3 key principles for change

I was recently asked if compassion was really something that can be taught, and was told  by the same person, in a very matter of fact way, that people are either compassionate or they are not. Hmmm....interesting view point. I do wonder what experience this person has had to store this in their psyche as the absolute truth.

Compassionate people exhibit certain behaviours and behaviours like skills can be learnt.

If ones behaviour changes, then the way one thinks about the thing one exhibits this new behaviour too changes, and thus how one feel about it also changes. There is a whole therapeutic technique that is dedicated to this very thing. Its history is seeped in scientific, psychological and neurological research.

The key principles to remember are:

1: What we think, effects how we act and feel.
2: What we feel, effects how we think and act.
3: How we act, effects how we think and feel.

We all have a "learned" way of doing things and had experiences which have created our opinions and views of the world around us. And these learned and stored experiences have an impact on how we behave and interact with the world and people around us. Everything we think and feel, can be changed through the way in which we behave. And thus update our stored memories and stereotypes, the associated thoughts and"automatic" responses that come with it.

"if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you've always got" -Henry Ford