You may be hearing the word “empathy” everywhere these days. Everyone from scientists, educational experts, business leaders and political activists is talking about empathy. Many visionaries are building a road map for creating empathy and showing it towards others. However, you may be thinking about how you could enhance your empathic potential.
There is one thing you need to know before you nurture your empathic potential. It is the meaning of empathy. In simple words, empathy is a way of extending the universe of your mortality. When you empathise with others, you understand and feel their pain. A new study points out that empathy is a habit of cultivating your own selflessness. If you want to expand your empathic potential, here are the three habits that you should cultivate in your life.
Building Curiosity Towards Strangers
Highly empathic people, also known as HEPs, have an unending curiosity to understand the life of strangers. These people will surely talk to someone sitting next to them even if they do not know that person. These people have a natural sense of inquisitiveness that children usually have. However, society quashes most people’s inquisitiveness, which they had as kids. However, HEPs are different as society fails to flush the inquisitiveness out of them. That is why HEPs talk to a person and enquire about her well-being even if she is not in their social circles. The bottom line is that curiosity always drives empathy.
Trying The Life Of The Other Person
Ice-climbing and hang-gliding are top sports that will give you an adrenaline rush. They are extreme sports for sure, but they are not as extreme as practising experiential empathy. The art of empathising with others is challenging. That is why you will find most HEPs practising experiential empathy. How? They start living the lives of other people. Basically, they walk in their shoes before criticising them. This way, they enhance the quality of their empathic character.
Listening Is The Key To Opening Up
Most people want to be empathic conversationalists. To do that, you must practise empathy through radical listening. HEPs listen patiently and consistently to other people. That is how these people grasp the other person’s emotional needs. HEPs make sure they listen to everyone, including friends who are diagnosed with cancer or strangers going through emotional turmoil. However, one key requirement of practising radical listening is to be yourself. If you want to listen to someone emphatically, you must unmask yourself and reveal the true feelings in your heart. That is how you will take the first concrete step toward building a long-lasting emphatic bond with someone. And once you are empathic in life, you will improve your and others’ well-being quotient.
Final Thoughts
Now, you know the true meaning of empathy and how you can practise empathy. Follow the habits that we listed above to practise empathy every day. Integrating these habits into your lifestyle will help you practise empathy without giving in to societal pressure.