We all know that a simple act of kindness makes us feel good, but have you ever considered how this happens? Scientists believe that the ability to be compassionate has evolved for one main reason i.e. survival! It turns out that helping others and relying on the kindness of strangers, helps us to stay alive.
Researchers now believe that compassion is an inborn part of human behavior and the vagus nerve just may be the “organ of compassion” or our “care taking” organ. The vagus nerve is one of the oldest brain structures and runs from the base of the brain to the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and intestines.
I Vote Compassion For Vagal Tone
There is a lot of talk these days regarding the importance of improving vagal tone. Evidence suggests that the vagus nerve is the “compassion center” of your brain. When our brains recognize suffering in others, the vagus nerve is stimulated and when we feel compassion, oxytocin is released by the hypothalamus. Oxytocin makes us feel more bonded to others and gives us an overall sense of well being and belonging. Oxytocin also fosters euphoric feelings of contentment, intimacy, and security. At the end of the day, feeling compassion is an excellent way to improve vagal tone.
The Loving Kindness Meditation
One way to induce feelings of compassion is to recite The Loving Kindness prayer. The loving kindness prayer focuses on developing feelings of goodwill, kindness, warmth and compassion towards others. As you will soon see, this meditation has proven health benefits. The Loving Kindness prayer goes like this:
May I be happy
May I be healthy
May I be whole
May I live in peace
May you be happy
May you be healthy
May you be whole
May you live in peace
May we be happy
May we be healthy
May we be whole
May we live in peace
Feel better already? Emma Seppälä, Ph.D. a Stanford University researcher, published numerous studies showing the benefits of this meditation ranging from well-being to relief from illness and improving emotional intelligence. Some of the proven benefits of Loving Kindness Meditation include “increasing positive, imporovement of vagal tone (which increases positive emotions & feelings of social connection decrease in migraines, decreases chronic pain, decreases PTSD, decreases schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. activates empathy & emotional processing in the brain, increases respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) an index of parasympathetic cardiac control (i.e., your ability to enter a restorative state), and slowed respiration rate, increases telomere length—a biological marker of aging, makes you a more helpful person, increases compassion, increases empathy, decreases bias towards others, increases social connection, increases self-love, has Immediate and long term impact”
With all of these benefits, it makes sense to incorporate this simple practice into our daily lives as much as possible. If you are interested in meditation, check out my book If the Buddha Had an Autoimmune Disease.
