We begin developing our innate ability to be compassionate from the time we are born. We learn through “mirror neurons” by what we see and feel from the way we are held, calmed and soothed. Like when we are crying and our father picks us up and sings to us, we relax and coo or when we are screaming for attention and we get our mother’s gentle voice saying, “there, there” and are consoled. If we got anything other than compassionate care we may have frozen unmet needs that need Nurturing in order to be developed and expressed.
Compassion continues to be shown to us by the way we hear our family talk about others or groups of people. If they speak with compassionate kind language, then we learn to be understanding of other’s plights and to speak kindly about their struggles.