Compassion

I have been listening to a lot of podcasts recently and in nearly every one of them someone used the word compassion. I felt haunted by this word by Friday! And I started thinking about it a bit more. Do I actually know what it means? With English being my second language I sometimes do not get the 'feeling' of certain words or their strength.
Compassion - sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortune of others.
Why was this word mentioned in podcasts about so many different things, from veganism to Buddhism in the Western world to entrepreneurial fortunes of two American mums?
Is there enough compassion in today's world? Do we live by our own compassionate believes? Do we even know what they are?
I feel like nowadays most people are thinking about themselves first and it is understandable - you should always look after number one, yourself. Like the oxygen masks on the plane, put yours on first before helping others. On the other hand I do believe people are compassionate in their nature. Nobody wants to see someone else suffering. There is a lot of suffering in this world and it can be overwhelming.
I found another explanation of what compassion means - a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. 
A strong desire to alleviate the suffering.... Now I can really relate to that! With one of my closest family members not being very well at the moment I just feel a really deep 'need' to take all that pain and suffering away. Unfortunately sometimes you can't physically do that.
So instead I try to ask myself what can I do to help? How can I express and show my compassion? Is there even a slightest way of alleviate the suffering?
It makes me think about other areas of my life and how I live it, what my values and beliefs are.
So thank you podcasts for making me think about compassion, I will do my best to try and apply it for more areas of my life.
What do you think? Do you live a compassionate life?