When you care for a something outside yourself, you are also taking care of yourself. It can be a person, a pet, or even an inanimate object like a plant. This may sound trite, but deciding to care is the quickest way I know to chase sour thoughts and difficult feelings away. It also hooks us into something that, I hear, many people say they cannot do: it calms the mind.

It calms the mind because it shifts our attention away from our internal focus, and towards something external to ourselves.
Deciding to care redirects our attention from an inward focus to the external environment. It can be beneficial for both mind and body. It can boost motor learning and performance, lower anxiety, support overall well-being, and even open the door to transcendent states like awe.

Meditation teacher Jeff Warren calls this the Care Principle. He says “When we treat a person or thing with care, not only will that person or thing last longer, so will we”

When you’re in that caring place – really in it – it feels good. It’s not a sugary, sentimental feeling, but a grounded, steady warmth. There’s something deeply human about choosing to care. It connects you to others and softens the edges of your own internal noise.

Try a simple experiment, what does the expression of care feel like for you? When you deliberately adopt a caring stance, what do you notice in your experience?

Pause for a moment and deliberately adopt a caring stance. Maybe it’s toward someone in your life, maybe it’s toward yourself, or even a stranger. Don’t force a smile or fake it. Just ‘intend’ care. Hold the thought: “I care about this person. I wish them well.” Notice what shifts inside. It might be subtle at first—a loosening of tension, a deeper breath, a change in your tone or posture. You may feel calmer, less defensive. You may even find a bit more patience, where before there was none.
If you don’t immediately feel a change, stick at it anyway. Some of us take a little longer to adjust to this strange idea, so just trust the process.
Regular practice
If you do this once or twice a day – not to fix anything or force a transformation, but just to experiment – you’ll likely begin to notice changes.

They won’t be dramatic fireworks. But over time, choosing to care can shift  your internal landscape. You might feel less reactive, more open. A little more tuned in, a little less guarded. Relationships – from casual daily interactions to the more permanent and enduring ones – become richer and more fulfilling.

This isn’t some magic trick or emotional hack. It’s just a small purposeful act that can ripple outward. I say this not as a guarantee, but as something I’ve experienced firsthand. Taking on a caring stance—on purpose, with attention – has slowly reshaped the way I move through the world. I’m less rigid, and more connected.

This isn’t a promise, it’s my hope for you. Not because you need to be someone else, but because tuning into your capacity to care might just bring out more of who you already are.

You can find out more about Jeff Warren and learn his simple meditation techniques at Calm.com. There’s also an app you can download for your phone.

Image by Freepik