-resigns-amid-bullying-allegations">reported bullying</a> and harassment in government offices, and the dire effect of recent leadership decisions around the economy.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/only-a-u-turn-by-the-government-or-the-bank-of-england-will-calm-uk-financial-markets-191523">Only a U-turn by the government or the Bank of England will calm UK financial markets</a>
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<p>International leaders aren’t doing much better. The US appears to have become far more polarised, leading to the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-56004916">Capitol riots</a> and suffered accusations of a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/27/us-states-councils-pacts-coronavirus-trump">leadership vaccum</a>” during the pandemic. In the EU, compassionate leadership appears to have been in short supply based on <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/eu-slow-inefficient-and-hampered-by-bureaucracy-in-early-covid-19-response">slow responses to COVID</a> and <a href="https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/09/05/it-took-too-long-michel-and-de-croo-criticise-late-eu-action-on-energy-crisis">the energy crisis</a>. All of these examples suggest a need for more compassionate leadership.</p>
<h2>What is a good leader?</h2>
<p>Research shows that good leadership helps companies to be more competitive and boost performance, particularly concerning innovation and flexibility. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/116866">One study argues</a> that good leaders win followers because of three main attributes: sound judgment, expertise and coordination skills. These qualities allow leaders to lead by example.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, not all leaders fit this bill. A recent Europe-wide study found 13% of workers have “bad” bosses, although participants tended to score their bosses worse on competence than consideration. Still, poor leadership can negatively affect workers’ morale, wellbeing and productivity. A <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02678373.2021.1969476">review of studies</a> in this area reported that worker wellbeing tends to be better served when companies – and their leaders – allow workers to have some control and provide more opportunities for their voices to be heard and for greater participation in making decisions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young woman at the desk in the office hugs an older female colleague." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/498503/original/file-20221201-14-hif0xv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research shows good bosses often have people skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-woman-desk-pleasant-atmosphere-office-2047649927">Lucky Business / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition to the competence and coordination skills highlighted in a lot of research to date, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjir.12711">my research shows</a> that “soft leadership skills” are also important. This is about being compassionate and making others – employees in particular, but also suppliers and customers – feel important. Leaders with such “<a href="https://globaldialoguecenter.com/conf_center/JUNE5live/8-SoftLeadership.pdf">people skills</a>” are not just technically competent, they can also look at an issue from a human perspective, thinking about how it might affect people.</p>
<p>My recently published research used nationally representative data from the 2004 and 2011 workplace employment relations survey, which polls more than 3,000 organisations and over 35,000 workers. They were asked to score their managers on a five-point scale in terms of certain soft leadership skills, chosen to measure the impartiality, trustworthiness and empathy of leaders. </p>
<p>These employees were asked whether their managers: </p>
<ul>
<li>could be relied on to keep to their promises</li>
<li>were sincere in attempting to understand employees’ views</li>
<li>dealt with employees honestly</li>
<li>understood that employees had responsibilities outside work</li>
<li>encouraged people to develop their skills</li>
<li>treated employees fairly</li>
<li>and maintained good relations with employees. </li>
</ul>
<p>The results suggest that workers’ perception of good quality leadership is also positively affected by managers being upbeat when discussing organisational performance. This kind of leadership boosts workers’ wellbeing, helping employees experience greater job satisfaction and lower levels of job anxiety.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people in an office celebrate and look happy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497970/original/file-20221129-24-hq5spp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent research suggests compassionate leaders lead to better companies and happier employees.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-asian-multiethnic-business-people-casual-590552969">TZIDO SUN / Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This research suggests that compassionate leaders help to both enhance company performance and boost worker wellbeing. It shows that improving the quality of leadership is worthwhile. This can be achieved with recruitment, appraisal and training of leaders that elevate soft leadership skills. </p>
<p>Good leaders matter. As organisations and society in general face particularly difficult times, compassionate leadership could make a real difference to future business success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Getinet Astatike Haile has received funding from the ESRC in the past. </span></em></p>When managers are more positive, companies and their workers benefit.Getinet Astatike Haile, Associate Professor in Industrial Economics, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1904892022-11-17T20:40:01Z2022-11-17T20:40:01Z5 ways to create a compassionate workplace culture and help workers recover from burnout<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495481/original/file-20221115-23-xns9l3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=112%2C0%2C3147%2C1471&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Creating a compassionate workplace culture involves acknowledging people's challenges,
even related to apparently small matters, in professionally appropriate ways. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/5-ways-to-create-a-compassionate-workplace-culture-and--help-workers-recover-from-burnout" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>We live in tumultuous times which can create an added layer of uncertainty for employees who need to build relationships with students, patients or clients. Providing calm, confident and warm <a href="https://www.edcan.ca/articles/teacher-emotional-well-being/">emotional labour</a> can be difficult for people experiencing burnout, grief or compassion fatigue. </p>
<p>I have been studying the <a href="https://doi.org/10.18848/2156-8960/CGP/v13i01/31-55">impact of compassion fatigue and burnout</a>, as well as the nature of emotional labour, in educational settings. </p>
<p>Workplace culture has emerged as a critical element to prevent burnout and support employees experiencing emotional distress.</p>
<p>Organizations that promote a sense of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.51.1.59">collective compassion</a> — by supporting noticing, feeling and acting on the suffering of others at the workplace — may see improvements in both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734610.013.0021">employee performance and job satisfaction</a>. </p>
<h2>Compassionate work culture</h2>
<p>The emotions of sympathy, empathy and compassion play an important role in developing a compassionate work culture, by helping us pay attention, in professionally appropriate ways, to the suffering of our students, patients, clients, colleagues, managers and leaders. </p>
<p>Sympathy — the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216316663499">superficial recognition of the distress of another individual</a> — is the first step towards developing a compassionate workplace. It helps us notice the suffering of others. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://cmha.ca/empathy-a-skill-you-can-learn/">emotion of empathy</a> compels us to take the time and attention to investigate and understand the response of the individual in distress. Compassion is noticing, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/pspi0000010">feeling and then acting on the suffering of others</a>. </p>
<p>Workers’ acknowledgement and response to these emotions vary according to their professional duties and boundaries. But compassionate action can make the difference at the workplace, whether through small moments of kind interpersonal interaction or sustained collective effort to address complex and multifaceted challenges. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A figure seen with arrows pointing to a cloud or a heart." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495457/original/file-20221115-12-mtcg5a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sympathy helps us notice the suffering of another human being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Responding to co-workers</h2>
<p>An example of how these emotions help to create a compassionate workplace would be the familiar case of a person struggling with a new software program, such as an expense reporting system. </p>
<p>A sympathetic response by a colleague would be to notice that a co-worker is spending too much time inputting their expenses into the management system, and to say, “The new system is tricky! Good luck!” and then walk away.</p>
<p>Empathy would prompt the colleague to seek to understand what the co-worker was already doing (rather than jumping in with an immediate solution) so that the colleague can figure out the origin of the frustration. Empathetic listening takes time.</p>
<p>Having felt similarly frustrated, the colleague may feel compassion and feel compelled to act by scheduling time during the next reporting period to sit with and help the co-worker complete their expense submission. If, through empathetic listening and compassionate action, further action is warranted, the colleague may offer to raise the problem as a larger systemic issue related to software training with management.</p>
<h2>Compassion in action</h2>
<p>Building an organizational culture that encourages compassion requires employers and employees to create time and space for listening. The <a href="https://www.nctsn.org/what-is-child-trauma">cause of a person’s distress</a>, whether displayed in the workplace or not, can be complex, multi-faceted and not easily solved.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/19886190/Figley_C_R_1995_Compassion_Fatigue_Toward_a_New_Understanding_of_the_Costs_of_Caring">Compassion satisfaction</a>, or the joy and pleasure of providing care to others, provides the caregiver with the long-term fortitude to help others. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/commit-to-a-wellness-streak-to-help-manage-work-stressors-174592">Commit to a 'wellness streak' to help manage work stressors</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While compassion is <a href="https://www.drshanesinclair.com/blog/sympathy-empathy-and-compassion">not itself limited or easily extinguished</a>, acting on it can be slowed or stopped by burnout or compassion fatigue. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A heart made of lego has some of the pieces flying away." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495464/original/file-20221115-13-url2je.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Acting on compassion is interrupted when people are living with compassion fatigue or burnout.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Moral distress</h2>
<p>The symptoms of compassion fatigue include <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351030021">a changed worldview to negative, helplessness, hopelessness and disassociation from the individual in distress</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030020205">main symptoms of burnout</a> are physical fatigue, mental and emotional exhaustion, feeling unacknowledged or unimportant and viewing the people one serves and one’s colleagues with apathy or a lack of care. </p>
<p>These symptoms can hinder a compassionate individual from acting on their emotions, creating <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ruCrBwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA246&dq=burnout,+compassion+fatigue,+and+moral+distress&ots=J9JcX_tkIl&sig=pOhCGRdLWz4IHh19W_Ww1ZjtqEU&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=burnout%2C%20compassion%20fatigue%2C%20and%20moral%20distress&f=false">moral distress</a> for employees who want to be helpful, but do not have the time, energy or fortitude to act on their sympathy. </p>
<p><strong>Employers can ignite sympathy, empathy and compassion by:</strong></p>
<ol>
<li><p>Encouraging rest for fatigued or burned-out workers. Rest is not only related to following a <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/topics/sleep">healthy sleep schedule</a>. It also includes actions like choosing a hard stop time for answering emails or thinking about clients’ needs each day, using allotted personal days, de-stigmatizing personal leaves for mentally or emotionally exhausted employees and having a judgement-free return to work plan. </p></li>
<li><p>Educating employees and managers about how to access organizational and local resources, such as benefits plans, crisis hotlines and mental health clinics. Rarely are individuals equipped — nor should they be — to take on the emotional and mental work of healing people who have experienced traumatic events, so knowing where help is provided can lighten the workers’ and leaders’ role. </p></li>
<li><p>Ensuring that leaders (both formal and informal) model the importance of rest by scheduling, <em>and taking</em>, breaks throughout the workday. A break could be a ten-minute solo walk around the workplace or an energizing breakfast with colleagues in the local coffee shop. </p></li>
<li><p>Managing the valuable resource — employee and manager time — thoughtfully. Every organization likely has busier and slower times in the day, week or year. Consider how your organization regards time, as <a href="https://ijoh.tums.ac.ir/index.php/ijoh/article/view/130">workload is strongly related to employee burnout</a>. For example, in schools, September and June are extremely busy as the year ramps up and slows down. Avoiding implementing new innovations at this time can help educational workers focus on building strong relationships with students and colleagues.</p></li>
<li><p>Supporting work check-in practices that provide options for leaders and employees to self-reflect on their own <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2019.07.001">mental and emotional states of mind</a>. Such reflection can include asking oneself: “Am I compelled to look away or <em>act</em>?” Are leaders or employees able to shift focus <em>from</em> hopeless worry about all the suffering they can’t relieve <em>to</em> hopeful impact by doing what they can do for each other? </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Meanwhile, if resting, taking daily breaks and investigating and accessing workplace benefits and other resources do not help with recovery from compassion fatigue or burnout, consider a longer leave of absence <a href="https://www.universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/effective-successfull-happy-academic/what-to-do-when-you-feel-just-done/">or investigate other career, job</a> or workplace options. </p>
<p>The embers of sympathy, empathy and compassion are not extinguished by compassion fatigue or burnout, but they may be temporarily muffled by stress and circumstance. These emotions can be re-ignited through finding daily actions that can support a compassionate workplace culture.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Astrid H. Kendrick receives funding from SSHRC, is a member of the Board of Directors for PHE Canada, and is the Co-Chair of the Heath Promoting Schools Collaborative for southern Alberta. </span></em></p>It’s important that employers and employees understand sympathy, empathy and compassion, and consider these emotions’ roles in both job performance and employee relations.Astrid H. Kendrick, Director, Field Experience (Community-Based), Werklund School of Education, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1893662022-10-07T12:19:55Z2022-10-07T12:19:55ZWhat is a bodhisattva? A scholar of Buddhism explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488147/original/file-20221004-12-gom54a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C2114%2C1406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Boddhisatva Avalokiteśvara, considered to be a compassionate protector, is believed to regularly visit Earth.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bust-of-god-avalokiteshvara-singapore-royalty-free-image/1200705559?phrase=Avalokiteshvara&adppopup=true">taikrixel/ via iStock Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Bodhisattva” is a key idea in Buddhism. The word is constructed from the Sanskrit root bodhi, meaning “awakening” or “enlightenment,” and sattva, meaning “being.” The core meaning of the word is “a being who is on the way to becoming enlightened.” </p>
<p>As I explain in my book “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691081/buddhish-by-c-pierce-salguero/">Buddhish: A Guide to the 20 Most Important Buddhist Ideas for the Curious and Skeptical</a>,” the word bodhisattva is understood in divergent ways by different groups of Buddhists. </p>
<h2>Who is a bodhisattva?</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Theravada-Buddhism-A-Social-History-from-Ancient-Benares-to-Modern-Colombo/Gombrich/p/book/9780415365093">Theravāda Buddhism</a>, which is most prevalent in Southeast Asia, the term is exclusively used to refer to Siddhartha Gautama, as the Buddha was known before he became enlightened. In this school of thought, the word bodhisattva can also refer to Gautama in one of his previous rebirths as he worked toward enlightenment through numerous lifetimes as animals, people or other types of beings.</p>
<p>According to legend, Gautama was born as the crown prince of a kingdom in far northeastern India, but he gave up his throne and all of his riches in order to pursue enlightenment. Eventually, he fulfilled his destiny and transitioned from a being who is on the way to becoming awakened to a fully enlightened person – in other words, a Buddha. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Mahayana-Buddhism-The-Doctrinal-Foundations/Williams/p/book/9780415356534">Mahāyāna Buddhism</a>, practiced widely in East and Central Asia, the term bodhisattva can be used in a similar way. However, this form of Buddhism says that there are many more than just one Buddha; indeed, the ultimate goal of all true believers of Mahāyāna is to become a Buddha themselves. Most serious followers of this path take the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bodhisattva-Vow-Geshe-Sonam-Rinchen/dp/1559391502/">bodhisattva vow</a> to become recognized as bodhisattvas. </p>
<p>Additionally, in Mahāyāna belief, there are certain highly evolved bodhisattvas who have been practicing Buddhism for so many lifetimes that they have become <a href="https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Books/B/Bodhisattva-Doctrine-in-Buddhism2">superhuman divine beings</a>. These so-called “celestial bodhisattvas” are said to have accrued immense merits and powers. However, they have intentionally chosen to delay becoming Buddhas in order to dedicate themselves to compassionately helping others. </p>
<h2>Why do bodhisattvas matter?</h2>
<p>Some of the most famous advanced bodhisattvas, such as Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra and Vajrapāṇi, are regularly prayed to and given offerings. Texts and mantras associated with most of them are regularly chanted in temples around the world. Devotees hope that the bodhisattvas, in their infinite compassion, will hear these calls and respond by sending <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-buddhists-handle-coronavirus-the-answer-is-not-just-meditation-137966">blessings of health</a>, good fortune and happiness.</p>
<p>Buddhists believe that celestial bodhisattvas reside in heavenly realms called <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-pure-land-buddhism-a-look-at-how-east-asian-buddhists-chant-and-strive-for-buddhahood-149140">Pure Lands</a> located in faraway dimensions of the cosmos. The bodhisattva Maitreya, for example, is said to currently live in the Tuṣita Heaven, where he is awaiting rebirth as the next Buddha of our world. </p>
<p>Because they can manifest in different bodies simultaneously, bodhisattvas can also appear on Earth disguised as humans, animals, or other types of beings. For example, Tibetan Buddhists believe that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-choosing-the-next-dalai-lama-will-be-a-religious-as-well-as-a-political-issue-162796">Dalai Lama</a> is a manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, called Chenrezig in Tibetan, who regularly comes to earth to spread his message of compassion among humanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189366/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierce Salguero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Buddhists believe that bodhisattvas reside in heavenly realms but can also appear on Earth disguised as humans, animals or other types of beings.Pierce Salguero, Associate Professor of Asian History & Religious Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1882002022-08-22T19:53:49Z2022-08-22T19:53:49ZUkraine’s war has shattered some friendships and family ties – but ‘care ethics’ have strengthened other relationships<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479718/original/file-20220817-11861-3ekigm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=323%2C0%2C8070%2C5716&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zhanna Dynaeva and Serhiy Dynaev stand with a cat inside their house, which was destroyed by Russian bombardment, in the village of Novoselivka, Ukraine, Aug. 13, 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaUkraineWarRebuildingCommunities/b93a4402d5b249d8a9203e6d2ea735a0/photo?Query=ukraine&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=124763&currentItemNo=298">AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>War does more than displace civilians, or kill them. When wars are waged in residential areas, they become part of the calculus of simply getting through the day. </p>
