The most powerful tool for healing and living a happier life is practicing compassion. And not only does compassion bring you internal benefits, it also keeps you younger and more attractive to others, studies show.

Vishen Lakhiani, a meditation teacher and founder of Mindvalley, a personal growth platform with more than two million students writes on CNBC that compassion isn’t about feeling sorry for people but rather experiencing empathy towards another person, without judgment.

A 2019 study conducted by scientists and psychologist at the University of North Carolina found that the aging markers, called telomeres, that usually shorten as we age, did not shorten at all for people who practiced “loving-kindness compassion meditations.” Researchers also found that meditations centered around compassion can enhance optimism and positivity, heighten stress immunity, increase activation in brain regions associated with bonding and reduce PTSD symptoms.

Studies have shown that people find individuals who have compassionate traits more attractive. These traits are kindness, selflessness, mindfulness, and empathy. According to Eva C. Klohnen, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Iowa, there’s a valid reason for this phenomenon.

“In an evolutionary sense, it makes sense that we would all be attracted to someone who is — or who we perceive to be — trustworthy, loving and sensitive, someone who will be there when we need them and who gives us support,” she said, according to the American Psychological Association.

Lakhiani says that through meditation, you can train your brain to be kinder and more compassionate. Here are 4 steps of his program:

1. Bring a loved one to mind. Take a deep breath and on your exhale, vividly picture a loved one in front of you. Tune in to the love they inspire within you and bring that awareness and compassion into your heart. Give those feelings of love a color — pink, blue, or green — it doesn’t matter.
2. Let the feelings of compassion flow through your body. Let those emotions flow from your heart and allow the sensations to fill your whole body. Fill your cup first, and only then can you serve others from your overflow, says the expert.
3. Expand the compassion into the whole room. Take another deep breath and see that bubble of compassion filling the whole room you are in covering everything in it.
4. Send out that compassion to your neighborhood and beyond. Lakhiani says he likes to use a map to spread compassion geographically wider, from the neighborhood he lives in, to the city and entire country and eventually, he sends compassion to envelop the earth.

“This is the final stage of the practice that connects us not just to those closest to us, but to all life on earth,” he writes. “If you get lost at any point, return to step one. See your loved one in front of you again, charge yourself up with love, and spread it outward again.”