How to Practice Compassion Meditation to Change the Brain

By Angela CollevecchioOn 03 Mar, 2020 1 Comment

Every action we take changes the brain. When we practice compassion, the brain gets better at understanding our own emotions and the emotions of others. Emotional intelligence. A skill that better predicts personal success than almost any other type of human intelligence.

With compassion meditation, we can actually practice and grow our emotional intelligence and empathy towards others.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to be self-aware of our own emotions, manage our behaviors under those emotions, recognize the emotions of others, and manage the relationships between our own and other’s emotions.

Emotional intelligence better predicts how likely we are to succeed in our jobs and helps determine how likely we are to be happy. (1, 2, 3)

Unlike IQ or personality, emotional intelligence can be practiced and developed. Compassion meditation is a systematic and guided approach that can show results in as little as seven days.

Learn what compassion meditation is, how it changes the brain, and how you can practice.

What is compassion meditation?

Compassion meditation is referred to by a few different names – self-compassion meditation, metta meditation and loving-kindness meditation are three of the most common.

Loving-kindness is often understood as the practice to wish happiness upon ourselves and others. Compassion practice is to wish ourselves and others to be free from suffering. Usually, loving-kindness and compassion meditations are practiced together.

Mindfulness meditation practice is often accompanied by self-compassion, compassion, and loving-kindness. The loving awareness cultivated in compassion practice helps better develop the openness and non-judgemental nature of mindfulness.

How compassion meditation changes the brain?

Compassion meditation changes different parts of the brain like the insula, which are associated with social interaction, emotional wellness, awareness, and the mind-body connection.

Dr. Richard Davidson is a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, and an expert on imaging the effects of meditation.

Richard led a study that imaged the brains of both experienced monks and new meditators with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while practicing compassion meditation. (5) Scans showed significant activity in areas of the brain associated with detecting emotions and processing empathy. (5)

“The research suggests that individuals — from children who may engage in bullying to people prone to recurring depression — and society in general could benefit from such meditative practices,” Richard explains to UW–Madison. (5)

When emotional intelligence is heightened, we are able to:

identify and manage our emotions better
understand our emotions without becoming overwhelmed by them
perceive other’s emotions more clearly
manage relationships and the emotions of others more effectively

In the case of mental health illness, like anxiety disorders, emotional intelligence can be a powerful tool for managing symptoms. Nearly 40 million people are suffering from anxiety in the US alone, which makes up 19.1% of the population. (5)

Practicing compassion meditation could make a significant impact on overall wellbeing and the capacity to not be overwhelmed by intense emotions.

Furthermore, social anxiety is one of the most common forms of anxiety. Studies show that those with social anxiety often have trouble discerning neutral faces from angry faces. (6) As compassion meditation increases our ability to disseminate different emotions from others, it may help aid in minimizing these effects.