<p>During <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-178512">the war in Ukraine</a>, now reaching its six-month anniversary, my friends and colleagues there have held Zoom meetings between air raid signals. In a recent meeting, I noticed one of them was speaking from a shower stall, the most heavily reinforced area of their apartment. Professors who are defending their country tell me about grading students’ work between military drills, and many more everyday adaptations. Meanwhile, the grim realities of <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2022/05/plight-civilians-ukraine">war crimes</a> against civilians continue.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ii.umich.edu/ii/people/all/u/uehling.html">an anthropologist</a>, I have studied Ukrainians’ experiences amid armed conflict since Russia <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2020/03/17/crimea-six-years-after-illegal-annexation/">seized Crimea</a> in 2014. <a href="https://shron2.chtyvo.org.ua/Zbirnyk_statei/Ukraine_and_Russia_People_Politics_Propaganda_and_Perspectives_anhl.pdf?PHPSESSID=6e4uishdfuu76fm63dj7tht9r3#page=77">My current research</a> is concerned with the military violence’s effect on daily routines, personal relationships and values.</p>
<p>Between 2015 and 2017, I traveled extensively within the country, participating in daily life and interviewing over 150 people, focusing especially on how people who had been displaced from Crimea and Donbas were coping with conflict.</p>
<p>People told me repeatedly that one of the most troubling features of the conflict was how it disrupted personal relationships. Civilians found themselves <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501767593/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">reassessing their personal ethics</a> as they struggled to prioritize competing obligations under the most challenging conditions.</p>
<h2>Competing loves</h2>
<p>Research on war’s <a href="https://world101.cfr.org/how-world-works-and-sometimes-doesnt/conflict/civilian-consequences-conflict">implications for civilians</a> has traditionally focused on <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG720.html">psychological trauma</a>, not interpersonal outcomes. Yet among the internally displaced people I interviewed, close to 70% had lost a relationship with friends, family or romantic partners, and this was among their top concerns.</p>
<p>The first reason was political: Relationships suffered because people took opposing sides. Take Larysa – who, like all my interviewees, I refer to with a pseudonym over concerns for their safety. Her mother and sister financially supported and ultimately went to work for the separatist governments in eastern Ukraine. <a href="https://savageminds.org/2016/07/25/fractal-kinship-europe-2016/">She held them responsible</a> for the death of her son, who was shot – by forces under the direction of leaders her mother and sister helped elect, with bullets they helped pay for – after he joined the Ukrainian forces.</p>
<p>The second reason was competing responsibilities to others, such as bringing children to safety versus staying to care for elders who refused to leave. A third reason was physical separation: displacement stressed even strong bonds. And a fourth explanation was that trauma made it difficult to maintain some relationships.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two older women in blue dresses hold hands outside a destroyed home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479724/original/file-20220817-18-nb9cqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Valentyna Kondratieva, 75, left, is comforted by a neighbor as they stand outside her damaged home, where she sustained injuries in a Russian rocket attack, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXRussiaUkraineWar/4f6fc7ae35f54b1295b6e38f8660e59f/photo?Query=ukraine&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=124763&currentItemNo=282">AP Photo/David Goldman</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second most prevalent factor – competing responsibilities – is especially interesting. Couples told me they had to balance the competing demands placed on them by their political convictions with responsibility for aging parents and children, along with the bonds they shared with each other. A concrete example is Luidmila, who sent her children to live with their grandparents so she could run a shelter that she and her husband had established on the front lines. Her husband was a pastor who ministered to the displaced, and they formed a close team. Other couples found it more difficult to find a common pathway through the conflict.</p>
<h2>Real-world decisions</h2>
<p>Under conditions of war, people face difficult choices about whom to care for. Philosophers and anthropologists who study how people navigate messy moral dilemmas in real life find they often base decisions <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137011459">based on their obligations to others</a>, rather than general principles about what’s “right” and “wrong.” Ethical imperatives like “if X, then Y” are poorly suited for the decisions civilians face in a war zone.</p>
<p>This theory of relational or <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137011459">care ethics</a> suggests that obligations derive less from rules <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-018-9873-7">than from relationships</a>, making them hard to codify. The bottom line, according to these thinkers, is that deliberation is based not so much on abstract principle as on empathy, and that relationships have value that is often neglected in moral philosophy and international relations.</p>
<p>How does this insight help us understand civilians’ lives during the war in Ukraine? My research documents how people <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501767593/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">found themselves entangled</a> in a conflict that had no sidelines.</p>
<p>I learned of people who made herculean efforts to deliver food and first aid supplies to the front, often using their own personal funds. Of course, this was defensive and nationally motivated, but it is also interpersonal. Take Oleksandra, whose father volunteered to fight in 2015. The Ukrainian military had issued him rigid leather boots that were too big. Oleksandra worked hard to purchase lighter ones in his size. Then she secured him a bulletproof vest, camouflage, a knife and special night-vision goggles. When we spoke, she was trying to find tactical gloves to prevent the gun from slipping in his sweaty hands and causing self-inflicted injuries. Her daily life was organized around supplying her father.</p>
<p>Oleksandra told me that she was not as concerned about her own displacement or even the conflict’s outcome as about her father’s survival. These decisions are at the basis of “<a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137011459">care ethics</a>.” Prioritizing her father’s welfare and that of her nation over her own meant dropping her studies at university and her job search and accepting that, as a sniper, he might be killing former neighbors and friends.</p>
<h2>Pivotal year</h2>
<p>Since <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-russia-invade-ukraine-178512">the Russian invasion of Ukraine</a> in February 2022, the stakes have only risen. What this looked like for civilians was making <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/13/putin-ukraine-russia-war-language-shibboleth-palyanitsya/">homemade Molotov cocktails</a>, assembling <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-using-hedgehogs-combat-russian-tanks-1686936">roadblocks called “hedgehogs</a>”; and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/26/ukraine-russia-roads-signs-facebook/">destroying road signs</a> to disorient Russian forces. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People hold packages above their heads in a crowd." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479723/original/file-20220817-14-mw8b5n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ukrainians hand over donated items that volunteers will transport across the front line and deliver to their relatives in territories occupied by Russia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RussiaUkraineWar/31a78ccfc72a4b5596238c0418196aef/photo?Query=ukraine&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=124763&currentItemNo=286">AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All of this is more than nationalism: It points to a recalibration of values and priorities at an everyday level. One example is the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-33728522">Black Tulip</a> or Cargo 200 groups, who <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/07/1113999223/these-ukrainian-volunteers-recover-soldiers-remains-to-return-them-to-their-fami#:%7E:text=The%20name%20of%20this%20operation,from%20the%20war%20in%20Afghanistan">retrieved dead bodies</a> from behind enemy lines while the Ukrainian government was unable to do so. As I elaborate in <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501767593/everyday-war/#bookTabs=1">my forthcoming book, “Everyday War</a>,” they were willing to go into rebel-held territory for days at a time to restore the dignity of the dead, despite the costs for their psyches and their families.</p>
<p>Retrieval teams did their work partly out of patriotism. But they also felt an obligation to the noncombatants in Russian-occupied territories. Several years ago, when one humanitarian volunteer I interviewed discovered that authorities in occupied territories in the east weren’t allowing imports of medicines like insulin, he had a thought: What, besides insulin, needs to be kept cool? Dead bodies! He rushed out to buy clean body bags so he could smuggle insulin in vans that were going in empty to bring bodies out.</p>
<p>My main point is not that people like this were altruistic or even nationalistic, but that they balanced their caring for people they had never met with care for themselves and loved ones. Relationships reveal how priorities overlapped, intersected and were continually being reassessed.</p>
<p>Ukrainians who had been forcibly displaced were deeply concerned about their relationships, but they also reported unprecedented levels of care from people they didn’t know. Paradoxically, places where the military conflict penetrated residential spaces were also places where caring thrived.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Greta Uehling was a Fulbright scholar between 2015 and 2017. </span></em></p>An anthropologist explains how years of conflict have made Ukrainians reassess their priorities and relationships.Greta Uehling, Lecturer, Program in International and Comparative Studies, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1864552022-08-09T16:37:53Z2022-08-09T16:37:53Z5 ways students can foster positive mental health at university<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477730/original/file-20220804-5530-8jvjku.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C241%2C5009%2C3095&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">If you feel like you are struggling with your mental health, re-connect with a trusted friend, family member or peer.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(The Gender Spectrum Collection)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many students, heading off to university means moving away from home and to a new place, facing the prospect of making new friends or adjusting to larger class sizes. For some it will also mean readapting to in-person learning. </p>
<p>Amid the normal <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-help-high-school-seniors-cope-with-milestones-missed-due-to-coronavirus-139147">life transitions from teenage years into adulthood, the pandemic introduced new stressors</a> and interruptions, instigating changes to most people’s daily lives and routines. Students may have experienced additional challenges such as reduced social contact with friends and supports. </p>
<p>These factors, individually or collectively, can <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpubh.2022.898556">negatively impact learning and lead to worsening mental health</a>. Our research shows that during the pandemic, one in three university students reported <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpsyt.2021.777251">elevated rates of anxiety and depression</a>. This means that a large portion of students experienced feelings of sadness, hopelessness and/or excessive worry.</p>
<p>The transition to a new school year will be an important time to focus on strategies for fostering positive mental health and well-being in addition to recognizing signs that help may be needed.</p>
<p>Below, we provide five strategies to help set students up for success as they embark on a new academic year.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="University campus steps seen across a field." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477731/original/file-20220804-2246-417sgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The transition into a new school year is a good time to proactively consider how to foster positive well-being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<h2>1. Show yourself empathy and compassion</h2>
<p>If you found yourself feeling unmotivated and stressed during the pandemic, you are not alone. Many students struggled with mental health concerns <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593">prior to</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389%2Ffpsyt.2021.777251">and during</a>, the pandemic. </p>
<p>During tough times, being understanding, empathetic and practising self-compassion can improve your mental health. </p>
<p>This means approaching upsetting emotions without judgment, rather than ignoring them, and showing yourself care instead of criticism. These practices can improve your mood and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309032">help you cope</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, when friends and loved ones need support, there are ways to show them empathy and compassion. This might involve listening to them without judgement and validating their feelings.</p>
<h2>2. Re-connect or get connected</h2>
<p>Research shows that we <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-021-00663-x">feel better when we feel supported</a>. </p>
<p>If you feel like you are struggling with your mental health, re-connect with a trusted friend, family member or peer. Setting yourself up for positive well-being this school year might also involve making new connections through participation in on- or off-campus clubs or groups.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mindfulness-moves-beyond-self-help-to-build-community-connections-129741">Mindfulness moves beyond self-help to build community connections</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. Recognize when you’re struggling</h2>
<p>Transitions can be challenging and it is a good idea to ask for help when you need it. This could be to a friend, a family member or an academic advisor. Before reaching out to someone we trust, we first must recognize when we are struggling.</p>
<p>It is important to take stock of how we are feeling and notice when we feel different from our usual selves. Sometimes, short-lived changes occur, including having more or less energy than usual, sleeping more or less than usual, losing interest in things we used to enjoy and shifts in mood, like feeling more sad, angry, irritable or worried. </p>
<p>When these changes are <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-recognizing-signs-of-child-and-youth-mental-distress-a-guide-for/">sustained over weeks or months</a>, it’s a good indication that you should reach out for help. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A person sitting at their computer looking pensive." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/477738/original/file-20220804-15-8c2quj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">It is important to take stock of how we are feeling and notice when we feel different from our usual selves.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>4. Access available mental health services</h2>
<p>The age at which students attend university coincides with an increase in experiencing <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.831349">mental health challenges</a>. People are only able to deal with so many stressors on their own, and many students are having to face more stress and uncertainty during this pandemic.</p>
<p>When our lives and routines feel unpredictable and uncontrollable, our mental health often suffers. If you notice that you aren’t feeling like yourself, access mental health resources available on campus. These can usually be found on university websites or through campus wellness centres.</p>
<h2>5. Practise self-care and do things you enjoy</h2>
<p>Post-secondary education can be a demanding experience. To cope with stress, prevent burnout and improve your mood, try incorporating self-care practices and leisure activities into your routine. This may involve improving sleep hygiene, trying to eat healthy meals, putting aside time to read a good book or socializing with friends. </p>
<p>Taking even short breaks from school responsibilities and making time for yourself can contribute to your <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2016.1157488">well-being</a>. Need some more suggestions? <a href="https://timely.md/blog/self-care-tips-for-college-students/">Here is a list</a> of self-care tips.</p>
<p>It is important to set ourselves up for success by taking steps to foster well-being, both in and beyond a pandemic. This includes taking time to reach out to our support networks, show care and compassion to ourselves and to others and reaching out to professional mental health resources when in need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenney Zhu receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elisabeth Bailin Xie receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Alberta Innovates. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sheri Madigan receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Alberta Children's Hospital Foundation, and the Canada Research Chairs program.</span></em></p>The transition to a new school year will be an important time for students to focus on strategies for fostering positive mental health and well-being, and recognizing signs that help may be needed.Jenney Zhu, PhD student, Clinical Psychology, University of CalgaryElisabeth Bailin Xie, PhD student, Department of Psychology, University of CalgarySheri Madigan, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, Owerko Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, University of CalgaryLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851912022-06-23T20:08:22Z2022-06-23T20:08:22ZCompassion in health care reduces health inequality for 2SLGBTQ+ people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470188/original/file-20220622-7816-2b6wzi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=266%2C115%2C1232%2C749&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An image from the comic 'Compassion' by Kayleigh Fine, which was commissioned to illustrate the importance of compassionate care for 2SLGBTQ+ people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Kayleigh Fine)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/compassion-in-health-care-reduces-health-inequality-for-2slgbtq+-people" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Compassion is more than being nice and can be viewed in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004">many different ways</a>. Philosophers, religious leaders and scientists from different parts of the world have all discussed the meanings of compassion within their own contexts. It can be described as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018807">distinct emotion</a>, a virtue or a way of life that recognizes the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2011.564831">pain and suffering of others</a>. Compassion can be a means to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309027">self-healing</a> and feeling our common humanity. </p>
<p>But compassion is also action: a “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240.2018.1439828">form of engagement with the world</a>.” Compassion has the potential to positively <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-018-0833-1">transform social systems</a> or the potential to reinforce current beliefs that can separate people.</p>
<p>Some have even <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40284238">critiqued</a> the concept of compassion, particularly from a Western perspective, as an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09552367.2019.1584970">emotion that is focused on oneself</a> and leads to the comparisons of the self with others.</p>
<p>Within Western health-care systems, there is growing recognition that compassion is an essential component for positive health and well-being. There have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2021-012">calls for compassion</a> to be a greater part of the care processes of health professions and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.01.025">training of health professionals</a>. </p>
