Empathy: Reaching Out With Compassion

This blog contains excerpts taken from the book entitled "Me to We, Finding Meaning in a Material World" by Craig Kielburger and Marc Kielburger.  Empathy involves a willingness to open yourself to and care about others, and to help them in whatever way you can.  When we empathize with another person, we respond with kindness, treating him or her how we would wish to be treated ourselves.

"True happiness is not when you are there only for "number one," but when you are there for others."   ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

And it benefits you!!  "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."   ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
You stand to improve your emotional and physcial health, strengthen your faith, and access a higher quality of life.  As a holistic nutritionist, I found it interesting that a Government of Canada study states that "social activity and volunteering are now considered important components of healthy lifestyles, in recognition of the influence of social relationships on health."  Public Health Agency of Canada

Dr. Jonathon White, professor of sociology and political economy at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts:  "It's natural for us to care and natural for us to be caretakers.  It's also natural for us to wish that others experience more happiness and less suffering, and this is just as much part of our human nature as is our desire for personal happiness."  We experience empathy even as infants!  In the book, studies are mentioned that show that in a nursery, one baby's cry is contagious, and other loud noises do not elicit the same response...it is the suffering of others. They also mention that babies react noticeably to even the subtlest signs that others are in distress.  Babies in the "Roots of Empathy" program are the youngest teachers in Ontario classrooms helping students understand their own feelings and the feelings of others (empathy) lessening the likelihood of physically, psychologically and emotionally hurting each other through bullying and other cruelties.

While the Bible does not use the word "empathy", it does mention the quality or characteristic of being empathetic.  I Peter 3:8 encourages us to have compassion for one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, and be courteous; and in Romans 12:15 to rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

START NOW!  Choose an issue you care about and nurture your empathy for those directly affected.