What is compassion?

That is the prompt for my therapy homework… So here we go:
I believe that compassion is having empathy and understanding towards others. It is a powerful feeling, perhaps one that fuels kindness in people even in spite of prior judgements. For example, there are people I dislike in day to day life but should they be suffering I would want to provide comfort.
As human beings I believe that deep sadness or struggle triggers our compassion, bringing us closer and maintaining the world as one unit. There’s nothing that makes people unite more than a disaster.
Compassion is the care giver inside of each of us, and for those of us with mental disorders allowing that care giver to soothe ourselves is very difficult.