Self

My Most Effective Practical Technique for Developing Empathy

Empathy communication demands effort, patience, and courage

Judgmental attitude is a real pandemic. It is a real issue that concerns me and should be addressed on both the individual and societal levels. A judgmental attitude does more than alienate individuals from each other; it creates an environment where people feel unsafe sharing their experiences and thoughts. As such, fear of being judged becomes the primary barrier to innovation and progress, making people afraid to experiment with new things or voice dissenting opinions.

I wrote an article about a fictitious dialogue between a homeless person and his life (Read Here). The article was a trial to address our society’s Judgmental attitude toward each other. After writing this article, I could not help but write this article to follow up on and talk more about how to solve this issue.

Empathy Is the Antidote

I think anyone would expect that being more empathetic toward each other would solve the issue of judgmental attitudes. Empathy could be described as stepping into someone else’s soul despite one’s pain or joy thus transcending different languages and cultures that separate individual from others. Empathy remains as the most reliable companion in difficult dialogues since it helps to sail through stormy waters of disagreement finding common ground among divergent opinions at the same time.

Empathy is not something passive; instead, it forces us out of our comfort zones to understand different values or points of view. Empathy wants us to suspend our own opinions before every conversation we have with others so that we may see things from their perspectives. We are told: “Look at this with your soul.”

Empathy comes as a great support in tough conversations that encompass conflicting viewpoints. It helps navigate arguments for the purposes of finding shared opinion amidst differing ones. By use of this moral compass, people get to the heart of what they want and find light to answer those questions.

Conversation Quality

Still, empathy alone cannot solve all problems: conversation quality also has to be taken care of, and words chosen and tones used must concern you before anything else besides recognizing emotional language which the other party may speak rather than speaking against their feelings; hence, suggesting other viewpoints should be done respectfully, not imposingly on others’ since suggestions need permission rather than imposition.

Empathy communication demands effort, patience, and courage to move beyond what we are comfortable with regarding other people or situations outside our circle. In this sense, vision shall be perceptible not only by eyes but also by souls. So, empathy is a sophisticated skill, and it is not as easy as it may sound. So, you might ask, “So, how can we develop more empathetic communication?” I mean, really, how?

Curiosity is the Way to Empathy

Consider judgment, that silent and rapid decider of how we think. It can be a safeguard preventing us from harm and a prison trapping us within our beliefs. To judge is to classify, label, or bind. Although it may seem necessary for thought processes, it can hinder one’s growth too, for in judging, we often shut the door on curiosity, which could bring so much possibility.

In contrast to judgment, curiosity does not seek limits or categories. It attempts to reach out, understand better, and grow wider. It is the flame’s spark that lights up knowledge and an unknown land compass. It works against prejudice as its antidote while unlocking empathy’s locked doors.

We need dialogue, education, and understanding of diversity as remedies for this epidemic. All these elements combine together making us curious beings who were judge things so quickly to be a curious society since curiosity become part of our nature while judgement comes only after learning someone else habits.

Curiosity does not confine nor categorize as judgment does. Instead of confining things, it looks into them and opens them up further than can be seen. Curiosity is the ignition point of knowledge; it’s the compass guiding through an unknown labyrinth; it is an antidote to prejudice poison and a key to unlocking empathy (Bregman, 2021).

Conclusion

Everyone has something they can do about this pandemic. By being more aware of our actions and speech, as well as seeking understanding through curiosity instead of judgment, we could foster a better, united, diverse society. It would indeed prove to be the best vaccination against the judgment epidemic in our society.

Reference

Bregman, P. (2021). Empathy Starts with Curiosity. Harper Business. [Link]

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading my story. Here is some information about my background. 🙏Consider sharing and participating in the conversation if this content speaks to you. For any queries, collaborations, or comments, reach out to me at [email protected]. Thank you for supporting my work!