<p>Researchers have shown that as little as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.1999.17.1.371">40 seconds of compassion</a> have made positive differences in patients’ experiences and health. In those 40 seconds, compassion can be expressed by acknowledging patient concerns, showing support, acting as a partner and validating emotions. </p>
<h2>Compassion and health care for 2SLGBTQ+ people</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People wearing medical scrubs march in a parade carrying a banner reading LGBTQ Doctors and Allies, with rainbow coloured circles with stethoscopes in them" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470670/original/file-20220623-56660-syb48a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heteronormativity and cis-normativkty can create health disparities for 2SLGBTQ+ people, as well as barriers to accessing safe and inclusive care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Accessing and receiving compassionate health care, however, is often not possible for many groups, including Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual identities, such as pansexual or asexual (2SLGBTQ+) individuals.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2524.2009.00902.x">Heteronormativity</a> — the assumption that all people are straight — and cis-normativity — the assumption that all people are distinctly either a man or a woman — create many <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2019.1643499">health disparities for 2SLGBTQ+ people. They also create barriers</a> to accessing safe and inclusive care.</p>
<p>Heteronormativity and cis-normativity can lead to fear, ignorance, prejudice and acts of violence towards 2SLGBTQ+ in Canada. Research has shown that education on these topics during training for health-care professionals is beneficial, but physicians have reported <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2020.1852087">a lack of advanced knowledge on 2SLGBTQ+ issues</a>. There is a <a href="http://www.cgshe.ca/app/uploads/2019/11/Health_LGBTQIA2_Communities.pdf">growing recognition for the need</a> of more 2SLGBTQ+ health training and more funding for 2SLGBTQ+ health research.</p>
<h2>Transformative compassion study</h2>
<p>The aim of our forthcoming research, to be published in the journal <em><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/home/qhr">Qualitative Health Research</a></em>, was to explore the meanings of compassion for 2SLGBTQ+ individuals. </p>
<p>In our study — carried out at Mount Saint Vincent University — we talked with 20 self-identifying 2SLGBTQ+ people from across Canada. In online interviews, we asked them to share experiences of compassion (or non-compassion) and to tell us about their beliefs and values about compassion. Many of the things our participants shared were about compassion and health. </p>
<p>In our findings, we explored the meanings and expectations of compassion in health care for our participants. As one them said: “Good health care has to have compassion at the core.” Several of our participants noted that comfort, safety, inclusive language and awareness and understanding of the shared trauma that many 2SLGBTQ+ individuals suffer are essential components for health care to be compassionate. </p>
<h2>Compassionate health care is not guaranteed</h2>
<p>Another participant believed that when “<em>…you’re accessing the health-care system you would expect compassion from the health-care system. I know a lot of people, queer or not, don’t have that experience. Compassion isn’t guaranteed in health care, but when it’s found it’s celebrated</em>.” </p>
<p>For example, this participant described their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in which their doctor showed compassion to them by including their partner: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“COVID brought out this huge experience of shared humanity among all kinds of different people… a lot of compassion showed through in those first early months, where we’re all in this together.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Compassionate comics</h2>
<p>We wanted to share the beliefs and experiences expressed in the study as a means to start conversations about compassion, and to work towards creating awareness about the power of compassion to positively transform the lives, health and well-being. We have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1386/jaah_00066_1">previously used comics</a> as a means to <a href="https://doi.org/10.32920/cd.v5i2.1414">share our research</a>, and chose to do so again. </p>
<p>To create our compassionate comics, we enlisted the talents of 12 2SLGBTQ+ artists from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Greece. We asked each of them to illustrate stories told by our participants. </p>
<p>For example, a few participants used the HIV/AIDS crisis as an historic example of both the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/s1055-3290(06)60185-4">non-compassion in the health-care system</a> and the power of compassion to change systems. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of people holding homophobic signs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=271&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469617/original/file-20220619-21-45obx.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excerpt from the comic ‘Remember’ by David Winters showing the hate and stigma people living with HIV and AIDS often face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Winters)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As one participant related: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“When I was in my 20s, the AIDS crisis was at its peak, and although in the long run I think that inspired compassion among the general public, at the time there was a lot of negativity. A lot of blaming of people, blaming of behaviours. A lot of religious nastiness. So, over time that has changed and I think media had a lot to do with it. And the organization of the queer community during the AIDS crisis — and I think more visibility — humanized people to the general public in a way that hadn’t happened before.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration from a comic of a nurse and a patient in silhouette within a circle." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469616/original/file-20220619-20-p9460s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excerpt from the comic ‘Remember’ by David Winters showing the compassion given by a nurse.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Winters)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This story is reflected in a comic entitled “<em>Remember</em>” by Canadian artist David Winters. In the 10-page story, a nurse walks through a crowd of anti-gay protesters outside her hospital to go to work. She shows compassion to a dying man by listening and showing understanding to him when others did not. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration of an older woman sitting on a bench looking at a group of men, with the caption 'In the end I couldn't do much but the proudest thing I can say I did for them was listen. And I remember.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469618/original/file-20220619-24-yvgyvr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excerpt from the comic ‘Remember’ by David Winters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(David Winters)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our study results are reflective of only a few voices from the 2SLGBTQ+ umbrella, so we cannot make overarching generalizations. However, we can suggest that compassion was seen as a central and critical component for good care. </p>
<p>We suggest that in order to truly transform health care, we must examine and challenge assumptions of sexuality and gender in health-care practices and systems. Doing this will help all people feel comfort, safety and understanding — in other words, compassion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip Joy receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megan Aston was a co-investigator on the research study that received funding from SSHRC </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Accessing compassionate health care is often difficult for Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other sexual identities, such as pansexual or asexual individuals (2SLGBTQ+).Phillip Joy, Assistant Professor, Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityAndrew Thomas, Research assistant, Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityMegan Aston, Professor, School of Nursing, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1786772022-03-14T10:22:17Z2022-03-14T10:22:17ZAn excess of empathy can be bad for your mental health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451368/original/file-20220310-25-o8kdb6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C27%2C6048%2C3983&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-watching-tv-living-room-reacts-2019493745">Anton27/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you found yourself irritable, sad or close to tears when watching the news lately? If so, you are not alone. </p>
<p>Experiencing empathy has its benefits, but there are also many downsides to it, which is why we must learn to practise healthy empathy.</p>
<p>Empathy is an ability to sync emotionally and cognitively with another person; it is a capacity to perceive a world from their perspective or share their <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118468197.ch8">emotional experiences</a>. It is essential for building and maintaining relationships, as it helps us connect with others at a deeper level. It is also associated with higher <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26348495/">self-esteem and life purpose</a>. </p>
<p>There are broadly two types of empathy: cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Emotional empathy is about sharing feelings with others to the extent that you may experience pain when watching someone in pain, or experience distress when watching <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/psyp.13889?casa_token=ZqkWX7u8BFsAAAAA:YZPVKP_cvBIyDkH0AO5knWfez6yPHcRXiZ4Dv-uRDIyPzk8MizKOXhEsGam9BhETF6K6eOC4sp0aL-KX">someone in distress</a>. This is what happens to many people when they watch upsetting news on TV, especially when they relate to <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2020.588978/full">specific people and their lives</a>. </p>
<p>But emotional empathy isn’t just about experiencing negative emotions. Empathetic people may experience an abundance of positivity when watching other people’s joy, happiness, excitement, or serenity and can get more out of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13415-020-00861-x">music and other daily pleasures</a>.</p>
<p>While this emotional contagion is suitable for positive states, having too much empathy when watching people suffer can be very upsetting and even lead to mental health problems. Too much empathy towards others, especially when we prioritise other people’s emotions over our own, may result in experiences of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pchj.482?casa_token=GW6T-pf4eTIAAAAA:fuKDDvir1evFCXpSdenHpNLdtrUGb3Yz3huDdmz_T9fi0gTrldvBUbGhN_xLZZSfhBRwguLftUtx1CPc">anxiety and depression</a>, which explains why so many of us feel bad when watching the news about the war in Ukraine. </p>
<p>The other type of empathy – cognitive empathy – refers to seeing the world through other people’s eyes, seeing it from their perspective, putting ourselves into their shoes without necessarily experiencing the associated <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03395534">emotions</a> and, for example, watching the news and understanding at a cognitive level why people feel despair, distress or anger. This process may lead to emotional empathy or even somatic empathy, where empathy has a physiological effect (somatic being from the ancient Greek word “soma” meaning body).</p>
<p>The effect of empathy on the body has been well documented. For example, parents experiencing high levels of empathy towards their children tend to have chronic low-grade inflammation, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26348495/">leading to lower immunity</a>. Also, our heart beats to the same rhythm when we <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051121000727?casa_token=CCbL-W_HJcEAAAAA:JlkD7FTzlQhtn49jxA8Mb1Qrqt11atZwqJ2HnsOyyUEaBnefiX2Y_oGp9VBxjhrG3YTRufJkyg">empathise with others</a>. So the impact of empathy when watching the news is both psychological and physiological. In some circumstances, it may result in what some refer to as <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1322769619301672">“compassion fatigue”</a>. </p>
<h2>Misnomer</h2>
<p>The burnout experienced by excessive empathy has traditionally been termed compassion fatigue. But more recently, using MRI studies, neuroscientists have argued that this is a misnomer, and that compassion does not cause fatigue. The distinction is important because it turns out that compassion is the antidote to the distress we feel when we empathise with people who are suffering. We need <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1322769619301672">less empathy and more compassion</a>.</p>
<p>Empathy and compassion are distinct events in the brain. Empathy for another person’s pain activates areas in the brain associated with negative emotions. Because we feel the other person’s pain, the boundary between the self and others can become blurred if we do not have good boundaries or self-regulation skills and we experience “<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214007702">emotional contagion</a>”.</p>
<p>We get entangled in the distress and find it hard to soothe our emotions. We want to depersonalise, become numb, and look away. In contrast, compassion is associated with activity in areas of the brain associated with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128053089000208?via%3Dihub">positive emotions and action</a>.</p>
<p>Compassion can be defined simply as empathy plus action to alleviate another person’s pain. The action part of compassion helps us decouple our emotional system from others and see that we are separate individuals. We do not have to feel their pain when we witness it. Instead, we have the feeling of wanting to help. And we have a rewarding, positive emotional experience when we feel compassion towards another.</p>
<p>Here are three ways to practice compassion while watching the news.</p>
<p>1. <strong>Practice loving-kindness meditation</strong></p>
<p>When you are overwhelmed by the news, practice loving-kindness mediation, where you focus on sending love to yourself, people you know, and those you don’t know who are suffering. </p>
<p>If we can create a buffer of positive emotions with compassion, we can think about how to practically help and act in overwhelming situations. Training your “compassion muscles” provides a buffer against the negative emotions so that you can be better motivated to help and not get <a href="https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0013262">overwhelmed by the distressing emotions</a>. </p>
<p>Loving-kindness meditation does not reduce negative emotions. Instead, it increases activation in areas of the brain associated with positive emotions like love, hope, connection and reward. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LkC0K1F8nPk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How to practice loving-kindness meditation.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>2. <strong>Practice self-compassion</strong></p>
<p>Are you beating yourself up for not being able to help? Or feeling guilty about your life while other people suffer? Try <a href="https://self-compassion.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/SCtheoryarticle.pdf">being kind to yourself</a>. Remember that while our suffering is always specific to us, it is not uncommon. We share a common humanity of all experiencing some kind of suffering. While being mindful of your suffering, also try to not over-identify with it. These acts of self-compassion help reduce the distress experienced in empathic burnout and <a href="https://cih.ucsd.edu/sites/cih.ucsd.edu/files/cfm/SCHC%20Research%20-%20Caring%20for%20Others%20Without%20Losing%20Yourself.pdf">improves feelings of wellbeing</a> </p>
<p>3. <strong>Take action</strong> </p>
<p>Empathic distress evokes negative feelings, such as stress, and prompts us to withdraw and be unsociable. In contrast, compassion produces positive feelings of love for another. It prompts us to take action. Most specifically <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214007702">compassion helps motivate sociability</a>. One way to [counter empathic distress] is to get involved: donate, volunteer, organise. </p>
<p>4. <strong>Stop doomscrolling</strong></p>
<p>Understandably, we look for information in times of crisis. It helps us be prepared. However, doomscrolling – continually scrolling through and reading depressing or worrying content on a social media or news site, especially on a phone – is <a href="https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(20)30274-9/fulltext">not helpful</a>. </p>
<p>Research on social media engagement during the pandemic showed that we need to be mindful of our news consumption to avoid increases in stress and negative emotions. To avoid the news altogether is unrealistic, but limiting our consumption is helpful. Another suggestion is to balance our media consumption by seeking out stories of acts of kindness (kindscrolling?), which can <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0257728">lift our mood</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Here are three steps for overcoming the distress caused by a surfeit of empathy.Trudy Meehan, Lecturer, Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health SciencesJolanta Burke, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Positive Psychology and Health, RCSI University of Medicine and Health SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1712882022-01-31T13:01:21Z2022-01-31T13:01:21ZThere is much more to mindfulness than the popular media hype<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444116/original/file-20220202-27-14try7r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C9%2C2108%2C1365&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Have the benefits of meditation been overhyped in the West?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/praying-posture-royalty-free-image/1051055894?adppopup=true">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mindfulness is seemingly everywhere these days. A Google search I conducted in January 2022 for the term “mindfulness” resulted in almost 3 billion hits. The practice is now routinely offered in workplaces, schools, psychologists’ offices and hospitals all across the country. </p>
<p>Most of the public enthusiasm for mindfulness stems from the reputation it has for reducing stress. But scholars and researchers who work on mindfulness, and the Buddhist tradition itself, paint a more complex picture than does the popular media. </p>
<h2>Medicalizing meditation</h2>
<p>Mindfulness originated in the Buddhist practice of “anapana-sati,” a Sanskrit phrase that means “awareness of breath.” Buddhist historian <a href="https://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/ecb2j">Erik Braun</a> has <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/the-insight-revolution/">traced the origins of the contemporary popularity of meditation</a> to colonial Burma – modern-day Myanmar – in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Meditation, which was practiced almost exclusively inside monasteries until then, was introduced to the general public in a simplified format that was easier to learn. </p>
<p>The gradual spread of meditation from that time to the present is a surprisingly complex story.</p>
<p>In the U.S., meditation first started to be practiced among <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mind-cure-9780190864248">diverse communities of spiritual seekers</a> as early as the 19th century. It was adopted by <a href="https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/mindfulness-in-psychotherapy/">professional psychotherapists</a> in the early 20th century. By the 21st century, it had become <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/mindful-america-9780199827817">a mass-marketing phenomenon</a> promoted by celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra and Gwyneth Paltrow. </p>
<p>The process of translating the Buddhist practice of meditation across cultural divides transformed the practice in significant ways. Modern meditation often has different goals and priorities than traditional Buddhist meditation. It tends to focus on stress reduction, mental health or concrete benefits in daily life instead of spiritual development, liberation or enlightenment. </p>
<p>A pivotal moment in this transformation was the creation of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) protocol by <a href="https://profiles.umassmed.edu/display/130749">Jon Kabat-Zinn</a>, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, in 1979. The stress reduction program introduced a standardized way of teaching meditation to patients so that its health benefits could be more rigorously measured by scientists. </p>
<p>Research on this new kind of “medicalized” mindfulness began to gather steam in the past two decades. As of today there are over 21,000 research articles on mindfulness in the National Library of Medicine’s <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov">online database</a> — two and a half times as many articles as have been published on yoga, tai chi and reiki combined. </p>
<h2>Scientific evidence vs. mindfulness hype</h2>
<p>Medical researchers themselves have had a far more measured opinion about the benefits of meditation than the popular press.</p>
<p>For example, a 2019 meta-analysis, which is a review of many individual scientific studies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-021815-093423">pointed out</a> that the evidence for the benefits of mindfulness and other meditation-based interventions has “significant limitations” and that the research has “methodological shortcomings.” </p>
