Empathy: practicing kindness as an act of self-love

by Luisa Argueta
11/07/2019

"Honesty, equality, affection, compassion, treating people the way you would like to be treated and helping them in whatever they need. For me they are fundamental values"

Ellen Degeneres

If we listen to the news for five minutes or read our favorite online newspaper to realize that humanity needs a good and clear reminder of the meaning of kindness, love, affection, empathy and compassion, etc.

Try it for a day, and tell me what feelings you had before going to sleep? How did you feel during the day? How to do it? What to keep in mind? How to develop empathy in a practical way? Let´s begin

The butterfly effect: making waves of kindness

The butterfly effect is a theory that says “the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings can be felt on the other side of the world” This means that both negative and positively small events can have a huge impact on the other side of the world.

So, is it possible that the flutter of a butterfly in California could cause an earthquake in Japan? Let’s say it is. Can you imagine then, what impact your small actions could have on your closest environment? A smile, a kind word, helping someone to cross the street … Why we don’t create waves of kindness? Let your small sharing actions here and now to start a worldwide revolution that begins with the person in the mirror.

Become aware: "Be the change you want to see in the world"

With all the controversy that this amazing quote brings, it gives us a good wake up call and pushes us to look in the mirror, helps us to stop complaining and take the responsibility of our own flaws and also for our greatness in an honest and loving way, this changes completely our way of interacting with our environment, as well as stop blaming, stop judging, hating and break the vicious cycle to turn it into a virtuous cycle.

Learning to look at ourselves with more awareness and compassion will help us to look at other people in the same way. Do you dare to try?

Connection: We are all one

You will ask yourself: How is it possible that a part of me is in that person that annoys me that much?
For the majority of ancestral spiritual currents we are “one soul,” human beings are equal and part of a single collective soul, with this in mind, would you be capable to hate and harm a part of yourself? Most of us don ́t.

The kindness and generosity that we find most difficult to exercise is the one that creates more positive energy. So go out and be nice, even if you do not get the same in return, What does it matter? Practicing compassion and kindness can be an act for you and your own well being, for the part of others that is in you. It is an act of self-love, no more than that.

Self-love as the core of the love for others

"If you can't love yourself, how the hell are you going to love someone else?"

Ru Paul Tweet

As Ru Paul says at the end of each of his shows “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell are you going to love someone else?” As I said before, compassion, kindness, generosity, empathy and everything good, starts with you. How you treat yourself?

The healing power of empathy

Practicing empathy, putting ourselves in the shoes of others, being understanding with their pain, their happiness and their learning path is therapeutic, makes us better human beings, stronger, resilient and happier. And above all, it helps us to heal our own wounds …

Sharing

Being generous with our time, with our positive energy, money, love and compassion nourishes us, to be honest, our priority when we share it should ́t be the recognition, but the invaluable contribution that this makes to our own growth.

Listen actively

How many times do we really care about the answer when we ask someone “How are you doing?” Are we really listening when a person opens up with us about what they are going through? Listening actively, being present and providing quality time to the people around us is another way to practice kindness and empathy.

Smile

Easy and free. Saying hi and smile in our daily interactions with people can make all the difference, can change the energy of the people we meet daily in the street or our jobs, etc. and create a very positive impact on the flow of our day to day and our personal work. So, smile, be polite, doesn’t cost you anything.

An amazing remedy against stress

Nobody is really stress free, life is full of challenges, obstacles and learning processes. Being kind and maintaining a positive attitude towards ourselves and towards others helps us to be more relaxed and to flow much better in our day to day life.

So, let’s make a revolution, let’s be kind and nice to change what we don’t ́t like in the world and for our own good, the world needs our small and big actions of love and sharing.