Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering. Neuroscience has proven that similar areas of the brain are activated both in the person who suffers and in the one who feels empathy. Thus empathic suffering is a true experience of suffering.
When some empathic caregivers are exposed to others' suffering day after day, their continuous partaking in this suffering might become overwhelming and can lead to burnout. Other caregivers may react by shutting down their empathic feeling and drawing an emotional curtain between themselves and their patients. Both these reactions are far from optimal.
Could mind training and meditation on altruistic love and compassion serve as an antidote to burnout? An example of this is the caregiver who naturally displays overflowing kindness and warmth toward his patients and does not experience any burnout.
Experienced Buddhist meditators have reported that when they focused for some time on what they called "stand-alone empathy" (visualizing intense suffering affecting someone else and resonating empathically with that suffering) without allowing compassion and altruistic love to grow in their minds, they soon experienced burnout.
However, when they added a powerful feeling of unconditional love and compassion, the negative, distressing aspects of empathy disappeared and were replaced by compassionate courage and a resolve to do whatever they could to soothe others' suffering. It would therefore seems that there is no such thing as "compassion fatigue," as burnout is often called, but only an "empathy fatigue" that can be remedied by cultivating compassion.
Neuroscientist Tania Singer, in collaboration with such meditators, is planning to train caregivers in cultivating loving-kindness in a secular way based on Buddhist techniques. This would to allow caregivers, nurses, and doctors to continue to offer altruistic services to those in pain without themselves suffering from empathic distress.
WATCH:
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who went from a scientific career as a molecular biologist in France to the study of Buddhism in the Himalayas 40 years ago. He has been the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama since 1989. Matthieu donates all proceeds from his work and much of his time to 30 humanitarian projects in Asia through Karuna-Shechen. You may learn more about him on his website, MatthieuRicard.org.
Compassion - A View on Buddhism
Thus, I added to my daily meditations and received a massage every weekend as I feel that I store this trauma and sensitivity in my back and other body parts. Now my mind is open, accepting and allowing with my meditations and I relate more effectively with our soldiers. Now, with our Nurtitionist and fitness specialist, I encourage our soldiers and staff to design a daily health routine. Several of us get together even before our center opens and do some yoga and Psychocalisthenics...our energy is increased and we can maintain more balance, improve our relationships and be more readyand open to work with our injured warriors.
Thank you for bringing this article to our awareness.
http://www.ladolceliving.com/caregiving/coping-with-caregiving-stress.html
See Huff Po article on how different meditation techniques have different results in reducing stress. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeanne-ball/how-meditation-techniques_b_735561.html
On the other hand, I see many nurses and physicians who always have just the right amount of compassion to give to patients and their families every time they see them even if it is at the end of a long day. Those are truly some superb human beings who can handle all the pressure and stresses from long days filled with sick patients.
Dustin Rudolph
www.PursueAHealthyYou.com
and texting meaningless garbage, . . junk like facebook and twitter, more
distracting garbage. then all the junk like iPods, etc ..
People have not attention span these days.
it works
Thank you!
Deb
The results from the studies she conducted between those who learned this technique and those in her control groups who didn't, were striking. Those who practiced this meditation had more creativity, better health across the spectrum, better relationships, better resilience and ability to rebound from crisis, better problem-solving skills and on and on...
This reminds me of research that was conducted in the 60's and 70's on Transcendental Meditation. Gradually science has begun to measure the actual markers and benefits of meditation and it's practice in our lives, and the findings are surprising everyone. Now, even the U.S. military is working with Dr. Fredrickson to utilize her research in helping soldiers to deal with war-induced trauma and its negative psychological impacts.
This is all very good news for society! The research demonstrates that each of us has within us the ability to change our own lives and the lives of others simply by practicing a simple meditation.
Emerson was right: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
Your comment brings to mind my years as a kid in grade school. I was one of those kids who had a lot of issues, extremely sensitive, different from the other kids, bright, creative, filled with ideas, but not always able to be present as a part of the group.
I remember how remarkable it felt, when a teacher would stop at my desk, just to see how I was doing, during class, and put his or her hand on my arm or shoulder, as a simple form of acknowledgment. The sensation was remarkable, it spread throughout my consciousness and confirmed for me that I was part of the group, that I was important, that my existence mattered - it was an incredible affirmation for me - the simplest gesture. It meant so much.
Human touch cannot be replaced by ideology, by rules, by "correct" conduct. There is a very significant possibility that it will become increasingly remote, or even lost.
Find a way to acknowledge the humanity of those around you, smile at someone, touch them on the shoulder, grasp their hand in a gesture of solidarity.
Compassion is the only way, to say to someone that I care, is there anything that i can do for you ? Such a small gesture yet make a difference in someone else`s life.
Make an eye contact, say hello, and smile...
:)