How empathy is like a barre workout

I’ve been doing barre workouts for over a year now and can attest to two facts: 1) they’re incredibly effective at cultivating my strength, balance, and resilience; and 2) they kick my butt every.single.time.

Barre workouts are unnatural (my body would much prefer to eat a Klondike bar than work out for 60 minutes) and exhausting.

The same is true of empathy.

It’s unnatural for me to suspend my disbelief and genuinely ask more questions to better understand someone who disagrees with me. It’s unnatural for me to step into someone else’s shoes to see life from their perspective.

And those acts of empathy are exhausting — both emotionally and mentally. It’s hard and I often want to quit. Is it worth it? Does it really matter this one time?

But like my physical muscles, empathy gets stronger one workout at a time. The more I practice empathy, the more emotionally and mentally resilient I become and the greater my capacity to show empathy.

One workout at a time.

(More on recharging and emotional resilience here.)