Empathy

Empathy is another of those more subtle skills that yoga enhances. Perhaps you don’t need to improve in this area but I know I certainly did when I came to yoga (not that I knew it or would have admitted it then) and although my skills of empathy have and continue to increase, it’s still an area I need to work on. Here’s what I’ve discovered about empathy:

Empathy is HARD!

To let go of the ego and our ever present need to be ‘right’ can seem alien. To drop your judgments and open your mind to opposing ideologies is often extremely difficult. To understand others can be mind boggling. To allow yourself to feel all the pain, sorrow, anger and fear of another can hurt.

It takes vulnerability, and I hated to think of myself as even the teensiest bit vulnerable.

But I am. That was my ego I was hiding behind (and still do on many occasions).

We are all vulnerable. Whether we acknowledge that or not.

It also takes courage. To exhibit these skills when they can be wrongly perceived as a weakness takes guts.

So here’s what else I’ve learnt about empathy.

It’s BEAUTIFUL.

It allows you to expand your perspectives massively, increasing open mindedness and willingness to learn. You become less judgmental, and more mindful of your own behaviors and begin to see patterns in others, in nature and in life, attuning yourself to these.

And you increase your connection to others.

Your relationships become more meaningful.

Your vulnerability becomes your strength.

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I am grateful every day for the empathy role models in my life; my daughter, and the one she naturally gets it from, her dad.

Yours in actual sincerity
Xx