The focus of this episode is warming the heart and developing greater compassion and kindness as personal traits.

Last week we continued the strength of Intimacy by taking a look at Empathy. When we use empathy, we get a sense of the sorrows and joys of others. But empathy on its own doesn’t inherently mean that we become kinder or more compassionate toward other people.

That’s the focus during this episode: warming the heart, and developing greater compassion and kindness as personal traits.

Most people probably view kindness, compassion, and love as intrinsically good things. But besides being good for other people, strengthening the (metaphorical) muscle of the heart calms your body, protects its immune system, lifts your mood, and evokes caring from others.

During this episode, we explore:

• The difference between compassion and kindness
• The importance of seeing our common humanity
• Why it’s so hard to separate approval from compassion
• What we can do to be kinder and more compassionate even toward those people we disagree with

If you’d like to start making real, positive changes to your brain and your life, but you don’t have a lot of extra time, then you may want to check out Rick Hanson’s new program: Just One Minute.

Dr. Rick Hanson offers 57 brief practices that strengthen the neural networks of deep well-being and resilience.

This program gives you just one thing to focus on each day to gradually change your brain for the better so you can handle the stresses and challenges of everyday life with greater ease, inner strength, and confidence.

Each practice is grounded in modern neuroscience and ancient wisdom, and Rick’s background in the very real world of business and raising a family.

Practices include a 1-2 minute video explaining the importance of the practice and how to do it, a recap, reflection, and suggestion for integrating it into your daily life, weekly emails with inspiration, support, and encouragement, an audio download, transcription, and printable handout.

They’re quick and easy to do, and each repetition strengthens key neural circuits – just like building a muscle in the gym. It’s the law of little things: a small thing repeated each day adds up to big results. Just one thing… that could change your life.

Use the code BEINGWELL at checkout for 10% off the purchase price.