<p>Based on their review of the scientific literature, the authors warned against falling prey to “mindfulness hype.” On the positive side, they found various forms of meditation to be more or less comparable to the conventional therapies currently used to treat depression, anxiety, chronic pain and substance use. On the other hand, they concluded that more evidence is needed before any strong claims can be made regarding treatment of conditions such as attention disorders, PTSD, dysregulated eating or serious mental illnesses. </p>
<p>More troubling, some researchers are even beginning to suggest that a certain percentage of patients may experience <a href="https://www.brown.edu/research/labs/britton/research/varieties-contemplative-experience">negative side effects</a> from the practice of meditation, including increased anxiety, depression or, in extreme cases, even psychosis. While the causes of these side effects are not yet fully understood, it is evident that for some patients, therapeutic meditation is far from the panacea it is often made out to be. </p>
<h2>Putting mindfulness back into context</h2>
<p>As a <a href="http://www.piercesalguero.com/academic/">historian of the relationship between Buddhism and medicine</a>, I argue that mindfulness can be a beneficial practice for many people, but that we should understand the broader context in which it developed and has been practiced for centuries. Mindfulness is one small part of a diverse range of healing techniques and perspectives the Buddhist tradition has developed and maintained over many centuries. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Buddhist monks in orange robes praying" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443191/original/file-20220128-19-bxd6go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Mindfulness is one small part of the healing techniques forwarded by Buddhism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/buddhist-monks-praying-royalty-free-image/185091185?adppopup=true">FredFroese/iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span>
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<p>In a recent book, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/a-global-history-of-buddhism-and-medicine/9780231185271">I have traced the global history</a> of the many ways that the religion has contributed to the development of medicine over the past 2,400 years or so. Buddhist tradition advocates countless contemplations, devotional practices, herbal remedies, dietary advice and ways of synchronizing the human body with the environment and the seasons, all of which are related to healing. </p>
<p>These ideas and practices are enormously influential <a href="http://www.jivaka.net/global/">around the world</a> as well as in Buddhist communities <a href="http://www.jivaka.net/philly/">in the U.S.</a> Such interventions have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-buddhists-handle-coronavirus-the-answer-is-not-just-meditation-137966">particularly visible during the COVID-19 pandemic</a> – for example, through the medical charity of major international Buddhist organizations as well as through health advice given by high-profile monastics such as the Dalai Lama. </p>
<p>Buddhism has always had a lot to say about health. But perhaps the most significant of its many contributions is its teaching that our physical and mental well-being are intricately intertwined – not only with each other, but also with the health and vitality of all living beings. </p>
<p>Medicalized meditation is now a self-help commodity that generates over US$1 billion per year, leading some critics to label it “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600158/mcmindfulness-by-ronald-purser/">McMindfulness</a>.” But placing mindfulness back into a Buddhist ethical context shows that it is not enough to simply meditate to reduce our own stress or to more effectively navigate the challenges of the modern world. </p>
<p>As I argue in my <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691081/buddhish-by-c-pierce-salguero/">most recent book</a>, Buddhist ethics asks us to look up from our meditation cushions and to look out beyond our individual selves. It asks us to appreciate how everything is interconnected and how our actions and choices influence our lives, our society and the environment. The emphasis, even while healing ourselves, is always on becoming agents of compassion, healing and well-being for the whole.</p>
<p>[<em>This Week in Religion, a global roundup each Thursday.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-global-roundup">Sign up.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171288/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pierce Salguero does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar studying the relationship of Buddhism and medicine explains how the popular media has misrepresented mindfulness.Pierce Salguero, Associate Professor of Asian History & Religious Studies, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754952022-01-22T00:03:20Z2022-01-22T00:03:20ZThich Nhat Hanh, who worked for decades to teach mindfulness, approached death in that same spirit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442042/original/file-20220121-17-14t1rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C13%2C2910%2C1877&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh praying during a three-day requiem for the souls of Vietnam War victims in 2007.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/zen-buddhist-monk-leader-thich-nhat-hanh-prays-during-a-news-photo/73929011?adppopup=true">Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thich Nhat Hanh, the monk who popularized <a href="https://www.mindful.org/meditation-is-the-fastest-growing-health-trend-in-america/">mindfulness in the West</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/world/asia/thich-nhat-hanh-dead.html">died in the Tu Hieu Temple in Hue, Vietnam, on Jan. 21, 2022</a>. He was 95. </p>
<p>In 2014, Thich Nhat Hanh suffered a stroke. Since then he was unable to speak or continue his teaching. In October 2018 he <a href="https://plumvillage.org/news/thich-nhat-hanh-returns-to-vietnam/">expressed his wish</a>, using gestures, to return to the temple in Vietnam where he had been ordained as a young monk. Devotees from many parts of the world had continued to visit him at the temple. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh on a wheelchair wearing a purple robe and surrounded by monks in similar robes." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/442043/original/file-20220121-13-101xlz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Thich Nhat Hanh in a wheelchair at the Tu Hieu pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/this-photo-taken-on-november-15-2018-shows-92-year-old-news-photo/1063588800?adppopup=true">Manan Vatsyayana/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>As a scholar of the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Thailands-International-Meditation-Centers-Tourism-and-the-Global-Commodification/Schedneck/p/book/9780415819589">contemporary practices of Buddhist meditation</a>, I have studied his simple yet profound teachings, which combine mindfulness along with social change, and which I believe will continue to have an impact around the world. </p>
<h2>Peace activist</h2>
<p>In the 1960s, Thich Nhat Hanh played an active role promoting peace during the years of war in Vietnam. He was in his mid-20s when he became <a href="https://plumvillage.org/about/thich-nhat-hanh/biography/">active</a> in efforts to revitalize Vietnamese Buddhism for peace efforts.</p>
<p>Over the next few years, Thich Nhat Hanh set up a number of organizations based on Buddhist principles of nonviolence and compassion. His <a href="https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/thich-nhat-hanh">School of Youth and Social Service</a>, a grassroots relief organization, consisted of 10,000 volunteers and social workers offering aid to war-torn villages, rebuilding schools and establishing medical centers. </p>
<p>He also established the <a href="https://orderofinterbeing.org/about/our-history/">Order of Interbeing</a>, a community of monastics and lay Buddhists who made a commitment to compassionate action and supported war victims. In addition, he founded a Buddhist university, a publishing house and a peace activist magazine as ways to spread the message of compassion.</p>
<p>In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh traveled to the United States and Europe to appeal for peace in Vietnam.</p>
<p>In lectures delivered across many cities, he compellingly described the war’s devastation, spoke of the Vietnamese people’s wish for peace and appealed to the U.S. to <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1966/5/31/thich-nhat-hanh-on-vietnam-pthich/">cease its air offensive</a> against Vietnam. </p>
<p>During his years in the U.S. he met Martin Luther King Jr., who nominated him for the <a href="https://charterforcompassion.org/practicing-peace/thich-nhat-hanh-and-martin-luther-king">Nobel Peace Prize</a> in 1967. </p>
<p>However, because of his peace work and refusal to choose sides in his country’s civil war, both the communist and noncommunist governments banned him, forcing Thich Nhat Hanh to live in exile for over 40 years. </p>
<p>During these years, the emphasis of his message shifted from the immediacy of the Vietnam War to being present in the moment – an idea that has come to be called “mindfulness.” </p>
<h2>Being aware of the present moment</h2>
<p>Thich Nhat Hanh first started teaching mindfulness in the mid-1970s. The main vehicle for his early teachings was his books. In “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=0RMJU5e-4YcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=editions:k86p2DlABRAC&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimzOa2wqPgAhUB5awKHVOdCZ0Q6AEINjAC#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Miracle of Mindfulness</a>,” for example, Thich Nhat Hanh gave simple instructions on how to apply mindfulness to daily life. </p>
<p>In his book
“<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=R4CbtfeExO0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=you+are+here+thich+nhat+hanh&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjy4oLK3qTgAhWNg-AKHd0JDUIQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=you%20are%20here%20thich%20nhat%20hanh&f=false">You Are Here</a>,” he urged people to pay attention to what they were experiencing in their body and mind at any given moment, and not dwell in the past or think of the future. His emphasis was on the awareness of the breath. He taught his readers to say internally, “I’m breathing in; this is an in-breath. I’m breathing out; this is an out-breath.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263993/original/file-20190314-28479-cwi0sh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized that mindfulness could be practiced anywhere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-relaxing-enjoying-sun-warmth-park-296425169">Antonio Guillem/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>People interested in practicing meditation didn’t need to spend days at a meditation retreat or find a teacher. His <a href="https://plumvillage.org/news/memories-from-the-root-temple-washing-dishes/">teachings</a> emphasized that mindfulness could be practiced anytime, even when doing routine chores. </p>
<p>Even doing the dishes, people could simply focus on the activity and be fully present. Peace, happiness, joy and true love, he said, could be found only in the present moment. </p>
<h2>Mindfulness in America</h2>
<p>Hanh’s mindfulness practices don’t advocate disengagement with the world. Rather, in his view, the practice of mindfulness could <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/the-fourteen-precepts-of-engaged-buddhism/">lead one toward</a> “compassionate action,” like practicing openness to others’ viewpoints and sharing material resources with those in need.</p>
<p>Jeff Wilson, a scholar of American Buddhism, argues in his book “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NPD8AwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=mindful+america&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjp59T2w6PgAhUFbK0KHb-LDJQQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=mindful%20america&f=false">Mindful America</a>” that it was Hanh’s combination of daily mindfulness practices with <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/the-fourteen-precepts-of-engaged-buddhism/">action in the world</a> that contributed to the earliest strands of the mindfulness movement. This movement eventually became what Time magazine in 2014 called the “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,2163560,00.html">mindful revolution</a>.” The article argues that the power of mindfulness lies in its universality, as the practice has entered into corporate headquarters, political offices, parenting guides and diet plans.</p>
<p>For Thich Nhat Hanh, however, mindfulness was not a means to a more productive day but a way of understanding “<a href="http://www.parallax.org/product/interbeing/">interbeing</a>,” the connection and codependence of everyone and everything. In a documentary, “<a href="http://walkwithmefilm.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAnNXiBRCoARIsAJe_1cr-ymrRJHhZRXUEshKpaHdU2vMXKgXHMBy5V3gCWmtpbSkZZFEpPuUaArQeEALw_wcB">Walk With Me</a>,” he illustrated interbeing in the following way:</p>
<p>A young girl asks him how to deal with the grief of her recently deceased dog. He instructs her to look into the sky and watch a cloud disappear. The cloud has not died but has become the rain and the tea in the teacup. Just as the cloud is alive in a new form, so is the dog. Being aware and mindful of the tea offers a reflection on the nature of reality. He believed this understanding could lead to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=K1RlODqU92oC&printsec=frontcover&dq=being+peace&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiK-p6Irp7gAhUInawKHR8cB4gQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=being%20peace&f=false">more peace in the world</a>. </p>
<h2>Thich Nhat Hanh’s lasting impact</h2>
<p>Thich Nhat Hanh will have a lasting impact through the legacy of his teachings in over 100 books, 11 global practice centers, over 1,000 global lay communities and dozens of online community groups. The disciples closest to him – the 600 monks and nuns ordained in his Plum Village tradition, along with lay teachers – have been planning to continue their teacher’s legacy for some time. </p>
<p>They have been <a href="https://www.parallax.org/authors/sister-dang-nghiem/">writing books</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/plumvillage">offering teachings</a> and <a href="https://plumvillage.org/articles/online-retreats-to-start-2021-with-plum-village-monastics/">leading retreats</a> for several decades now. In March 2020, the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation, along with Lion’s Roar, hosted an online summit called “<a href="https://promo.lionsroar.com/free-summit-thich-nhat-hanh/">In the Footsteps of Thich Nhat Hanh</a>” to make people aware of his teachings through the disciples he trained. </p>
<p>Although Thich Naht Hanh’s death will change the community, his practices for being aware in the present moment and creating peace will live on.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of a piece <a href="https://theconversation.com/thich-nhat-hanh-the-buddhist-monk-who-introduced-mindfulness-to-the-west-prepares-to-die-111142">first published</a> on March 18, 2019.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175495/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brooke Schedneck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, which earned him a global following, gave simple instructions on mindfulness and emphasized how it could be practiced anytime, even when doing routine chores.Brooke Schedneck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1719352021-12-16T03:01:25Z2021-12-16T03:01:25ZYour kid is having a meltdown in the supermarket. In tough parenting moments, here’s what you can do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437712/original/file-20211215-21-8nlwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/angry-little-kid-screaming-throwing-tantrum-1988939702">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You walk into a room. You are going to play a game. Your competitors? Other parents. </p>
<p>There will only be one winner. </p>
<p>You aim is to survive.</p>
<p>No, we’re not talking about Squid Game but Channel 9’s show <a href="https://9now.nine.com.au/parental-guidance">Parental Guidance</a>, which aired season one’s final episode last month. </p>
<p>Parents competed against one another to find the “best” parenting style. Is it the protective helicopter, the ambitious tiger, or the relaxed free-range? (<a href="https://9now.nine.com.au/parental-guidance/2021-recap-episode-9-wilderness-challenge-free-range-and-tiger-parents-winner-announced/4da61562-23ff-4c3d-814c-3ea7498e3072">Spoiler</a>: the free-range parents won.)</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-tiger-to-free-range-parents-what-research-says-about-pros-and-cons-of-popular-parenting-styles-57986">From tiger to free-range parents – what research says about pros and cons of popular parenting styles</a>
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<p>But parents on the show faced internal competition too, just as every parent does, every moment of every day. It is a competition between three systems that have evolved to help us survive: the threat system, the drive system and the soothing system. </p>
<p>And just as with Parental Guidance, one system is the ultimate “winner” for parenting. Let us explain.</p>
<h2>What are the three systems?</h2>
<p>British clinical psychologist Paul Gilbert’s <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30932302/">theory of evolution</a> helps us understand these three functional emotional systems. You can think of each one as a brain state with specific brain regions and chemistry. Once you are in a particular state, it will colour your world – what you see and how you act. </p>
<p>We switch between these systems, or states, depending on what is going on around, or inside, us. Each system evolved for a reason and each has its purpose and place. </p>
<p>The threat system motivates us to survive under conditions of threat. Think about stumbling across a lion after getting your morning coffee. Your threat system would automatically kick in. You’d feel more alert as your body would be flooded with fear. You’d have a surge of adrenaline and cortisol, feel anxiety, anger or disgust. You may fight the lion (if the odds are good), or flee in fear. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Angry lion." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437713/original/file-20211215-13-1bk8raw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Your threat system will kick in if you stumble upon a lion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/high-anxiety-how-i-use-mental-exercises-to-ease-my-fear-of-flying-44759">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Your threat system also helps you protect your child. It gives you the burst of alertness and energy to chase after a wandering toddler or stick up for your child at school or in the family. </p>
<p>The drive system is about seeking out good things – from food to falling in love. This system activates positive emotions such as excitement, pleasure or desire. It helps ensure parents have food on table and a roof over their family’s head, and prompts them to seek out fun family activities like a trip to the zoo.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/4-ways-to-get-your-kids-off-the-couch-these-summer-holidays-123918">4 ways to get your kids off the couch these summer holidays</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And then there’s the soothing system. This one’s about feeling calm and grounded and is vital to maintaining equilibrium. Guess what gets it going? Other people being kind and compassionate. It’s that warm, fuzzy, heart-warming feeling you get when you feel loved and give love to others. </p>
<p>The soothing system is activated by moments like lazy cuddles with your child in bed or snuggling up together to watch a favourite movie. In these moments, you feel a rush of feel-good chemicals: opiates and oxytocin (the chemical released after baby has been born). This makes it feel good being close to, and getting along with, others. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mother and daughter laughing on the couch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437715/original/file-20211215-27-18gz76l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The soothing system activates during nice moments with your child.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-young-attractive-mother-holding-on-1894397275">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So, why does all this matter? Because parenting often feels like a pressure cooker, and that leads to over-activation of the threat system.</p>
<p>No one should be blamed for this – after all, it’s evolution. The problem is, when your threat system is on, you probably feel anxious, down and like you are not good enough as a parent. You probably feel shame. </p>
<p>Research shows when parents feel shame they are more likely to resort to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225752627_Parent_Proneness_to_Shame_and_the_Use_of_Psychological_Control">controlling types of parenting</a> and the use of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31231263/">punishment</a>. Research also shows children of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856718319130">parents with anxiety disorders</a> are more likely to suffer anxiety themselves.</p>
<h2>So, what do you do?</h2>
<p>The best way to dampen down the threat system is to activate the soothing system.
