Recharging — how to increase your emotional resilience

“Empathy fuels connection…” — Brené Brown

My question is what fuels empathy?

Last fall I went through a particularly intense season requiring a tremendous amount of empathy. Part way through, my mental and emotional energy reserves were completely depleted.

I could either shut down emotionally and fulfill my obligations as a (cranky) robot or find a way to recharge and increase my emotional resilience.

Sidebar: Emotional resilience isn’t “being tough” and ignoring our emotions. It’s dancing with all of our emotions so we can understand the deeper issues or stories causing them.

Being a cranky robot seemed like a bad idea for many reasons, but I struggled to recharge.

No one thing is the magic formula.

But I found that having a list of recharging activities to reference and taking the time to invest in myself (even if just for 15–20 minutes) helped increase my capacity for empathy.

Here’s a partial list of what helps me refuel when my empathy tank is low.

• Do a barre workout
• Walk while listening to music
• Cook/eat good food
• Journal
• Go to a park (mountains, beach, etc.)
• Read a book
• Watch a TED talk
• Meditate
• Take a nap
• Write a thank you note