EMPATHETIC WAY

So Autumn is  here with a bit of a wet and windy start...a sign of things to come with a cozy winter. So far I've been through quite a number of alternative routes to get things moving in the right direction over the last few weeks. One area that keeps coming up is empathy...or more to the point empathy training. Learning the true meaning of the empathetic way is probably the most important lesson life will ever teach you whatever your background, expertise or future. Just for those who are unaware of the difference between those who are empathic and those who are sympathetic, one means you cry with another person, the other means you step in their shoes and understand their pain, and through understanding another's views, prejudices, and behavioural habits you can be just that bit closer to helping yourself and other people.  You see the empathetic person has the ability to step outside of their own needs and understand another's, this means the skill of a manager, a politician, a salesperson, a leader, or anyone in a relationship will be considerably more effective than the non empathetic soul. For some it is very difficult to adopt the way of the empathiser, but none the less it is the future, the way for humanity to evolve from a little self obsessed to a more tolerant and understanding race. It's not an easy way of living for it requires the individual to put aside their own prejudices, preconceived ideas, and  assumptions, sometimes believing in a certain way gives us strength and a potential unity comes from others no matter how misplaced the beliefs of a group may be. Falling in line with the beliefs of a group allows people to sense belonging, a powerful drug of personal identification, a basic tribal instinct if you like. The more you grow intellectually and spiritually the less these basic motivators matter if they did at all in the first place for you. But whilst the group attraction remains, it allows people to be manipulated  by those who would manipulate for gain.  Freedom of thought from the influence of groups or your own behavioural limitations is the inspiration we should all try to aspire to, although it is as I said not an easy route. To be open enough in mind to truly step into someone else's shoes and see with their eyes, hear with their ears and feel just like them is a practiced art, and a potentially scary one because it will open your mind to seeing 'you' from their point of view...this can be a revealing and empowering lesson, one that really is the bedrock of our evolution as a single race. Having a conversation the other day on nationalism, the way of the empathetic mind allowed me to develop other people's thoughts and challenge their prejudices very quickly. Everyone wants things to be better, with more give than take, some peace and love, but through empathising with their hopes and dreams and then their criticisms of others they start to see that their own thought pattern are actually self defeating in the goals they so earnestly professed to desire.