MINDFULNESS MONDAY
This week we are going to learn an exercise that is designed to build our empathy in interactions with others and in our relationships.
Empathy is defined as the ability to understand another person’s thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view, rather than your own.
A suggestion for the week: Building Empathy
· In this activity, your attention stays focused on other people.
· In at least three major encounters per day do the following:
1. Imagine that you are the person to whom you are speaking.
2. Experience the world fully as this person.
3. Maintain this point of view as long as you can during the encounter.
· When you find yourself upset, disappointed or frustrated with someone during this exercise follow the instructions of the 2nd bullet above.
· At the end of each day record what you learned about yourself and others from doing this exercise. If you choose to expand this over a few weeks summarize what you learned for each week.
· Be honest, complete and non-judgmental in your responses recorded.
Improving our ability at empathy in our interactions with others enables us over time to be aware of the emotional state of the other person, to engage with and share those emotions and finally to take action to support the other person in our interaction.
Have a great week!
