Empathy has little to do with taking on somebody’s pain; it has more to do with emotional intelligence and understanding somebody’s pain. Empathy is the ability to put our point of view aside and try to see from the other person’s perspective. It is a set of skills that we can acquire through practice.
When we practice empathy in our lives, our relationships will be more meaningful and more loving because it is not how others act towards us that makes us unhappy, it is our own reactions, our own anger that creates our unhappiness.
One part of empathy is to learn the ability to observe without evaluating. To be able to do this, we have to acquire emotional literacy.
For example, I myself do not like to be controlled, pressured, or threatened. This is why, I do not control, pressure, or threaten my children.
When we learn to use empathy, we will solicit our children’s or teenager’s help by speaking from the heart, without blame, judgement, and without hurting their feelings or putting them in the defensive. Empathy wants to help my children do their chores from the right motive, which is from love, not fear.
My empathy series of books present in each story an aspect of empathy.
Slim, The Patient Pig, demonstrates how making the effort of being patient in difficult situations will make our lives beautiful.
Slim is available as an ebook and in print.
Find out more about joyful living in my Joy With Raw Food Facebook group.