And remember what does that – other people. We can deliberately practise love and compassion for ourselves, and others, to train our soothing system to respond more often.</p>
<p>Self-compassion is being aware of what sets off our pressure cooker and doing things to reduce the pressure. It’s also about treating ourselves the way we’d treat our closest friends. </p>
<p>Self-compassion might mean planning an easy dinner on a busy day, taking 20 minutes to relax with a good book, or simply giving yourself permission to make mistakes. </p>
<p>And we can give that compassion to our children, too. Science shows greater compassion in parenting is <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29029675/">associated with better relationships</a>, connection and resilience in children.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-anxiety-how-i-use-mental-exercises-to-ease-my-fear-of-flying-44759">High anxiety: how I use mental exercises to ease my fear of flying</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The situations that activate your parenting threat system are countless: your child screaming in a store or running around in a restaurant and refusing to calm down. </p>
<p>Your immediate reaction is most likely a threat response. You may feel angry at your child’s behaviour, or with yourself. While in truly threatening life-or-death situations such emotions help us take action, a threat response in a less dire situation might prime you to fight.</p>
<p>The first thing to do when you feel this anxiety is breathe. Slowly and deeply. And to become aware that your threat system is well and truly active. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Child breakdancing in restaurant." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437714/original/file-20211215-15-1m8jpzn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The best thing to do when your child is acting out is give yourself and them compassion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cute-adorable-boy-three-years-old-1553082788">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second thing is to remember children have the same threat system too. Part of our job is to lay down the soothing system for our children, until they can do it for themselves. So, tell your child you understand their pain. As Dr Justin Coulson, expert on Parental Guidance, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When someone is having a difficult time, behaving in a challenging way, they don’t need us to tell them that they are being silly, to calm down, to be quiet, to grow up. What they actually need is to have compassion […] to join them in their suffering […] to say, “It’s tough, isn’t it? How can I help?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>All parents have been down this path, and this is really hard. Ultimately, you will be okay. </p>
<p>None of us can be perfectly compassionate at every moment. And when we fail at being this, what should we do? Be compassionate, of course. Give yourself permission to be human and make mistakes, just as you do with your children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171935/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Parenting means internal competition between three evolved responses: the threat, drive and soothing system. The threat light is on often, but it can be dampened by tapping into the soothing system.Julia Caldwell, Clinical Psychologist and Researcher, The University of QueenslandKoa Whittingham, Psychologist and Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandPamela Meredith, Honorary Associate Professor, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland, and Professor of Occupational Therapy, University of the Sunshine CoastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1719422021-12-13T01:17:51Z2021-12-13T01:17:51ZDoctors are trained to be kind and empathetic – but a ‘hidden curriculum’ makes them forget on the job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434324/original/file-20211129-17-1kae8gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C30%2C6669%2C4365&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://image.shutterstock.com/image-photo/thank-you-doctor-smiling-thankful-600w-1971114932.jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Health-care professionals are often idealised, especially in recent times, as heroes. But meeting a physician can be an underwhelming experience. </p>
<p>Patients and families can find themselves on the receiving end of curt communications or seemingly uncaring attitudes. This is understandably disappointing. A worried, scared patient looks to the doctor not just as the person who will take the lead of the situation, but as someone who can understand their feelings and emotions. </p>
<p>The good news is doctors are trained to provide care and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1494899/">empathy</a>. The bad news is the training doesn’t always make a difference in the long run: a “hidden curriculum” of medical education can explain this.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hospital-emergency-departments-are-under-intense-pressure-what-to-know-before-you-go-169098">Hospital emergency departments are under intense pressure. What to know before you go</a>
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<h2>Teaching students empathy and communication</h2>
<p>In the 1990s, medical educators realised students’ training was too focused on biomedical sciences and did not take into account the experience of patients and their families. Most medical schools now invest considerable effort to make sure future doctors are well equipped to support their patients and be empathetic practitioners. </p>
<p>In the words of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-William-Osler-Baronet">William Osler</a> – who created the first residency program to get aspiring physicians out of the lecture theatre and bring them to the bedside: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This idea underpins most modern medical school curricula, with a focus on <a href="https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/partnering-consumers/person-centred-care">person-centred care</a>. In our medical school we deliver an extensive communication skills curriculum across the five-year program. In the first two years, the training covers verbal communication and body language, making decisions with the patient, not for the patient, and listening actively. At the end of this initial training, we are confident that students are sensitive, empathetic, and caring. </p>
<p>The patient-centred approach has been a feature of medical training for several decades, so we should be seeing a system dominated by those trained in this way. But we’re not and unfortunately, it isn’t just veteran medicos who are the problem. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ppH3n4cXkF4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Don’t be like Doctor House.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Learning to fit in</h2>
<p>Young and vibrant <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20636585/">new graduates lose at least some of their empathy</a> as they progress through medical school and postgraduate training. A series of unwritten and often unintended consequences of education, the “hidden curriculum” is what students learn without anyone teaching them. </p>
<p>First coined in 1968 for school settings by educational scholar <a href="https://news.uchicago.edu/story/philip-w-jackson-education-scholar-committed-childrens-flourishing-1928-2015">Philip Jackson</a>, the phenomenon went on to be identified in all areas of education, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9580717/">including medical training</a>. </p>
<p>After medical school, learners who enter a new environment start changing their views and their behaviours to align with those of the more senior members of the profession and “become part of the team”. Students who learn the unofficial rules of a clinical environment might be more easily accepted within the social group. But there are also negative consequences.</p>
<p>In the classroom, our students learn to pick up on cues from their patients, to use reflective listening and ask about their patients’ concerns. In the clinical environment, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33128262/">research shows</a> students do not see these skills used by the more experienced clinicians around them or the supervisors they look up to and want to impress. Soon, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19707055/">good habits can be replaced by poorer behaviours</a>. And, when the students become supervisors and mentors themselves, the cycle can continue. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/elW69hyPUuI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">We are in the middle of a compassion crisis says this ICU doctor.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making empathy the norm</h2>
<p>Empathetic, warm clinicians definitely exist. The challenge is to make these clinicians the norm rather than the exception and to change the environment so the hidden curriculum has a positive influence on students and graduates. </p>
<p>Researchers, educational institutions, health-care institutions and patients can create and maintain a clear cultural and organisational expectation for doctors to meet a minimum standard of communication skills. </p>
<p>Firstly, researchers can challenge assumptions about the way the health system prevents doctors from being empathetic. Time pressure is often cited as an excuse to cut short on human connection, but the evidence tells us meaningful, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27777231/">person-centred communication doesn’t take more time</a> than doctor-centred communication in a consultation. And strong empathetic connections can not only <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3529296/">improve patient outcomes</a> but also give doctors <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6960200/">greater job satisfaction</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1402237991939149827"}"></div></p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/true-grit-we-measured-it-and-found-it-protected-doctors-from-career-burnout-170628">True grit – we measured it and found it protected doctors from career burnout</a>
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<h2>Rewarding the good</h2>
<p>Academic health-care institutions such as teaching hospitals should improve their programs to support the doctors’ communication skills, and flood the system with empathetic doctors. They should also support new doctors so that work and study stress don’t cause burnout that can block empathy. </p>
<p>Patients should be encouraged to provide <a href="https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/288551">reviews of their doctors’ communication</a>, and identify both positive and negative examples of care. This feedback should be kept in consideration by the health-care system and professional organisations such as the Australian Medical Council. Good communication and empathy should be explicitly rewarded, recognised in employment and promotion processes.</p>
<p>It is each doctor’s responsibility to be the best doctor they can be – but they can’t do it alone. We can all contribute to make the environment better, and help medical students <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/200456">hold onto their empathy</a> as they become doctors.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/you-should-care-about-your-doctors-health-because-it-matters-to-yours-78039">You should care about your doctor's health, because it matters to yours</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171942/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s time to make caring doctors the norm, not the exception.Eleonora Leopardi, Lecturer in Clinical Education, University of NewcastleConor Gilligan, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1710812021-11-14T14:44:59Z2021-11-14T14:44:59ZHow to function in an increasingly polarized society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431621/original/file-20211112-19-ekrd3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Agreeing to disagree? Showing empathy or compassion about why someone holds opinions very different from yours can help defuse polarization.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Liza Summer/Pexels)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 175px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-to-function-in-an-increasingly-polarized-society" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Political <a href="https://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/documents/conference/2019/334.Johnston.pdf">polarization has been an increasing topic of concern</a> for people in many areas of their lives, rearing its head in everything from family get-togethers to workplace relationships and election campaigns.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 crisis <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02099-7/fulltext">has demonstrated that polarization</a> — extremes in opinions and/or an erosion of a more moderate political centre — <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/22/nation/fauci-decries-politicization-covid-19-vaccines-urges-people-get-their-shots-fight-their-common-enemy-deadly-virus/">can have real life-and-death consequences</a>. How to manage the stress of polarization and how to function when it surrounds us is now a necessary but underdeveloped skill for many of us.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/political-leaders-views-on-covid-19-risk-are-highly-infectious-in-a-polarized-nation-we-see-the-same-with-climate-change-147641">Political leaders’ views on COVID-19 risk are highly infectious in a polarized nation – we see the same with climate change</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>To function in an increasingly polarized society, we first need to know the source of the division. In politics, we often assume that disagreement stems from conflicts over policy directions. </p>
<p>Political science literature, however, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41684577">disputes this notion</a>. In fact, it’s not disagreement over policy that drives polarization, but rather our emotional feelings and perceptions about the nature of the world around us. </p>
<p>This is the compelling argument behind the book <a href="https://verdict.justia.com/2018/10/22/q-a-with-the-author-prius-or-pickup-how-the-answers-to-four-simple-questions-explain-americas-great-divide"><em>Prius or Pickup? How the Answers to Four Simple Questions Explain America’s Great Divide</em>, by American political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler</a>. Their work demonstrates how our emotional responses to ideas and events is deeply connected to our world views. </p>
<h2>Four questions</h2>
<p>We can gain significant insight into our own ideas on the nature of the world and how it relates to the views of others by answering some questions on childrearing:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Which of the following qualities are most important for children to have?</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Independence versus respect for elders</p></li>
<li><p>Obedience versus self-reliance</p></li>
<li><p>Curiosity versus good manners</p></li>
<li><p>Being considerate versus being well-behaved</p></li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>The more focused an individual is on respect, obedience, good manners and good behaviour, the more likely they are to hold what Hetherington and Weiler identify as a “fixed” world view. </p>
<p>The more emphasis an individual places on independence, self-reliance, curiosity and being considerate, the more likely they are to hold a “fluid” world view. </p>
<p>The basis for these differences is emotional or “affective.” Those of us who gravitate to the fixed end of the spectrum tend to regard the world as a dangerous place full of threats, while people who gravitate to the fluid end tend to see the world as a safe place to explore.</p>
<p>Of course, many people in society are somewhere in the middle and our position on the spectrum may change with life experiences that influence our perceptions. What’s critical, however, is understanding that the differences stem from our emotional sense of the world rather than issues or political positions.</p>
<h2>Gut-level disagreement</h2>
<p><a href="https://indyweek.com/news/longform/hetherington-weiler-prius-or-pickup/">As Hetherington and Weiler explain</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Why is politics so polarized if people actually don’t care all that much on the issues? If people don’t really care very much about politics, maybe they’re not necessarily extreme on the issues. But here’s the thing: What if you just completely understand the world differently from those on the other side in your guts?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This kind of gut-level disagreement poses much bigger challenges because not only is there disagreement on how to handle a problem <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Arguments_in_the_debate_over_responses_to_the_coronavirus_(COVID-19)_pandemic,_2020">like the COVID-19 response</a>, but the nature of the problem itself is disputed.</p>
<p>The COVID-19 polarization we’re seeing illustrates this dynamic. Those against COVID-19 vaccination view government mandates, public health restrictions and the citizens who support them as the problem at hand. As a result, it’s these measures and individuals that become the target for their emotional response.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Protesters march carrying signs that read Plandemic and Practise Media Distancing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431623/original/file-20211112-27-jpfgum.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this April 2020 photo, protesters demanding Florida businesses reopen and calling the pandemic a hoax march in downtown Orlando, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Raoux)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Those in favour of vaccine mandates and other public health measures, in turn, are likely to view anti-vaxxers and those who violate public health orders as the source of the problem.</p>
<p>How then do we function when we encounter these emotionally driven divides? There are no easy fixes, but there are a few strategies that can help manage the stress and can de-escalate the impact of this kind of conflict in our day-to-day lives.</p>
<h2>Strategies for de-escalation</h2>
<p>First, recognizing the emotional basis is key even when we consider our own views to be science-informed. Realizing that those with whom we disagree are often coming from a place of fear and anxiety can help lower frustration and is one step towards developing empathy and/or compassion for their position. This does not mean agreeing with them, but simply creating space to validate their emotional experience.</p>
<p>Early in my previous training to be a social worker, I discounted the <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/pieces-mind/201204/understanding-validation-way-communicate-acceptance">value of validation</a>. Once practising in the “real world,” however, I quickly realized the value that comes from listening to someone’s emotional perception, recognizing it and reflecting it back.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman looks up at a man as they argue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C34%2C4626%2C3040&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431619/original/file-20211112-21-xug2w9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">At family gatherings, in the workplace and during tense election campaigns, political polarization is increasingly common. Are there ways to deal with it?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Budgeron Bach/Pexels)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Phrases like “that must be frustrating” or “that must be very difficult” might seem trite in the abstract, but they are invaluable tools when shared genuinely in various kinds of interactions, and they can immediately lower tension. </p>
<p>While this practice alone will not transform viewpoints, it’s an important skill we can employ to maintain relations with others who hold different world views — and can help prevent further alienation.</p>
<p>That’s a small but necessary step if we want to avoid functioning in echo chambers in which we only interact with those who already agree with us.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171081/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona MacDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>How to manage the stress of polarization and how to function when it surrounds us is now a necessary but underdeveloped skill for many of us.Fiona MacDonald, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Northern British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1713542021-11-10T13:40:04Z2021-11-10T13:40:04ZWhat the world can learn from the Buddhist concept loving-kindness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431142/original/file-20211109-17-1s8ndbb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C3%2C2560%2C1916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, holding a jewel between his folded hands.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/avalokiteshvara-royalty-free-image/107075085?adppopup=true">Debbie Hemenway/Moment via Getty images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the world deals with the trauma caused by COVID-19, <a href="https://nationaltoday.com/world-kindness-day/">World Kindness Day</a>, observed on Nov. 13 annually, is a good opportunity to reflect on the healing potential of both large and small acts of kindness. Indeed, it was the kind acts of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/meet-the-covid-19-frontline-heroes/">essential workers that helped save many lives</a>. </p>
<p>As a scholar of Buddhist studies, <a href="https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295748924/religious-tourism-in-northern-thailand/">I have researched</a> the ways in which Buddhist monks talk about kindness and compassion toward all beings. </p>
<p>The Dalai Lama has famously been quoted as saying “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Force_of_Kindness/UIJ5CwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=my+true+religion+is+kindness&pg=PA8&printsec=frontcover">My true religion is kindness</a>.” Although there is more to Buddhism than just kindness, Buddhism’s teachings and exemplary figures, I believe, have much to offer to a world experiencing intense suffering. </p>
