Kindness Isn’t Easy, But It Is Important

Elephants touching each other gently (greeting) - Addo Elephant

Feeling genuine compassion for others who are struggling can be difficult and painful. In order to not constantly be sad about all of the terrible things happening in other people’s lives, human beings have grown adept at suppressing our kindness and compassion for one another when it suits us, and a lot of the time we don’t even realize we are doing it. In a way, this is a necessary skill, but sometimes we take it too far. Here are some tips on how to be more caring, without sacrificing your own sanity or happiness.

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Embracing Empathy Part Two: Taking Kindness to the Next Level!

Embracing Empathy

My last post explored the ways that empathy is deeply ingrained in human nature, but also some of the psychological ways that humans are bad at harnessing empathy to have a positive impact on ourselves and those around us. Today I wanted to give some practical tips on how to embrace empathy in your everyday life in order to improve your personal happiness and sense of purpose, and make life better for those around you.

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Empathy, Part One: Why Are We Sometimes Nice and Sometimes Not?

This entry is going to be the first of a two-parter about empathy. I’m starting this week by exploring the concept of empathy and how it is deeply ingrained into human nature, despite the many ways we sometimes suppress it. Next week I will follow it up with advice on how to channel empathy and overcome some of the obstacles to compassion that we humans face on a daily basis.
em·pa·thy
noun
1. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

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