Heart-Centered Listening Makes Us More Compassionate than Mindfulness Alone
Stand Out Quotes:
Mindfulness in the west has been reduced to mind training to help us to be more efficient but mindfulness was designed to reduce suffering in the world.
Altruism and social stress only shift if you do relation based practices.
Fear of not being good enough is ingrained in our culture now so if we can increase care motivation and judge ourselves and others less we could potentially cure social diseases like depression and loneliness.
Dr. Tania Singer is one of the foremost researchers in the world on compassion. She hails from the Max Planck Institute in Berlin, Germany. See her info here.
She set up a very specific experiment that allowed people to practice "contemplative dyads" where a listener and speaker come together to operate in a kind of meditative listening in connection.
She tested three different styles of dyads or pair work. Her findings are stunning.
Just attention based mindfulness does not create any reduction in cortisol stress after three months but an interpersonal practice leads to a 50% reduction in cortisol stress. HUGE! HUGE!
Ever wondered if what we do at Sidewalk Talk directly impacts the world? HERE IS THE PROOF!
Dr. Singer has been a mindfulness practitioner for many years. And she took up a topic of research that, at the time she began, was not cool, and certainly there were not many women doing research as a neuropsychologist at her institute. I hope we can have her on again to talk about the challenges of leading while female. I am looking forward to more work collaborations with Dr. Tania Singer.
And please listen to this interview all the way through the end to hear the very special message Dr. Tania Singer offers to Sidewalk Talk listeners the world over.
Please check out Compassion-Training.org.
