Empathy

em·pa·thy

/ˈempəTHē/

It’s a noun that means being able to sense how someone else is feeling. Emotion researchers describe it like putting on the mental shoes of another person to understand how they feel or would be expected to feel.

Interesting Fact #1

Ever felt like your dog or pet was the only one who felt your sadness with you? Empathy is found in all mammals - not just humans.

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Wise Words from Around the World

“Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up.”

— Jesse Jackson

“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. ”

— Maya Angelou

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Empathy in Action

• Think of the all the things you can do.

  7 Strategies to Develop Empathy

  1. Be curious about other cultures

  2. Be curious about your community

  3. Share ideas but ask for honest feedback to keep incorporating new thinking

  4. Think about a bias you have and put on mental shoes to imagine the idea from another person’s perception

  5. Join an existing Care Plan team or start one and gather others to support a cause

  6. Read alot of books, articles, and stories from trustworthy sources

  7. Practice digital citizenship and be an upstander everywhere you go to stop bullying, challenge inequities, and practice anti-racism.

• Recognize Empathy

  Humans naturally hold biases and it gets harder to understand different worldviews the more homogeneous civilizations get. So, developing empathy is more important than ever.

  Strategies to Recognize Empathy

  1. When you are in a conversation make sure you listen. This will help the other person to be heard and then they will want to hear you. That’s how we can pause arguing to engage in a good conversation!

  2. Increase your level of courage to ask questions. Questions are the best way to spark conversation and hear new worldviews with social awareness and respect. This is active listening and it is a really great teamwork skill.

  3. Thank others for their feedback and dialogue. It is important to recognize when we feel empathy from others and express empathy to someone so that we want to do it again.

• Involve Others

  A great tip to involve others is to put away your devices (phones, screens, etc) so that others feel invited to do the same and participate in the conversation. Screens - while helpful for research - can also seem uninviting to others who might want to join in and share insight.