<h2>Loving-kindness teachings</h2>
<p>Some of the earliest Buddhist teachings developed in India – which are recorded in <a href="https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/index.html">the Pali canon</a>, the collection of scriptures in the Pali language – emphasized the idea of “metta,” or loving-kindness. One teaching from this collection of scriptures is the “<a href="https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/khp/khp.9.amar.html">Karaniya Metta Sutta</a>,” where the Buddha exhorts the good and wise to spread loving-kindness by making these wishes toward all beings:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In gladness and in safety,</p>
<p>May all beings be at ease.</p>
<p>Whatever living beings there may be;</p>
<p>Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,</p>
<p>The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,</p>
<p>The seen and the unseen,</p>
<p>Those living near and far away,</p>
<p>Those born and to-be-born —</p>
<p>May all beings be at ease!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In order to put these words into practice, several <a href="https://www.shambhala.com/lovingkindness-15144.html">Buddhist teachers</a> from <a href="https://jackkornfield.com/">North America</a> <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/how-to-do-metta-january-2014/">teach meditation practices</a> meant to develop one’s own metta, or loving-kindness. </p>
<p>During meditation sessions, practitioners can visualize people and chant wishes of loving-kindness using <a href="https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/metta-for-me/">variations of phrases</a> based on the Karaniya Metta Sutta. A commonly used version is from a well-known Buddhist meditation teacher, <a href="https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/">Sharon Salzberg</a>.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>May all beings everywhere be safe and well.</p>
<p>May all beings everywhere be happy and content.</p>
<p>May all beings everywhere be healthy and strong.</p>
<p>May all beings everywhere be peaceful and at ease.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Practitioners spread this kindness toward themselves, people close to them, people they do not know – even distant people or enemies – and finally all beings throughout the world. After visualizing this attitude of loving-kindness, practitioners find it is easier to radiate kindness toward others in real life.</p>
<p>In addition to metta, Buddhists <a href="https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/wheel006.html">also practice</a> compassion (karuna), sympathetic joy (mudita) and equanimity (upekkha) for a peaceful state of mind. </p>
<h2>Cultivating compassion</h2>
<p>Later forms of Buddhism in East Asia and Tibet developed the idea of compassion further through the <a href="https://global.oup.com/ukhe/product/the-bodhicaryavatara-9780199540433?cc=us&lang=en&">figure of the bodhisattva</a>. </p>
<p>The bodhisattva is a practitioner who has vowed to work selflessly for the enlightenment of other beings. The development of this state of mind is known as “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0091.xml">bodhicitta</a>.” Bodhicitta provides the motivation and commitment to this difficult path of putting others before oneself. </p>
<p>One practice for cultivating bodhicitta is <a href="https://wisdomexperience.org/wisdom-article/exchanging-self-for-others/">exchanging self for others</a>. In this practice, those on the bodhisattva path would regard the suffering of others as if it were their own and would offer help to others as if helping oneself. </p>
<p>As the Indian Buddhist monk <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/">Santideva</a> writes in his classic eighth-century work on the path of the bodhisattva, “The <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bodhicary%C4%81vat%C4%81ra/m-ifbE8kyGIC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=the+bodhicaryavatara&printsec=frontcover">Bodhicaryavatara</a>,” one should meditate with this sentiment in mind: “all equally experience suffering and happiness. I should look after them as I do myself.”</p>
<h2>Many bodhisattvas and their meanings</h2>
<p>The Buddhist figure most focused on kindness is the bodhisattva of compassion, known originally as Avalokiteshvara, who became popular in <a href="https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/8135#:%7E:text=The%20Bodhisattva%20Avalokiteshvara%2C%20known%20in,a%20small%20seated%20Buddha%20depicted">India by the sixth century A.D</a>. A popular way to depict Avalokiteshvara is with <a href="https://www.philamuseum.org/collection/object/105992">11 heads and 1,000 arms</a>, which he uses to benefit all sentient beings. Tibetan Buddhists believe that all <a href="https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama">Dalai Lamas</a> are manifestations of this bodhisattva. </p>
<p>This bodhisattva is known by various names across Asia. In Nepal, the bodhisattva is known as Karunamaya, and in Tibet as <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/who-is-avalokiteshvara/">Lokesvara and Chenrezig</a>. In China, the bodhisattva is a female figure called Guanyin and <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/51235">portrayed</a> as a woman with long, flowing hair in white robes, who holds a vase tilted downward so she can drop the dews of compassion upon all beings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin, who is depicted as a woman with long, flowing hair in white robes," src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431148/original/file-20211109-19-1qt1qic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of the bodhisattva Guanyin in Japan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/guanyin-statue-in-funaoka-shibata-tohoku-japan-royalty-free-image/951112614?adppopup=true">kampee patisena/Moment via Getty images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout East and Southeast Asia this is a popular figure. People make offerings to seek help, especially in regards to success in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463405000251">business</a> and <a href="https://journals.flvc.org/athanor/article/view/126459">starting a family</a>. </p>
<p>With practices that urge people to practice compassion toward others and with figures who can be asked to bestow it, Buddhism offers unique and diverse ways to think about and express kindness.</p>
<p>[<em>3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-3-in-1">Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brooke Schedneck does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On World Kindness Day, a scholar of Buddhist studies explains its idea of compassion and the diverse ways to think about and express kindness.Brooke Schedneck, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Rhodes CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603112021-05-05T14:26:29Z2021-05-05T14:26:29ZAdults are more generous in the presence of children – new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398941/original/file-20210505-19-sc7qnw.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=413%2C405%2C4893%2C3126&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Even non-parents were found to be more prosocial if youngsters were present.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/people-walking-on-street-silhouettes-191237630">vetre/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most of us assume that we tend to be kinder towards children than we are to adults. Past research confirms this assumption, showing that we’re <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01603.x">more caring</a> towards children, and that this effect even extends to being more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1023962425692">helpful</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-008-9101-5">empathic</a> towards baby-faced adults. </p>
<p>But no work has been done to examine whether the mere presence of children encourages us to be compassionate and helpful in general – influencing us to be kinder towards other adults, or more giving to charities.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506211007605">recent research</a> set out to understand whether we’re motivated to be more <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/prosocial-behavior">prosocial</a> – defined as behaving in a way that’s intended to benefit others – when we’re either around children, or thinking about them.</p>
<p>Across eight experiments featuring more than 2,000 participants, and a large field study, we found adults to be more generous and compassionate when children were present – suggesting initiatives such as the “<a href="https://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/">Children’s Parliament</a>”, which aim to introduce children into what are traditionally adult spaces, could have a profound influence on adult decision-making across society.</p>
<h2>Emotions and children</h2>
<p>We know that children elicit strong emotions in us, especially when they come to harm. For example, few images have sparked such an international outcry of sympathy as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34133210">the photo of a dead boy</a>, Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up on a Turkish beach during the 2015 Syrian migration crisis. </p>
<p>In fact, research has found that sympathy with Kurdi’s fate generated concern and solidarity with refugees more widely, as evidenced by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617741107">greater social media engagement</a>, a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613977114">100-fold increase</a> in the number of donations made to aid Syrian refugees, and announcements of new governmental policies to <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/02/syrias-refugee-crisis-in-numbers/">resettle more than 150,000 refugees</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-one-terrible-image-change-the-direction-of-a-humanitarian-crisis-47067">Can one terrible image change the direction of a humanitarian crisis?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In some ways, the power of this single image is not surprising. Organisations that lobby for the poor and vulnerable have long suspected that they can enhance interest and support by putting children front and centre of their campaigns. For instance, children have been featured in campaigns for <a href="https://donatetoafrica.org/">charity donations</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDthR9RH0gw">environmental protection</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhbBidlcMI">healthy living</a>. These campaigns reveal a widespread assumption that children elicit sympathetic reactions in adults.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SDthR9RH0gw?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Increasing sympathy</h2>
<p>In our experiments, we wanted to find out whether the emotional effect inspired by children extends beyond our feelings for the young and into the wider world. To encourage adult participants to think about children, we asked them to describe what typical children are like (for example, their appearance and typical behaviour). Participants in control conditions described typical adults or skipped this task. </p>
<p>Those participants we asked to describe children later reported higher prosocial motivation. That is, they reported a greater willingness to attain broad prosocial goals such as helping others, social justice, and protecting the environment. Participants also reported greater empathy with the plight of other adults after they had thought about children.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gut-check-researchers-develop-measures-to-capture-moral-judgments-and-empathy-73249">Gut check: Researchers develop measures to capture moral judgments and empathy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In a subsequent field study that built on these findings, we found that adults on a shopping street were more likely to donate to a charity supporting research on bone marrow disease when more children were nearby relative to adults. </p>
<p>When no children were present and all passers-by were adults, we observed roughly one donation every ten minutes. But when children and adults were equally present on the shopping street, that figure doubled to two donations every ten minutes. </p>
<p>These effects could not be accounted for by higher footfall during busy times or whether donors were accompanied by a child or not. Instead, they suggest that the presence of children can nudge adults to donate more often, even when the charity is not specifically linked to children.</p>
<p>Across our studies, thinking about children or being in the presence of children elicited greater compassion with others in a range of people: parents and non-parents, men and women, younger and older participants – even among those who had relatively negative attitudes towards children. So the findings point to a pervasive effect with deep and wide-ranging implications for society.</p>
<h2>Adult-only environments</h2>
<p>Our research provides a glimpse of a much bigger picture. Children are often separated from adult environments, such as workplaces and political bodies, where important decisions are made that affect children’s lives – for instance, around climate change. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three children dressed as if they're workers in an office" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398921/original/file-20210505-23-rq7jyt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The presence of children in traditional adult spaces could be beneficial for those of all ages.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/children-communication-devices-business-clothing-center-152976992">Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our findings suggest that society needs to consider more ways to involve children in various aspects of life. For example, explicitly considering impacts on children in political and legislative bodies may promote decisions that appropriately take the needs and rights of children and future generations into account. </p>
<p>Some initiatives over recent years have placed increased emphasis on young voices, including the “<a href="https://www.childrensparliament.org.uk/">Children’s Parliament</a>” in the UK and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/19/school-climate-strikes-more-than-1-million-took-part-say-campaigners-greta-thunberg">global school climate strikes</a> in 2019, in which 1.4 million children took part. Our research suggests that such initiatives do not only provide an obvious and important benefit for children – they also elicit a prosocial orientation in wider society that could benefit everyone.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lukas J. Wolf has received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council for this research. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoff Haddock has received funding from the ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust. He is currently a member of the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Maio receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK). </span></em></p>The findings suggest adults feel more prosocial with children around – even if they don’t have any themselves.Lukas J. Wolf, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Psychology, University of BathGeoff Haddock, Professor of Social Psychology, Cardiff UniversityGregory R. Maio, Professor of Psychology, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1576552021-03-29T15:05:08Z2021-03-29T15:05:08ZDeath-friendly communities ease fear of aging and dying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391839/original/file-20210325-23-193ezbo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=633%2C0%2C4981%2C3249&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Improving death-friendliness offers further opportunity to improve social inclusion. A death-friendly approach could lay the groundwork for people to stop fearing getting old or alienating those who have.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Death looms larger than usual during a global pandemic. An <a href="https://www.who.int/ageing/age-friendly-world/en/">age-friendly community</a> works to make sure people are connected, healthy and active throughout their lives, but it doesn’t pay as much attention to the end of life.</p>
<p>What might a death-friendly community ensure?</p>
<p>In today’s context, the suggestion to become friendly with death may sound strange. But as scholars doing research <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/health-promotion/aging-seniors/friendly-communities.html">on age-friendly communities</a>, we wonder what it would mean for a community to be friendly towards death, dying, grief and bereavement. </p>
<p>There’s a lot we can learn from the palliative care movement: it considers death as <a href="https://doi.org/10.2190%2FYT9D-12Y2-54LY-TCMN">meaningful and dying as a stage of life to be valued, supported and lived</a>. Welcoming mortality might actually help us live better lives and support communities — rather than relying on medical systems — to care for people at the end of their lives.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DYbosNFtAmk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">In the context of age-friendly communities where the focus is on active living, this video invites viewers to think about the role that death plays in their lives and their communities.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>The medicalization of death</h2>
<p>Until the 1950s, most Canadians died in their homes. More recently, death has moved to <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310071501">hospitals, hospices, long-term care homes or other health-care institutions</a>. </p>
<p>The societal implications of this shift are profound: fewer people witness death. The dying process has become less familiar and more frightening because <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0742-969X.1993.11882761">we don’t get a chance to be part of it</a>, until we face our own.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-shows-how-ageism-is-harmful-to-health-of-older-adults-138249">Coronavirus shows how ageism is harmful to health of older adults</a>
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<h2>Fear of death, of aging and social inclusion</h2>
<p>In western cultures, death is often associated with aging, and vice versa. And a fear of death contributes to a fear of aging. One study found that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02701960.2016.1247063">psychology students with death-anxiety were less willing to work with older adults</a> in their practice. Another study found that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886915003566">worries about death and aging led to ageism</a>. In other words, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03601277.2018.1537163">younger adults push older adults away because they don’t want to think about death</a>. </p>
<p>A clear example of ageism being borne out of a fear of death can be seen through COVID-19; the disease gained the nickname “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32719851/">boomer remover</a>” because it seemed to link aging with death.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Grandparents with masks seen pressing hands against window looking at granddaughter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391798/original/file-20210325-21-eg9vvv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">COVID-19 gained the nickname ‘boomer remover’ because it seemed to link aging with death.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>The World Health Organization’s (WHO) <a href="https://www.who.int/ageing/publications/Global_age_friendly_cities_Guide_English.pdf">framework for age-friendly communities</a> includes “respect and social inclusion” as one of its eight focuses. The movement fights ageism via educational efforts and intergenerational activities. </p>
<p>Improving death-friendliness offers further opportunities to improve social inclusion. A death-friendly approach could lay the groundwork for people to stop fearing getting old or alienating those who have. Greater openness about mortality also creates more space for grief. </p>
<p>During COVID-19, it’s become clearer than ever that grief is both personal and collective. It’s especially relevant to older adults who outlive many of their peers and experience multiple losses.</p>
<h2>The compassionate communities approach</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.hpco.ca/compassionate-communities">compassionate communities approach</a> came from the fields of palliative care and critical public health. It focuses on community development related to <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qjmed/article/106/12/1071/1633982">end-of-life planning, bereavement support and improved understandings</a> about aging, dying, death, loss and care. </p>
<p>The age-friendly and compassionate communities initiatives share several goals, but they don’t yet share practices. We think they should.</p>
<p>Originating with the <a href="https://www.who.int/healthpromotion/healthy-cities/en/">WHO’s concept of healthy cities</a>, the compassionate communities charter responds to criticisms that public health has fallen short in responding to death and loss. <a href="https://www.compassionate-communitiesuk.co.uk/the-compassionate-city-charter">The charter</a> makes recommendations for addressing death and grief in schools, workplaces, trade unions, places of worship, hospices and nursing homes, museums, art galleries and municipal governments. It also accounts for diverse experiences of death and dying — for instance, for those who are unhoused, imprisoned, refugees or experiencing other forms of social marginalization. </p>
<p>The charter calls not only for efforts to raise awareness and improve planning, but also for accountability related to death and grief. It highlights the need to review and test a city’s initiatives (for instance, review of local policy and planning, annual emergency services roundtable, public forums, art exhibits and more). Much like the age-friendly framework, the compassionate communities charter uses a <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29764178/">best practice framework, adaptable to any city</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Multigenerational family, walking, holding hands on the beach." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391821/original/file-20210325-17-1lzmw6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Age-friendly initiatives could converge with the work of compassionate communities in their efforts to make a community a good place to live, age and, ultimately, die.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>There’s a lot to like about the compassionate communities approach.</p>
