Empathy

n 1 the ability to understand how someone feels because you can imagine what it is like to be them.

“Empathy fuels connection. Sympathy drives disconnection,” says Dr Brené Brown in a beautifully animated video that narrates the chasm between sympathy and empathy. “Rarely, if ever, does an empathic response begin with ‘at least…’” she says. True empathy requires you to step outside of your own world view, to pause your own perspective in order to favour the perspective of another. It is about halting your judgement and opening yourself up to connection. It is not about a fixit job or a silver lining, but simply allowing another’s pain to hang heavy on your heart too. There has been a lot written and said about the “empathy deficit” that Barak Obama described as the modern world’s most pressing problem. Perhaps the real issue is that we often think of empathy…

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WellBeing (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 204

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