The Science of Compassion

A Modern Approach for Cultivating Empathy, Love, and Connection

By: Kelly McGonigal PhD

Narrated by: Kelly McGonigal PhD

Breakthrough science and practical tools for cultivating compassion.

Why is compassion so powerful? Like many forms of spirituality and meditation, compassion practice has been shown by research to enhance your health, psychological well-being, relationships, and sense of purpose. "The unique quality of compassion," teaches Dr. Kelly McGonigal, "is that its benefits extend to the one who offers it, the one who receives it, and all those who witness compassion in action."

With The Science of Compassion, this acclaimed researcher presents a practical workshop to help you understand what makes compassion work - and how you can cultivate it in your life.

The Power of Choosing Compassion

Compassion can be a difficult choice to make - after all, why would we deliberately choose to add another person's pain to our own? "Not only does our compassion ease the suffering of others," teaches Dr. McGonigal, "Our brain, heart, and entire physiology are tuned to support us when we make the courageous decision to be compassionate." In this seven-hour training intensive, she provides invaluable tools and guidance for overcoming emotional fatigue, empathic distress, self-judgment, and other obstacles that can keep us closed down and afraid to reach out.

"Compassion is an embodied state that prepares us to take positive action," says Dr. McGonigal. Here is an audio course filled with cutting-edge science, inspirational stories, and research-based practices to help you build your capacity for generosity, empathy, and kindness - and become a compassionate force in the world.

©2016 Kelly McGonigal (P)2016 Sounds True

Fantastic Performance

Kelly McGonigal changed the way I view the world; she's amazing. I will buy every book she writes.

informative

loved all the scientific studies and how they were described. also I appreciated the guided meditations, will come back for them

Perfect listening experience

What made the experience of listening to The Science of Compassion the most enjoyable?

I'm really happy I opted for the audio version of this book given all the questions to ponder and meditations. Reading a meditation and then trying to do it vs. closing your eyes and having someone guide you are two totally different experiences. I also found the research she presented fascinating.

Helpful but academic

I read this to improve myself as a dad and husband. It was helpful but a bit academic on the topic. It has helpful meditation tools and some good stories.

Want 2 know the particular hormones of compassion?

What made the experience of listening to The Science of Compassion the most enjoyable?

This book gives significant scientific backing to the benefit of being more compassionate for the purpose of helping. (In one study people were actually less altruistic when paid for their empathic responses.)

What other book might you compare The Science of Compassion to and why?

Into the Magic Shop maybe because of the way it makes Science so fantastic and some of the subject matter.

Which character – as performed by Kelly McGonigal – was your favorite?

herself

What did you learn from The Science of Compassion that you would use in your daily life?

Most interesting to me is that health benefit really seem to abound when we think about compassion. In fact, by simply meditating compassionately (thinking of a loved one while focusing on the physical heart), boosts dopamine which is our hormone that makes us feel something good will come of this. Also, meditating compassionately increases for just 5 minutes the antibody SIGA (which increases when you hug people) by 240% and the SIGA antibody lasts in us 1-5 hours. In fact, a study was done where participants snorted the cold virus and with just five minutes of compassionate thinking, they were significantly less likely to get sick.


But by far the most interesting anecdote I found was about progesterone, the recovery and strengthening hormone. According to a study of 1,000 adults in a Buffalo New York study, care-giving and volunteering protects us from mortality and illness. So our longevity improves dramatically when we care.

Any additional comments?

At least so far, McGonigal's research seems to focus on compassion in a way that side steps the use of the term “self compassion.” The thing to remember here, I would suggest, is that compassion and self compassion are really the exact same thing. It can be complicated to think about, especially because compassionate acts with self serving purposes can have the adverse affect. But we must know that there is the such thing as legitimate intrinsic honest to goodness self compassion that is not greedy at all and by virtue of its nature, it has a ripple effect. After all, compassion heals suffering and all suffering is connected.