<p>First, it comes from the community, rather than from medicine. It brings death back from the hospitals and into the public eye. It acknowledges that when one person dies, it affects a community. And it offers space and outlets for bereavement.</p>
<p>Second, the compassionate communities approach makes death a normal part of life whether by connecting school children with hospices, integrating end-of-life discussions into workplaces, providing bereavement supports or creating opportunities for creative expression about grief and mortality. This can demystify the dying process and lead to more productive conversations about death and grief.</p>
<p>Third, this approach acknowledges diverse settings and cultural contexts for responding to death. It doesn’t tell us what death rituals or grief practices should be. Instead, it holds space for a variety of approaches and experiences.</p>
<h2>Age-friendly compassionate communities</h2>
<p>We propose that age-friendly initiatives could converge with the work of compassionate communities in their efforts to make a community a good place to to live, age and, ultimately, die. We envision death-friendly communities including some, or all, of the elements mentioned above. One of the benefits of death-friendly communities is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all model; they can vary across jurisdictions, allowing each community to imagine and create their own approach to death-friendliness.</p>
<p>Those who are working to build age-friendly communities should reflect on how people prepare for death in their cities: Where do people go to die? Where and how do people grieve? To what extent, and in which ways, does a community prepare for death and bereavement?</p>
<p>If age-friendly initiatives contend with mortality, anticipate diverse end-of-life needs, and seek to understand how communities can indeed become more death-friendly, they could make even more of a difference.</p>
<p>That’s an idea worth exploring.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157655/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Brassolotto receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Alberta Innovates. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Albert Banerjee receives funding from the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation and The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Chivers receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p>Death-friendly communities that welcome mortality might help us live better lives and provide better care for people at the end of their lives.Julia Brassolotto, Assistant Professor, Public Health and Alberta Innovates Research Chair, University of LethbridgeAlbert Banerjee, NBHRF Research Chair in Community Health and Aging, St. Thomas University (Canada)Sally Chivers, Professor of English and Gender & Women's Studies, Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1536052021-01-29T22:15:38Z2021-01-29T22:15:38ZWhen each pandemic day feels the same, Phil the Weatherman in “Groundhog Day” can offer a lesson in embracing life mindfully<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381200/original/file-20210128-17-n3q9o5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C0%2C4542%2C3121&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in a scene from the film 'Groundhog Day.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bill-murray-and-andie-macdowell-in-a-scene-from-the-film-news-photo/163063765?adppopup=true">Columbia Pictures/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us will recall the comic film “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/">Groundhog Day</a>.” </p>
<p>Originally released in 1993, it stars the incomparable Bill Murray as Phil Conners, an insufferable Pittsburgh weatherman. A minor local celebrity who believes himself destined for much better things, he resents his piddling assignment to report on the Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Punxsutawney Phil on Groundhog Day" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C3%2C2493%2C1560&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381172/original/file-20210128-19-1q2x4lm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Punxsutawney Phil after emerging from his burrow on Gobblers Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/GroundhogDay/bd8d5370e7854bfea728a485b9c16bbf/photo?Query=groundhog&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=603&currentItemNo=11">AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar</a></span>
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<p>The plan is to return to Pittsburgh after the festivities. But when a blizzard shuts down the highway, Phil finds himself trapped in Punxsutawney. He wakes up the next day, only to discover that it’s not the next day at all. It’s Groundhog Day all over again. </p>
<p>For some reason he’s trapped in Feb. 2, forced to relive the same day over and over again. </p>
<p>“What if there is no tomorrow?” he asks at one point, adding: “There wasn’t one today.” </p>
<p>It is a question that will resonate with millions forced to stay indoors as the Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads and people wake up every morning wondering if the day ahead will be any different from the 24 hours they have just endured.</p>
<p>But I have a more positive spin. As a <a href="https://cas.la.psu.edu/people/jde13">scholar of communication and ethics</a>, I argue that the lesson at the heart of the movie is that because we can never count on tomorrow, life must be lived fully in the present, not just for oneself, but also for others. Ultimately, “Groundhog Day” gives us a lesson in mindfulness. </p>
<h2>Metaphor for mindlessness?</h2>
<p>Phil was trapped in Groundhog Day, perhaps for hundreds of years. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/movies/groundhog-day.html">The original script said 10,000 years, though the director reportedly said it was 10</a>. Either way, that’s a long time to wake up to the same song every morning. </p>
<p>Finally, Phil awakens, and it’s Feb. 3, that is, the next day.</p>
<p>I believe what brings about tomorrow for Phil is that he learns to practice mindfulness. </p>
<p>Phil’s repetitive existence can stand for a metaphor for mindlessness, for how we all get stuck in cycles of reactivity, addiction and habit. Locked in our routines, life can lose its luster. </p>
<p>It can quickly seem like nothing we do matters all that much. “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” Phil asks two local guys at the bowling alley. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DazUImBLEhM">That about sums it up for me</a>,” one of them responds.</p>
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<p>Contemporary practices of mindfulness can trace their roots back to <a href="https://plumvillage.org/books/the-heart-of-the-buddhas-teaching/">Buddhism</a>. For Buddhists, the concept of reincarnation or <a href="https://www.lionsroar.com/just-more-of-the-same/">rebirth</a> is important. Many Buddhists believe that all living beings go through many births until they achieve salvation.</p>
<p>As a scholar, I believe the idea of rebirth is more complex than is often understood in popular culture. </p>
<p>Pali is the ancient sacred language of Theravada Buddhism. Scholar of Buddhism <a href="https://www.stephenbatchelor.org/index.php/en/stephen">Stephen Batchelor</a> notes that the ancient Pali language word “punabbhava,” often translated as “rebirth,” literally means “<a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300205183/after-buddhism">again-becoming</a>,” or what we might think of as “repetitive existence.” </p>
<p>That’s Phil’s life, stuck in Groundhog Day. That’s what Phil is trying to escape, and what we are all trying to escape in COVID times – repetitive existence, a life stuck in one gear, frozen by habits and patterns that make every day feel the same, as though nothing matters. </p>
<h2>Taking a moment – to respond, mindfully</h2>
<p>If Phil’s stuckness is a metaphor for mindlessness, Phil’s awakening, I argue, is a metaphor for mindfulness. <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/204352/the-miracle-of-mindfulness-by-thich-nhat-hanh/">Mindfulness</a> is the practice of experiencing life as it is happening, squarely in the now, without immediately reacting to it or being carried away by it. </p>
<p>Mindfulness is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwwKbM_vJc">a practice</a> of getting to know ourselves and our conditioning a little better. Conditioning is an automatic pattern of reacting to the world. By stepping out of autopilot, pausing, and noticing, many of us can find that we <a href="https://www.parallax.org/product/the-mindfulness-survival-kit-five-essential-practices/">are no longer captive </a> to our conditioning. Consequently, we gain the space to make choices about how we want to respond to life.</p>
<p>That is what Phil does in the movie – he escapes repetitive existence by overcoming his initial conditioned, obnoxious, egotistical reactions to the world. At the beginning of the film, he calls himself the “talent” and berates the “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFgpsHrGvWY">hicks</a>” who live in the small town. He is too good for Groundhog Day. He wants to escape Punxsutawney as fast as possible. </p>
<p>As the film continues, Phil accepts his situation and turns repetition into an opportunity for growth. He begins to find meaning in the place where he is trapped. He embraces life, fully, which also means that he notices his own suffering and the suffering of those around him. </p>
<p>Phil addresses his own suffering by pursuing his passions and developing his skills. He learns to play the piano and becomes an accomplished ice sculptor. </p>
<p>Initially, Phil felt nothing for those around him. People were objects to him, if he noticed them at all. By the end of the film, he feels compassion, which, according to the mindfulness teacher <a href="https://www.rhondavmagee.com/about-mindfulness-trainer/">Rhonda Magee</a>, means “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565790/the-inner-work-of-racial-justice-by-rhonda-v-magee-foreword-by-jon-kabat-zinn/">the will to act to alleviate the suffering of others</a>.” Mindfulness is a practice that draws us into the world, into service. <a href="https://pennstate.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/compassion-and-human-development-current-approaches-and-future-di">Compassion</a> is at the heart of a mindfulness practice.</p>
<h2>Mindfulness in pandemic times</h2>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mediation in times of Covid." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381175/original/file-20210128-21-kdi02x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Compassion is at the heart of meditation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/woman-wearing-a-scary-face-mask-clasps-her-hands-in-news-photo/1228160036?adppopup=true">Mark Makela/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Mindfulness does not mean turning away from <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/rhonda_magee_the_inner_work_of_racial_justice?language=en">difficulty</a>. It is a practice of meeting difficulty with <a href="https://www.tenpercent.com/covid">compassion</a>. Though Phil finally accepts that there might not be a tomorrow, nevertheless he acts to ensure that if tomorrow comes for himself and those around him, it will be better than today. </p>
<p>For example, Phil saves the lives of at least two people: a young boy who, before Phil’s intervention, falls out of a tree onto a hard sidewalk, and the town’s mayor, who, before Phil bursts in to give him the Heimlich, chokes on his lunch. </p>
<p>Phil’s mindful awareness of what is happening in the moment allows him to act for tomorrow without losing track of today. Phil’s mindfulness, and his compassion, drive the film’s central love story between Phil and Rita. At the beginning of the film, he was capable of loving only himself. By the end of the film, Phil has learned to love mindfully.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://theconversation.com/thich-nhat-hanh-who-worked-for-decades-to-teach-mindfulness-approached-death-in-that-same-spirit-175495">Thich Nhat Hanh</a>, who died recently, <a href="https://www.shambhala.com/true-love-1594.html">loving mindfully</a> means that “you must love in such a way that the person you love feels free.” Phil has learned that love is not about manipulation or possession but about collaboration in making a shared life together. </p>
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<p>To the best of his ability, Phil dedicates himself to alleviating the suffering of others in a present that is real and for a future that might not come. He does this in small acts of compassion like fixing a flat tire and more momentous acts like saving a life. This mindful dedication to the future in the face of uncertainty is, I argue, what allows him to wake up to a new day.</p>
<p>This is a <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-buddhist-teachings-that-can-help-you-deal-with-coronavirus-anxiety-134320">good lesson</a> for us all, stuck, as we are, in a perpetual pandemic Groundhog Day, and dreaming, as we are, of tomorrow.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy David Engels does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For many of us, the popular film, ‘Groundhog Day’ may bring up fond memories of a classic comedy. But a scholar argues there’s more to the film – it’s a lesson in mindfulness.Jeremy David Engels, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1492522020-11-12T16:15:05Z2020-11-12T16:15:05ZJoe Biden’s empathy may result in a ‘therapeutic’ foreign policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368861/original/file-20201111-15-9bkguy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5853%2C3899&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President-elect Joe Biden speaks on Nov. 10, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. Can he bring compassion to foreign policy?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Both in the United States and abroad, President-elect Joe Biden finds himself with the unenviable task of trying to reverse the psychological and emotional effects of “<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/11/ptsd-expert-seth-norrholm-americans-are-being-psychologically-abused-by-donald-trump/">post-Donald Trump stress disorder</a>” that has set in over the last four years. </p>
<p>Although foreign policy received scant attention from the candidates during the election campaign, the <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/2020-elections/2020/11/world-leaders-trump-has-insulted-congratulate-biden/">international wave of congratulations</a> pouring in for Biden and Kamala Harris (and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-2020-election-results/2020/11/09/933030235/russia-china-among-countries-holding-off-on-congratulating-biden">the few notable holdouts</a>) show that the world is paying close attention. </p>
<p>And so, it seems like an opportune time to ask a simple question: what now? </p>
<p>My suggestion: therapeutic diplomacy. </p>
<h2>Emotions and foreign policy</h2>
<p>I don’t mean literal therapy, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/opinion/26strenger.html">though that’s been recommended in some diplomatic impasses</a>. Rather, I mean paying more attention to psychology and emotions to mend global relationships.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40607979?seq=1">No foreign policy-maker should dismiss emotions</a>. And no foreign policy-maker is ever above emotions.</p>
<p>Even the prince of realpolitik himself, Henry Kissinger, former U.S. secretary of state and national security adviser, talked a lot about feelings and psychology. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Henry Kissinger talks to Egypt's Hosni Mubarak." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368865/original/file-20201111-23-1i8wcao.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=660&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Henry Kissinger is seen with Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak in 1980 in Cairo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ahmed Tayeb)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Two examples: During the India-Pakistan crisis of 1971, Kissinger saw supporting Pakistan as an attempt to “<a href="https://books.google.ca/books?redir_esc=y&id=YuP_RVdlHLkC&q=%22psychological+balance+of+power%22#v=snippet&q=%22psychological%20balance%20of%20power%22&f=false">prevent a complete collapse of the world’s psychological balance of power</a>.” </p>
<p>And when selling the ill-fated “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230348936_6">Year of Europe</a>” to European partners shaken by <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1969-1976/detente">détente with the Soviet Union</a>, he explained to the French foreign affairs minister that he sought to “create an emotional commitment in America.” All this talk of feelings unfolded under Richard Nixon, once referred to as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S089803060909006X">the first therapeutic president</a>.” </p>
<p>Kissinger should not provide a road map for Biden, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opinion/nixon-racism-india.html">who can aim higher</a>. But Biden, who is performing well as an emotional manager in the days since Nov. 3, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2020/11/07/biden-wilmington-delaware-remarks-bash-phillip-analysis-elexnight-bts-vpx.cnn">calmly urging patience</a> and compassion, seems ideally suited to this therapeutic task given that empathy has been described as his “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/joe-bidens-superpower/616957/">superpower</a>.” </p>
<p>Historians are generally far more accurate at parallels than predictions. So let me draw two admittedly imperfect but analogous historical examples that might help guide a therapeutic Biden foreign policy. </p>
<h2>The spectre of communism</h2>
<p>The winter of 1947, one of the harshest on record, witnessed a still-devastated post-war Europe starting to look to communist parties for answers to basic survival. </p>
<p>In this <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809015740">volatile Cold War context</a>, U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall pitched the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Marshall-Plan">European Recovery Program</a> in the spring. It attended to more than the economic needs of European allies — it also targeted their demoralized psyches. </p>
<p>According to Marshall’s <a href="https://www.marshallfoundation.org/marshall/the-marshall-plan/marshall-plan-speech/">speech unveiling the plan</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Between 1948 and 1952, the $13-billion Marshall Plan, as it became known, invested in the oversimplified calculation that happy, prosperous people don’t turn to communism. And it paid off handsomely, forming the basis of one of the longest periods of economic growth in history and creating mutual trust among allies for years to come.</p>
<h2>The spectre of COVID-19</h2>
<p>With Biden now set to take the helm during what promises to be an equally harsh COVID-19 winter, a similar approach to the global pandemic is conceivable. An analogous <a href="https://joebiden.com/covid-plan/">Joe Biden-Kamala Harris COVID-19</a> plan that pledges to share the vaccine could help attend to the world’s health needs, both physical and psychological. </p>
<p>And it might restore some trust with allies, slowing down the already wary drift of friends in Asia into Beijing’s orbit or emboldening NATO partners to stand up to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-will-place-asia-back-at-the-centre-of-foreign-policy-but-will-his-old-school-diplomacy-still-work-148095">Biden will place Asia back at the centre of foreign policy – but will his old-school diplomacy still work?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is not to say that the coronavirus crisis should be seen as an opportunity — taking an international approach to the vaccine is simply the right thing to do. But the psychology of moral leadership may be significant in dealing with the rise of “<a href="https://hir.harvard.edu/covid-authoritarianism/">authoritarianism in the time of COVID-19</a>.” </p>
<p>Trump’s “America First” policies have meant <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/04/opinion/trump-travel-ban-nigeria.html">racist travel bans</a>, white supremacist talk of “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/01/shithole-countries/580054/">shithole countries</a>,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/26/breaking-down-trumps-shove-the-internet-debates-and-montenegros-leader-shrugs/">running roughshod over allies</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/02/politics/donald-trump-dictators-kim-jong-un-vladimir-putin/index.html">embracing authoritarian leaders</a>. Four years of bluster and bullying have had a demoralizing effect, leaving U.S. friends feeling insecure and foes feeling emboldened — and everyone in between feeling disoriented. </p>
<h2>The U.S. as a force for good</h2>
<p>Biden himself has referred to an “<a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-01-23/why-america-must-lead-again">Obama-Biden</a>” foreign policy. </p>
<p>Like Biden, Barack Obama had to pick up the pieces of a broken foreign policy bequeathed by his predecessor, George W. Bush: a global recession and a sprawling U.S. war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. </p>
<p>After years of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/bushaddress_092001.html">Islamophobia</a> and talk of “<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/bush-crusade/">crusades” against terror</a>, the Obama approach was also therapeutic: soothing hurt feelings and reminding the world, especially those in the Middle East, that at its best, the U.S. could be a force for good. </p>
<p>This tonal shift is perhaps best captured by two words uttered by Obama in Cairo in 2009: “<a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09">Assalaamu Alaykum</a>.” </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B_889oBKkNU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Obama makes his famous speech in Cairo in 2009. Courtesy of CSpan.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Using an Arabic greeting (“peace be upon you”) captured Obama’s goal, outlined in his speech, of ushering “a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles — principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” </p>
