LOVE, KINDNESS, AND COMPASSION

I read an article today that was posted on Everyday Health. The article described research testing results, and claims that the qualities we would all like to see more of in the world such as love, kindness, and compassion are TEACHABLE.

The article is suggesting that people who meditate while focusing on kindness and compassion will show results that make them more able to feel compassion in others. They are hoping to conclude that people that mediate and show improvement in studying and sports will also show more compassion and kindness when meditation is focused on the health and well being of others.

Of course, this is so far only in research, but WHAT A CONCEPT. The extreme possibility that we can affect the balance of the world with a method that a lot of us use everyday to stay focused on our life skills and goals.

The research involved Tibetan monks that had meditated through most of their lives and 16 subjects that had just begun using compassion meditation. There were changes in the brain that were monitored through imaging. The researches hope to find more results that back up their desire to use meditation as a treatment for a greater range of problems. Depression is one of them and they even include bullying in that range.

I personally, believe that meditation develops changes in the way a person views the world. I have experienced dramatic changes in my level of depression and the reactions I monitor in relation to others. I have benefited greatly through the use of meditation. I believe that this group is on the cutting edge of some positive research findings and I will be looking for results like this in other programs.

I have been told that this process is not effective in relation to disorders like ODD, but I hold faith that results will soon show that this behavior can be used as an alternative to the methods now being used to find therapeutic levels for sufferers of ODD and many other similar disorders. I intend to collect data that supports this theory and hopefully find a research group that has even more positive findings. WHEN I do, I will be sharing that information.