Courage and Wisdom are at the Centre of Compassion - Part 1

by Professor Paul Gilbert
 

In the last 30 years, there has been an explosion of interest in the science of compassion on what it does to our minds, bodies, brains and social relationships. The motive for compassion is to address suffering, being sensitive to suffering and turning towards it, not away from it. Second, we need to respond wisely otherwise we can make things worse. When we move towards suffering and take steps to address it, we need the key qualities of courage and wisdom. These qualities are at the centre of compassion and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and are necessary for understanding how to develop the competencies for courage and wisdom. 

Compassion is not one thing; it is very much linked to contexts. People can be good at one aspect but not another. For example, if you are a firefighter or COVID worker, wise courage is essential if you are to pursue your intention to save people from dying. But the counsellor working with the bereaved relatives of those who have died will need different competencies and skills and these may not be not interchangeable. The same is true in psychotherapy. Clients with different problems may need different types of courage and wisdom, too. 

We might think that compassionate action requires a calm mind, this is certainly a mind we want to develop, and that helps us in many contexts. But those desperately working on a COVID ward in the conditions that they were in were not in a calm mind, but they possessed a mind that was sufficiently in control to follow through with their intention to save their patients. Courage is not fearlessness. Courage is the pursuit of intention in the face of fear. Indeed, COVID clinicians were able to continue working while feeling frightened, angry and sad with the unfolding tragedy around them and maintaining their dedication is the mark of courage.

To engage in compassionate action, we need to build a mind and a body that can pursue our compassionate intentions without being forced off the road by our threat responses: fight, flight, and freeze. Equally, we require insight into what is needed and the courage to act on it. COVID-19 clinicians, for example, need to know a good deal about respiratory medicine. Part of the role of psychotherapy is to help clients discover 'a good deal about how their minds work' so that they don't engage in actions that make their difficulties worse. Their courage is guided by wisdom. Hence, as therapists, we support our clients to engage with their pain and difficulty and to face their pain and difficulty with courage and dedication. 

There are different types of courage and there are different types of wisdom, which can be very contextual. You may be a brave firefighter but not an empathic parent, or a very empathic therapist but not a brave firefighter. We can identify particular personality styles that are more oriented to certain types of compassion than others and how that links to the organisation of the autonomic nervous system. 

The autonomic nervous system has two branches, the activating (sympathetic) and the settling, soothing and deactivating system (parasympathetic). Research shows that people who are generally orientated to compassion and kindness have a good balance between these systems. Those who struggle are more likely to be sympathetic dominant while the settling and soothing aspects of the autonomic nervous system are less available to them. This is why in CFT we spend a lot of time helping clients develop part of the parasympathetic system called the vagus nerve. 

Any intention will require a body to follow through. You may want to climb a mountain or run a marathon, but you are unlikely to succeed if you are unfit. So, getting a fit body is necessary to use the skills of climbing or running. Today researchers have identified a range of brain systems, neurotransmitters, and patterns in the autonomic nervous system that supports compassion motives. There is increasing interest in developing interventions to target these physiological systems and this knowledge will help us build a better picture of how to cultivate courage and wisdom.

In part 2 of this blog, I will discuss the twelve different competencies associated with engagement that each play a role in courage and wisdom.

This article originally appeared in the CMA newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.