What Does Empathy Look Like?
You don’t have to fix everyone around you, you don’t even have to fix yourself.
Sometimes a warm hug is all you need.
When you offer empathy and understanding to those around you, you’ll feel a deeper connection. One that can shatter limiting beliefs and bring you closer to one another.
Have you ever shared some bad news with someone and they immediately launched into a story about themselves? It left you feeling pretty cruddy right? Have you ever experienced the opposite where instead they acknowledge that you must be feeling so upset or simply enveloped you in a big hug without saying a word?
When you pause, acknowledge, and just be with someone who's suffering, you can offer them empathy and that feels so much better than a relatable story.
My daughter is the best at showing empathy. When she was about 18 months, she was very new to the whole walking and talking thing and she had a pacifier to comfort her. A new child started at my daughter's daycare. The new child was very very very upset to be there. She was crying and wailing and not happy. My daughter saw that this new child was in distress and walked over to the new child, removed her pacifier from her own mouth and offered it to this new child that she had just met.
When her daycare provider shared this story with me my heart swelled with pride and tears came to my eyes. My tiny daughter that only a few months before had learned to walk and talk demonstrated true empathy to someone she barely knew.
That moment taught me how to be more empathetic because up until that point my gut reaction was to tell someone my own relatable story instead of empathizing. I realized that in most situations I was deflecting my own feelings instead of honoring the other person and where they were at. Which is the opposite of helpful in that moment.
As my daughter's gotten older their vocabulary and range of emotions has grown. When they're upset I do my very best to ask questions and listen and sometimes I just hold them. I want to reflect back the empathy that they have in their heart so they can continue to tap into that skill and stay connected to it. I'm excited to see the adult they become.
What's your experience with empathy?
If you’re new to the whole understanding empathy thing and live near the San Francisco Bay Area then I invite you to an in-person experience closely linked to this week's theme.
The delightful Alex Mart and I joined our healing forces to create:
What Are You Hungry For?
An Embodied Exploration for Knowing What You Really Want
If you ever feel lost, anxious, unclear and uncertain, we invite you to come drop into your body - the seat of intuition and inner knowing - and explore with us how to sense what actually feels good and right for you, from the inside out.
Body meets mind, in real time.
This in-person workshop is on Saturday September 17th at 10am-1pm (snacks will be provided!) in Oakland.
It would be both a joy and a gift to have you there.
We've capped enrollment at 15 participants.
Learn more here: http://loveandlivewellness.com/workshop
Experience self-empathy in real time at my in-person workshop with Alex Mart on September 17th! What are you Hungry for? An Embodied Exploration for Knowing What You Really Want. Learn more here
I was cut off from my yoga community, my safe space of support, and I didn’t know how to find that on my own. I felt so lost.