Parivartan from sympathy to empathy is need of the hour
Image credit edsurge.com
Empathy…..what does it mean….
Putting yourself in another person’s shoes(or skin”) is a way of understanding where they are coming from.
……Now if you are empathizing with the other person ,when you understand exactly how it feels, even you begin to feel the same way.
“Empathy depends on not only on one’s ability to identify someone else’s emotions but also on one’s capacity to put oneself in the other person’s place and to experience an appropriate emotional response”.
– Charles G. Morris
Of course, empathy gets a little harder when you are the subject of the emotion — during a disagreement…
Empathy — In personal life
Personal challenge: When another person is talking, try to put yourself in their shoes.
Then imagine how you would feel in whatever situation they are describing. It will be even better if you validate the same..for example..I’ll bet that made you really annoyed. (When the person says yes, that’s how I felt,” you’ve nailed it and . .scored big one)
That’s because when other person believes you completely understand how he/she feels,
You have accomplished something wonderful.
Here you were empathetic, and you have achieved an emotional connection.
You are truly united at that moment. This can be a very healing and connecting experience.
What does empathy do..
•Reduce criticism considerably
•Eliminate nagging to a very great extent
•Make conflict lesser and shorter
•Makes you better friends/partner
•Reinforces commitment
•Brings “grace” to your relationship
•Makes for a longer life
•Allows for dreams to flourish
•Make you better parents, spouses, colleagues, neighbors. •Reduces ego clashes
•Become emotionally intelligent
Compassionate empathy
As discussed earlier, empathy is ….Putting yourself in another person’s shoes(or skin”) is a way of understanding where they are coming from..Compassionate empathy is not only feeling another person’s pain however taking action to help ..
There are many traits associated to compassion :
- Kindness
- Help
- Generosity
How to be more compassionate
For example if you want to become more physically healthy you exercise , in the same way if we want to be more compassionate we need to train our brain accordingly.
Further, to explain, regular exercise for loved ones and weight training for the difficult people….
However it can be hard to show compassion for the tough people in life, however when you choose to help no matter what…you are rewiring your brain ..the more is the practice the more it gets easier to respond positively.
Steps to improvise contd
1 Show gratitude As this will serve as foundation, in school also kids are taught prayers to thank god for everything we have…
2 Practice empathy We need to be more aware of people around rather than being too occupied in ourselves.
3 Commonalities Try to find out the commonalities among people around them rather than the differences, it will be easy to relate.
4 Relief from suffering Once you identify the problem of the other person find out ways to relieve him/her.
5 Imagine and reflect Unless you imagine your own self in that situation described by another person you would not be able to help the person ..show how you would feel if you were him/her.
6 Practice kindness
Being Compassionate can be simple Just go and comfort someone if you see they are Sad ..Call to action...☺