<p>Obama’s <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/barack-obama-middle-east-policy-speech_n_56745edae4b06fa6887d3e4f?ri18n=true">conservative response to the 2011 Arab Spring</a> provided a stark example that he never fully lived up to the promise of those two words: there were limits placed on U.S. support for “justice and progress.” But neither did pro-democracy protesters witness the U.S. at its interventionist worst. </p>
<h2>Post-Trump therapy?</h2>
<p>It’s possible to imagine Biden playing the role — perhaps even better than a sometimes <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2019/11/07/for-us-presidents-egocentrism-often-comes-with-the-territory-but-donald-trumps-narcissism-is-something-new/">aloof Obama</a> — of <a href="https://positivepsychology.com/emotion-focused-therapy/">an emotion-focused therapist</a> for the rest of the world, mending strained global relationships. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Biden hugs a supporter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368864/original/file-20201111-21-1n627ho.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biden embraces a supporter on the campaign trail in Las Vegas in January 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/John Locher)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-11-07/joe-biden-victory-speech-2020-election-transcript">His emphasis on healing</a> in his victory speech suggests he’s likely up for the task.</p>
<p>Biden is not a saviour, however, and a return to “normalcy” is not enough. But a therapeutic Biden foreign policy might well go a long way in staving off what some have called <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/trump-empire-decline/">the “end of the American Century</a>” by easing tensions around the world stoked by Trump.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthieu Vallières does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s been said that empathy is Joe Biden’s superpower. A therapeutic approach to foreign policy under Biden might go a long way in easing tensions around the world exacerbated by Donald Trump.Matthieu Vallières, Sessional Lecturer in History, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1487732020-11-03T13:26:04Z2020-11-03T13:26:04ZIn supporting civil unions for same sex couples, Pope Francis is moving Catholics toward a more expansive understanding of family<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367077/original/file-20201102-17-gswok1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=81%2C74%2C4885%2C3090&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young people at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, Philippines, cheer Pope Francis in 2015, following his comments endorsing same-sex civil unions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PopeCivilUnionsReaction/4ece31bccdf14e68bf0bdfa7e1a6baa0/photo?Query=pope%20civil%20union&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=21&currentItemNo=2">AP Photo/Aaron Favila</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pope Francis referred to gay people as “children of God” in a recently released documentary, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/world/europe/pope-francis-same-sex-civil-unions.html">Francesco</a>.” He further noted that “a civil union law” needs to be created so gays are “legally covered.” The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/world/europe/pope-gay-civil-unions.html">Vatican later confirmed</a> the pope’s comments, but clarified that the church doctrine remained unchanged.</p>
<p>Public support for civil unions from Pope Francis is not entirely new. When he was <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/people/not-news-pope-francis-has-supported-civil-unions-years">archbishop of Buenos Aires</a>, and again in a 2014 interview, he spoke about civil unions for same-sex couples. </p>
<p>While the Vatican is right in saying that church doctrine remains the same, as a <a href="http://press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/family-ethics">theologian</a> who has been writing about Catholicism and family for over two decades, I see in the pope’s comments evidence that Catholic understanding of who counts as family is evolving.</p>
<h2>From judgment to mercy</h2>
<p>Traditional Catholic doctrine holds that marriage between a man and a woman is the foundation of the family. Sex outside of marriage is judged to be immoral and, while gay people are not seen as inherently sinful, their sexual actions are. Same-sex marriages and civil unions, the Vatican says, <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html">are harmful to society</a> and “in no way similar” to heterosexual marriages. </p>
<p>Yet in his comments made public on Oct. 21, the pope framed his support for civil unions in the context of family. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out or be made miserable because of it,” he said in a news-breaking interview used in the documentary. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://litpress.org/Products/E4580/Reading-Praying-Living-Pope-Franciss-The-Joy-of-Love">researching for a book on Pope Francis</a>, I found that he has consistently offered compassion for Catholics without traditional families. Soon after becoming pope in 2013, in response to a journalist’s question about a gay person, <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/vatican/francis-explains-who-am-i-judge">he famously said</a>, “Who am I to judge?” </p>
<p>Mercy over judgment has been the mark of his papacy. The pope’s priority on extending mercy, theologian Cardinal <a href="https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/research_sites/cjl/texts/cjrelations/news/kasper_biographyl.htm">Walter Kasper</a> <a href="https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/interview-cardinal-walter-kasper">explains</a>, especially pertains to families. </p>
<p>Surveys commissioned by the Vatican in 2015 found that <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2015/09/02/u-s-catholics-open-to-non-traditional-families/">Catholics desire more acceptance from the church</a> for people who are single parents, divorced or have live-in relationships. Knowing that people often feel judged because their families aren’t perfect, Francis has tried to make them <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/audiences/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20151118_udienza-generale.html">feel welcome</a>. He has stressed that the doors of churches must be open to all. </p>
<p>When, in discussing same-sex civil unions, Francis said that gay people have “a right to a family,” he seems to have implied that civil unions create a family. Though he is not changing Catholic moral teaching, I argue that he is departing from traditional Catholic rhetoric on the family and offering an inclusive, merciful vision to guide church practice.</p>
<h2>From family structure to family action</h2>
<p>Changes in Catholic teaching in the 20th century paved the way for Francis’ recent moves.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html">1930 Vatican document on marriage</a>, Pope Pius XI defended the traditional family structure against perceived threats of cohabitation, divorce and “false teachers” who asserted the equality of men and women.</p>
<p>Three decades later, at Vatican II, a meeting of the world’s bishops from 1962 to 1965 that led to sweeping reforms in the Catholic Church, <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=books">emphasis shifted</a> to the role families could play in shaping society. Marriage was defined as an “intimate partnership of life and love,” and the family was praised as “a school of deeper humanity” where parents and children learn how to be better human beings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367081/original/file-20201102-23-1v5ltz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pope John Paul II.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/JohnPaulII/e7c510a26669445bb197d9c44d848085/photo?Query=john%20paul%20II%201981&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=109&currentItemNo=41">AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Pope John Paul II, who was pope from 1978 to 2005, is often viewed as a foil to Pope Francis. In his writings, he defended heterosexual marriage and traditional gender roles, as well as rules against divorce, contraception and same-sex relationships. Yet the former pope contributed to shifting the Catholic conversation to ethical actions families can take. </p>
<p>In this regard, John Paul II’s most important document on the family <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio.html">Familiaris Consortio, 1981</a>, gave families four tasks: growing in love, raising children, contributing to society and praying in their home. He taught that being a family means engaging in actions related to these tasks.</p>
<p>Catholic scholars like <a href="https://www.holycross.edu/academics/programs/religious-studies/faculty/mary-doyle-roche">Mary Doyle Roche</a> have since built on his framework to urge families to become “<a href="https://litpress.org/Products/E4832/Schools-of-Solidarity">schools of solidarity</a>” in which parents and children learn compassion for others.</p>
<p>Though same-sex couples remain excluded from official Catholic teaching, Catholic theologians such as <a href="https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/margaret-farley">Margaret A. Farley</a> have <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/just-love-9780826429247/">suggested</a> that these families, too, could prioritize love, social action and spirituality. Gay couples, she argued, “deserve the same protection under the law” as heterosexual couples. They also have the same moral obligations to each other and to the common good.</p>
<h2>Pope Francis on inclusion</h2>
<p>Pope Francis built on work done at Vatican II and the decades following it. One of his favorite ways of describing the church is as a “<a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7297/field-hospital.aspx">field hospital</a>” that goes where people are hurting. </p>
<p>Though he has addressed many important social issues during his papacy, including economic inequality and climate change, he called the world’s bishops to special meetings in Rome <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/pope-francis-says-the-church-must-welcome-divorced-and-remarried-catholics/2015/08/05/2c90f71e-3b92-11e5-b34f-4e0a1e3a3bf9_story.html">only to discuss families</a>. He urged them to find creative ways of ministering to people who feel excluded because they are not living in line with Catholic doctrine on marriage. </p>
<p>Themes of welcome and inclusion for single parents, divorced and remarried people and cohabiting unmarried couples were amplified in the document Francis wrote in 2016, “<a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20160319_amoris-laetitia.html">Amoris Laetitia</a>,” or “The Joy of Love.” </p>
<p>For instance, theologian Mary Catherine O'Reilly-Gindhart sees Francis <a href="https://ixtheo.de/Record/1570191700">saying that cohabiting unmarried couples</a> “need to be welcomed and guided patiently and discreetly.” This allows priests to meet couples where they are rather than shaming them or forcing them to hide their living situations.</p>
<h2>What’s the future of the church?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ignatius.com/The-Gospel-of-the-Family-P913.aspx">Francis’ critics worry</a> that the pope is watering down Catholic doctrine on marriage and family. But what I argue is that Francis is not changing doctrine. He is encouraging a broader view of who counts as families inside and outside the church.</p>
<p>In the same documentary in which Francis made his remarks on same-sex civil unions, <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/10/21/pope-francis-separation-children-migrant-families-documentary">he also criticized countries</a> with overly restrictive immigration policies, saying, “It’s cruelty, and separating parents from kids goes against natural rights.” He was referring to the <a href="http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_19831022_family-rights_en.html">right to family</a>, which “exists prior to the State or any other community.”</p>
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<p>The comments in the documentary show a persistent move toward welcoming families in contemporary Catholic thought. Francis proposes that a welcoming church should support all families, especially those who are hurting. Similarly, as he says, governments should do the same – including supporting gay and lesbian couples. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Hanlon Rubio does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Vatican has clarified that Pope Francis’ support of civil unions did not change church doctrine. A theologian explains what Francis is doing is departing from Catholic rhetoric on the family.Julie Hanlon Rubio, Professor of Christian Social Ethics, Santa Clara UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1387102020-07-30T12:11:04Z2020-07-30T12:11:04ZDon’t blame cats for destroying wildlife – shaky logic is leading to moral panic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346724/original/file-20200709-62-uc4lv2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4799%2C3058&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are cats really to blame for the worldwide loss of biodiversity?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/homeless-cats-in-the-street-royalty-free-image/626427276">Dzurag/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A number of conservationists claim cats are a <a href="https://theconversation.com/one-cat-one-year-110-native-animals-lock-up-your-pet-its-a-killing-machine-138412">zombie apocalypse for biodiversity</a> that need to be removed from the outdoors by “<a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691167411/cat-wars">any means necessary</a>” – coded language for shooting, trapping and poisoning. Various media outlets have <a href="https://gizmodo.com/we-have-to-do-something-about-outdoor-cats-1834252423">portrayed cats</a> as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/22/opinion/sunday/the-evil-of-the-outdoor-cat.html">murderous superpredators</a>. Australia has even declared an official <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-war-on-feral-cats-shaky-science-missing-ethics-47444">“war” against cats</a>. </p>
<p>Moral panics emerge when people perceive an existential threat to themselves, society or the environment. When in the grip of a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/moral-panic-3026420">moral panic</a>, the ability to think clearly and act responsibly is compromised. While the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346">moral panic over cats</a> arises from valid concerns over threats to native species, it obscures the real driver: humanity’s exploitative treatment of the natural world. Crucially, errors of scientific reasoning also underwrite this false crisis.</p>
<h2>The (shaky) case against cats</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.1633">Conservationists</a> and the <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/09/essay-to-save-birds-should-we-kill-off-cats/">media</a> often claim that cats are a main contributor to a <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250062185">mass extinction</a>, a catastrophic loss of species due to human activities, like habitat degradation and the killing of wildlife. </p>
<p>As an interdisciplinary team of scientists and ethicists studying animals in conservation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13346">we examined this claim</a> and found it wanting. It is true that like any other predator, cats can suppress the populations of their prey. Yet the extent of this effect is ecologically complex. </p>
<p>The potential impact of cats differs between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.11.032">urban environments, small islands and remote deserts</a>. When <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025970">humans denude regions of vegetation</a>, small animals are particularly at risk from cats because they have no shelter in which to hide. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346731/original/file-20200709-22-zw4tmj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In a 2019 study, cat remains were found in 19.8% of coyote scat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/coyote-carrying-cat-royalty-free-image/93419185">jhayes44/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Small animals are similarly vulnerable when humans kill apex predators that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jmammal/gyv100">normally would suppress cat densities and activity</a>. For instance, in the U.S., cats are a <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/urban-coyotes-eat-lot-garbageand-cats-180974461/">favorite meal for urban coyotes</a>, who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0075718">moderate feline impact</a>; and in Australia, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2012.02207.x">dingoes hunt wild cats</a>, which relieves pressure on native small animals. </p>
<p>Add in contrary evidence and the case against cats gets even shakier. For instance, in some ecological contexts, <a href="https://www.livescience.com/2102-birds-glad-cats-eat-rats.html">cats contribute to the conservation of endangered birds</a>, by preying on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2656.1999.00285.x">rats and mice</a>. There are also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WR19181">documented cases of coexistence</a> between cats and native prey species. </p>
<p>The fact is, cats play <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12103">different predatory roles</a> in <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2013/08/australian-cats-and-foxes-may-not-deserve-their-bad-rep">different natural and humanized landscapes</a>. Scientists cannot assume that because cats are a problem for some wildlife in some places, they are a problem in every place. </p>
<h2>Faulty scientific reasoning</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13527">most recent publication</a> in the journal Conservation Biology, we examine an error of reasoning that props up the moral panic over cats. </p>
<p>Scientists do not simply collect data and analyze the results. They also establish a logical argument to explain what they observe. Thus, the reasoning behind a factual claim is equally important to the observations used to make that claim. And it is this reasoning about cats where claims about their threat to global biodiversity founder. In our analysis, we found it happens because many scientists take specific, local studies and overgeneralize those findings to the world at large. </p>
<p>Even when specific studies are good overall, projecting the combined “results” onto the world at large can cause unscientific overgeneralizations, particularly when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2015.01.003">ecological context is ignored</a>. It is akin to pulling a quote out of context and then assuming you understand its meaning. </p>
<h2>Ways forward</h2>
<p>So how might citizens and scientists chart a way forward to a more nuanced understanding of cat ecology and conservation?</p>
<p>First, those examining this issue on all sides can acknowledge that both the well-being of cats and the survival of threatened species are legitimate concerns. </p>
<p>Second, cats, like any other predator, affect their ecological communities. Whether that impact is good or bad is a complex value judgment, not a scientific fact. </p>
<p>Third, there is a need for a more rigorous approach to the study of cats. Such an approach must be mindful of the importance of ecological context and avoid the pitfalls of faulty reasoning. It also means resisting <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13126">the siren call of a silver (lethal) bullet</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/346728/original/file-20200709-26-132qxgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A lazy day at a cat sanctuary in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_lazy_day_at_the_Richmond_Animal_Protection_Society_cat_sanctuary.jpg">Canadianknowledgelover/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Yet there are many options to consider. Protecting apex predators and their habitat is fundamental to enabling <a href="https://theconversation.com/lets-give-feral-cats-their-citizenship-45165">threatened species to coexist with cats</a>. In some cases, people may choose to segregate domestic cats from vulnerable wildlife: for instance, with <a href="http://www.feralcats.com/catio/">catios</a> where cats can enjoy the outdoors while being kept apart from wildlife. In other cases, unhomed cats may be managed with <a href="https://www.animallaw.info/article/community-cats-changing-legal-paradigm-management-so-called-%22pests%22">trap-neuter-return programs</a> and <a href="https://www.lanaicatsanctuary.org">sanctuaries</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, contrary to the framing of some scientists and journalists, the dispute over cats is not primarily about the science. Rather, it evokes an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13494">ongoing debate</a> over the ethics that ought to guide humanity’s relationship with other animals and nature.</p>
<p>This is the root of the moral panic over cats: the struggle to move beyond treating other beings with domination and control, toward fostering a relationship rooted in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108648">compassion and justice</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://vetsites.tufts.edu/one-health-fellowship/2018/05/04/joann-lindenmayer-dvm-mph/">Joann Lindenmayer, DVM, MPH</a> is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University and contributed to this article.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138710/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arian Wallach receives funding from the Australian Research Council for research on cats, and from Alley Cat Allies for a workshop on cats in 2017. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila and William S. Lynn do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Framing cats as responsible for declines in biodiversity is based on faulty scientific logic and fails to account for the real culprit – human activity.William S. Lynn, Research Scientist, Clark UniversityArian Wallach, Lecturer, Centre for Compassionate Conservation, University of Technology SydneyFrancisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.