Compassion is Soothing the Nervous System
Compassion is … listening to soothing music. According to Stephen Porges, our nervous system gets cued into what is safe and what is not safe. Much of these cues comes from the auditory system. For example, the articulation and prosadic melodies of the social folk songs of the ’60’s were very calming to the nervous system. Even though the words spoke of intense subjects, the harmonized sounds, triggered people to feel safe. My father always had the stereo system playing these kind of songs in my childhood, and now I have an understanding as to why it felt so soothing.
19th day of the Jewish month of Av – the month of Compassion
