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PSY 203 Social Psychology Florin Shehu Fall 2015 Instructor: Zagidullin
“Day of compassion”
The purpose of this paper is to report the patterns of behaviors that happened during my
“Day of Compassion” and to analyze them. This paper will involve my own definition of
compassion and the ways and methods that I tried to apply them to real life. I will then
analyze this methods and ways, examine their consequences and come up with a conclusion
related to their effectiveness and success.
I believe that the true meaning of compassion is to really understand deeply enough the
state of the living things in front of you, realize what they are experiencing and try to help
them pass the obstacles that they might be facing. Compassion is that precious moment in
your life when you forget about your own problems, or at least when you minimize their
magnitude and see for the solution of other’s problems. The moment when you feel the
pure satisfaction deep in your soul while trying to make another creature feel better. Even
just a smile can be an act of compassion if it heals someone’s heart. Compassion is all about
being able to weaken your ego’s needs and feeling more useful to this world when bringing
happiness to others for the greater good.
On my Day of Compassion my behavior was slightly different than my usual daily behavior.
That is because I was trying to be more careful about everything that surrounded me. While
I was preparing to go to school I was experiencing this different feelings of high positive
energy, optimism and joyfulness. By reminding myself that today is my compassion day I

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was somehow motivating myself to be happier and more cheerful. When I was by myself I
was somehow trying to reflect more upon the good things that are happening to me, upon
the several reasons that would make me be more grateful and upon the positive facts that
would make me more optimistic. I was seeing the glass half-full.
The recipients of my compassion were several human beings and other different living
things. There was a male administrative member of the university at the age of about 30,
my housemates who are students in the first year of university, trees in the street, a cat, a
friend from another department, a friend younger than me in the first year of university, a
very close friend that I know since last year. So in general the recipients of my compassion
where the people who usually are close to me and that I normally meet them daily. All the
human being recipients of my compassion are part of my university since that is the place
that I usually spend most of my time. It turns out that most of them are males and around
20 years old.
I tried to help the member of the administrative staff by being a translator in a seminar that
he asked me to translate. I was smiling, being cheerful and grateful to my housemates; I also
helped cleaning the kitchen after breakfast. I stopped for a moment while going to school
and stayed close to the trees, touched them, watered them and I tried to communicate with
them by understanding their life processes. While I was passing the road a cat was passing
close to me. I tried to get closer to her and to communicate with her and somehow showing
to her that she is not alone and that I am here to help her. I tried to motivate and cheer up a
friend of mine who was experiencing low levels of self-esteem. Another friend was having
some problems with his official documents and was feeling very sad and disappointed, that

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is why I went close to him and I convinced him that everything will be fine and alright. I gave
a spontaneous gift to a close friend. I ended my day remembering it as a very positive and
cheerful day where I was almost always smiling and transmitting positive energy to people.
In general, the reactions that I got were smiles and happy faces. People were very grateful
for what I did and they were feeling better after my communication with them. Some of
them were literally thanking me and some others were sending this message non-verbally;
by giving a thankful look, smiling or even giving a hug. In those moments I was feeling
extremely useful and important. Useful because I was temporarily being a reason for the
happiness of somebody and important because without me there in those moments that
situation would have been worse. It felt like I was destined (born) to be at that moment, at
that place, with that attitude. It felt really different, special and unique. I was receiving the
happiness back. They were also making me feel better by showing they gratitude or even by
just being happy.
The main differences in showing compassion to humans vs. animals vs. plants were at the
reactions and the feelings that they transmitted back. When you show compassion to a
human you usually get the reaction right away. You become aware of how your actions
made someone feel and you know that for sure. On the other hand, when you show
compassion to an animal you might get somehow a reaction but you can not really be sure
of what it implies. Usually the communication is done non-verbally that is why the
ambiguity is much more present. When you show your compassion to a plant you can just
‘imagine’ of how the plant reacts and ‘feels’. You go by the idea that what you are doing is

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useful and important for the plant and it is somehow making its life better. The reaction in
this case is already known.
The people that I already knew were responding very normally to my reactions. There were
of course extra smiles and thanks but generally they were not surprised by my attitude.
They did not seem to have noticed a difference in my behavior. As far as I could notice and
understand from them, they just thought of my behavior as being more caring, kind and
thoughtful. However not major changes were noticed in my behavior. The reason of that
might be that I am always trying to find new and effective ways to motivate and make
people feel better. That is what really drives me with more energy and makes me feel
better.
Showing compassion to somebody I know changes a lot to showing compassion to persons I
don’t know. When you show compassion to somebody you know, you know better what
might be the most effective and right way to make him/her feel better. You can also
somehow predict the reaction much easier. On the other hand, when showing compassion
to people you don’t know, you can easily feel that the moment is actually more unique
because there is a high probability that you might not have the same opportunity again to
show your compassion. You also feel like your act of compassion is toward the humanity in
general and not simply toward the individual in front of you. That gives a different sense of
compassion even though the reaction is a bit less predictable.
My behavior was not really different from my everyday normal behavior. I was trying to be
as optimistic, cheerful and joyful as possible. I was trying to be always smiling and helping
people. These actions are not really different from my normal life because I believe that

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these are the forces that really make me take joy from my life. However, it is extremely hard
to be everyday or always like this. Sometimes I can not be as careful, cautious or thoughtful
for each of my behavior. Sometimes my behavior occurs very fast and I can not have enough
time to think about the consequences. Some other times I find myself to be thinking and/or
doing a lot of things in a short period of time and then I would realize that I was not being as
careful as I would want to be in each of my actions. There might be days when I would not
feel as energetic or active as I would want to be. Sometimes I would not get the reaction
that I would want to get after an act of compassion and this would demotivate me to
continue being compassionate. These psychological and social factors turn out to be barriers
to me if I would wish to be compassionate everyday. I believe that people usually are ready
to welcome and enjoy a compassionate act but sometimes they are not aware of it. That is
why we should be ready to use the perspective communication model which implies that
we should see the situation from the point of view of the person in front of us. That would
make us understand easier their actions and to not get demotivated and discouraged to
keep being as compassionate as we can.
In a conclusion I would say that my Day of Compassion was a really unique and useful
experience. I was motivated to be more cheerful and optimistic than I usually am. I tried to
do my best to help people in their everyday difficulties. I also did my best to cheer them up
and motivate them to see the world in a more positive point of view. I learned that seeing
the situations in different points of view would help me find better perspectives and this
way I would inspire my self to keep being compassionate.