Empathy, Resistance, Fear

Two of these things hold you back, only one of them gets you to who you want to be: hint choose empathy

Photo Credit: UnSplash

I will never forget the day that I had to explain to my 53 year old fiance what empathy means. I thought this was something everyone just knew. That it was, maybe a natural, or at least common, human trait.

It wasn’t, it isn’t.

See, we had just been through a major rift. And I was hurt by what I had found out about him. Beyond hurt. And all I wanted from him was empathy. To hear that he could feel my pain, to take it in, to actually get how badly I was hurting, and to listen to me, just listen, and of course, do the things that heal — stop engaging in the negative behaviors that caused me such pain, move beyond apology, hug me and tell me that he understood and he is here for me.

It takes a while to get to that place sometimes.

Especially when something that to me is as easy as breathing, is like a foreign language to so many people, and yes, some of them right here in my home, in my family.

No wonder our society is at such a breaking point in so many areas. No one is capable of sitting still, listening, and feeling true empathy. Though we are born with this — mirror neurons that allow us to connect with those around us, —…