This is the third in the series on meditation.  I wish to acknowledge and thank my meditation instructor and good friend, Tom Jacobs, Kelly McGonigal and her article in the June 2010 Yoga Journal entitled, "Your Brain on Meditation" and Antoine Lutz, PhD at the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior at the University of Wisconsin.

Don't we think of compassion as an emotional quality that some people are just born with?  Do you wish you were more compassionate (a feeling of connectedness with others)?  Well, YOU CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!  Compassion meditation is the meditation practice of generating a state of love and compassion. 

Research now shows that compassion is a skill we can learn through meditation.  Using MRI brain scanners on people who were practicing compassion meditation, Dr. Lutz introduced sounds of a woman screaming or a baby.  Those with more experience in compassion meditating showed a greater brain response in those areas where the brain processes emotional responses.  So compassion meditation opens the brain naturally to a connection with others.