Back in November, we wrote about several key ways to cultivate empathy with your children and in your family. In that article, we reviewed ways to build a culture of empathy and acceptance in your own home.
Empathy is the ability to connect emotionally with others; to see things from their point of view and to imagine how they might feel. Simply approaching conflict from an empathetic stance increases the likelihood of a positive outcome for all parties involved. Many people would argue that empathy is at the heart of being human. However, all it takes is one glance at the news headlines to see that our society is seriously empathy deprived.
Why as a culture are we struggling too much to place significant value on empathy?
Some researchers argue that people today are too self-focused to consider another person’s point of view. But even in a “what’s in it for me” world you can benefit from being empathic.
In this article, we set out to prove that there are many health benefits to practicing empathy – for both the giver and the receiver!