Compassion Heals: Leaning Into Our Biological Drive to Care, Connect, and Reconcile - Mind & Life Institute

SRI 21|Session 7

Overview

Humans have multiple, interacting neurobiological systems for motivating, behaving in accordance with, and reinforcing compassion. A multicomponent process, there are “grassroots” contributors to compassion that work dynamically, bi-directionally, and iteratively in conjunction with higher order “executive” processes. These processes are shaped by individual, social, and situational factors that give rise to an array of reflexive, habitual, learned, and intentional responses – that together have the potential to bloom into compassion. Like sunlight, soil, and water for germinating seeds, the likelihood that compassion will emerge and the breadth of its scope depends on nourishing the neural structures, pathways, and processes that are conducive to it, and nurturing through the barriers and impediments that make it less probable. There are multiple validated programs for cultivating compassion, and strong evidence that skills learned therein improve people’s experience of compassion as well as several biomarkers of health, and neural indices of empathy and sympathetic joy. Emiliana Simon-Thomas shares findings from a widely distributed online platform for promoting well-being (Pathway to Happiness on the Greater Good in Action website) which features several compassion-promoting practices, and discuss the opportunity for further leveraging resources like this to extend the reach of compassion strengthening resources to people with diverse backgrounds, cultural identities, beliefs, and ideological orientations. By raising the profile and gravity of compassion worldwide, people will have the wherewithal to intuitively and collaboratively seek peaceable, innovative solutions to the challenges that vex humankind.

SRI 21
11 sessions
June 5, 2024
Garrison, New York
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Speakers

Emiliana Simon-Thomas is the Science Director at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. A Berkeley native, she earned her PhD in Psychology studying how emotional and cognitive processes interact to shape behavior and brain activity. During her post-doc, Emiliana studied the biological correlates and social functions of prosocial emotions like compassion, gratitude, and awe. She then served as Associate Director/Senior Scientist at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford, examining how compassion, both innate and learned, benefits health and well-being. At the GGSC, she oversees the student research fellowship program, runs key initiatives like Expanding the Science and Practice of Gratitude, and provides an expert scientific voice on the key roles that social connection, support, and belonging play in well-being to audiences worldwide. She also co-teaches The Science of Happiness, a BerkeleyX MOOC that has enrolled over 600,000 people from all over the world, as well as the Science of Happiness at Work Professional Certificate Series. She regularly lectures on the biological underpinnings of social connection, as well as empirically-supported approaches to improving interpersonal dynamics – like practicing mindfulness, and increasing compassion, gratitude, and generosity. Alongside her academic and popular writing, Emiliana recently co-edited the Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science, a transdisciplinary compendium of articles from world-class researchers. Emiliana’s work leverages cutting edge scientific insights to help people live better lives individually, in relationship with others, within organizations and communities, and society-wide.

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