Key to Humanity: Empathy

There’s this fascinating word I heard of not too long ago. Sonder: the realisation that everyone has a life as vivid and complex as your own. I think it’s interesting to watch random people pass and just think about all the possibilities of things they could have experienced in their past, what they are experiencing now, and who they’ll grow to be. Sometimes I think about the lives of the people close to me as well. If there’s one thing that I’ve grown to understand recently, it’s the importance of community and of compassion. As a species of over eight billion people, we have to understand that we are not alone. We all have incredibly unique pathways, but we collide with others too many times to believe we walk down them alone. It is for this reason that we must build upon our capacity to accept, support, and understand others as we navigate through life.

Self-Awareness

It all starts with you. Who are you? What do you feel? Do you ever ask yourself these questions? Have you ever considered who you are in this world? Not your name or any earthly identifier, but the soul inside of you and your purpose. In order to show empathy for others, we need to learn to be in touch with ourselves. Who are you when your defensive walls come down? Who are you when you aren’t around anyone else and you feel no shame, nor regret, nor fear?

Empathy is both a feeling and a practice. Here’s an activity you can try:

Write down every emotion you’ve felt today or at least recently. Next to each of these emotions, write down a very brief summary of why you felt these. Even if your recent emotions didn’t seem very notable, write down as many as you can remember. Sometimes, we overlook how we feel or suppress our emotions. It’s important to take a step back and acknowledge these emotions because it can help us learn from them and possibly transform them to help us move forward and evolve.

Answers are discovered when we first ask questions. Have a look at the emotions you wrote down in the previous activity and now ask yourself, ‘How could I have handled this situation better? How could I have regulated my emotions and reacted better?’ It’s important to understand that however you originally reacted is valid, but if we want to move forward and expect different outcomes, then we need to rethink and change the way we think about certain situations.

Another thing you can try to become more self-aware, is to sit and have a conversation with yourself or try meditating, or even any mindful activity like drawing.

The Empathetic Soul

Now that you’ve become more aware of yourself, let’s learn about the importance of becoming aware of others. Here are some exercises you can try:

1. For the world:

Close your eyes and visualise yourself wherever you are – as if you were out of your body looking down at yourself. Now zoom out slowly to picture your environment, like your house if that’s where you are. Zoom out further to see the street, your suburb, the state, country, continent, and finally the Earth. You may even picture billions of glowing dots, representative of people, all over the world. Feel the love and project it unto the world.

2. For your loved ones:

Close your eyes and stare into the black void (you may need to cover your eyes if it’s too bright). Start to visualise your loved ones like family and friends standing in front of you. Envision a bright light surrounding you and each of your loved ones. Feel this light as love and extend it to reach out into the void and share it with everyone.

3. For those around you:

This one works if you are in an environment with lots of people around you like a busy library, café, or classroom. Close your eyes and surround yourself with a bright light. Feel it as love and feel it fill your insides. Then visualise it stretch out to everyone around you. Feel the love and imagine they are feeling it too and receiving your offering. Wish them love, happiness, health, and all good things.

I believe that we are all connected. The world is much more energy than matter, although we cannot see it. Try not just to put yourself in someone else’s shoes but in their mindset. We all have grown up with different experiences, people, and influences that have shaped our lives and the people that we have become. Some people have not been fortunate enough to have been shown love that they could extend to others. That is why we shouldn’t judge or make assumptions about others’ circumstances. Every now and again, remember to step outside of yourself and think of the bigger, think of unity not division.