Compassionate actions:a necessity or an auxiliary wins bronze at the British Queens Commonwealth essay writing competition

The thought-provoking quote by Coretta Scott King could mean contrasting notions to different people. As for my perspective, this means that, as water is significant for the proper growth of a plant, similarly, compassionate actions are essential for the greatness of a community. Compassion is the emotion of sympathy for the suffering of the other person that is why compassion and greatness are two enormously different aspects. What explicitly links these aspects is the fact of taking action. While misplaced compassion can cause matters to get worse for everyone, just feeling compassion is not it, taking action is necessary as unitedly taking compassionate actions will create a positive cycle, assist us in creating the community of our dreams and also activate pleasure circuits in our brain because of the high amount of power that compassion upholds.

Actions speak louder than words and a united effort in taking compassionate actions is just what we need today in these unprecedented times. A tree’s strength is in its roots, likewise, the strength of a community is in its members. Thence, the combined contribution of all the members in not only feeling compassion but taking action is necessary and precisely counts to create a community great. For instance, the Bollywood movie, “Jai ho” unambiguously depicts how compassionate actions rapidly reciprocate and create a positive cycle by the major protagonist of the movie “Jai”. Jai attempts to make a network that would urge residents to help one another. Every day, residents are to help three individuals. These three individuals would thusly help three additional individuals and on and on portraying a chain of positivity and showing one step forward to a dream community. This movie sets a concrete example for us that how making a united effort of taking even one small compassionate action can foster so much kindness and a sense of belonging among the members of that community. Nevertheless, actions are like the bridge and the pathway that take compassion to greatness. Subsequently, in accordance with the third law of Newton in Physics that “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”, it is also accurate in this case, where feeling compassion is not the only aspect rather taking an action for it by giving assistance is necessary because there will be an equally positive reaction to it that will mould a community cherish in terms of greatness.

Visualizing a world without Mother Teresa or the countless individuals who risked their lives to save others is difficult and that depicts the importance of their existence. Consequently, their compassion encouraged them to do courageous deeds which still holds a golden place in all of our hearts. Furthermore, portraying us that taking compassionate actions can do wonders and also can fabricate our dream community, a reality, if we ignite this feeling of compassion and if we are truly willing to do something about it. A dream community where the members are responsible, there are no social injustices and incorporates selfless people who don’t take advantage of others feelings. This dream community is possible if we all are taking compassionate actions because then instantly it will give us a sense of responsibility and that sense of responsibility can prevent so many social issues and injustices, for instance, sexual harassment, discrimination, gender inequality, social stratification and so much more. Hence, just the way, thousands of bees work together to create the hive in order to survive, if we all make the communal effort then we will surely grow greater as a community and especially, this will be beneficial to the survival of humanity.

Ordinarily, compassion towards others and taking actions to assist others out of compassion are not only beneficial for others but also positively impact and benefit ourselves. It activates pleasure circuits in our brain that gives us a little beneficial amount of adrenaline rush that increases our heart rate and enthusiasm. As it is commonly said that the secret to happiness is giving assistance to others, thus when you take compassionate action, you feel an increased amount of happiness and delight yourself. An action as simple as just opening the door for someone, motivating someone, using golden words such as sorry, thank you, excuse me, please are compassionate and you can never predict how much they can mean to someone. Compassionate actions assist us in understanding ourselves better in and out, it is also proven by research and psychology that it has provided enhanced medical and mental health outcomes, reduced stress levels to great extent, reduced psychopathology, and has explicitly increased social connectedness with other people. By embracing compassion in ourselves, we can be “Bayanihan” which is a term precisely used for people who are willing to assist others without anticipating something in return which effectively paints a selfless person’s picture in our minds. Even though compassionate actions are selfless yet they are still very helpful to us in terms of the beneficiary they provide to our health!

In today’s world, although executing this dream community will be difficult but if we work together and take initiative to take actions influenced by compassion then it can surely assist in creating a positive impact in our community. As the true power of a building lies in its foundation, correspondingly, the true power of our community lies in the citizens so if we assist each other, feel empathetic and compassionate towards each other then unitedly we can achieve the community of our dreams. Therefore, I strongly agree with Coretta Scott King’s inspiring words and I firmly believe that compassionate actions are just that key to the door of golden opportunities that God waits for us.