In watching part of the video yesterday, one thing jumped out at me. The teachers in the video were talking about taking specific steps to help a child develop empathy.
In an emotional situation, they asked the child how they felt, what they were feeling. They invited the child to stop and become mindful of what was going on inside of them.
Then they took it to the next step, and asked the child how they might imagine another person might feel.
This illustrates clearly the steps one must take for empathy. It starts first with self-awareness, and from that foundation you are able to reach out to others with empathy. It’s not only hard to care about how another person feels, when you are clueless about your emotional state, it’s downright impossible, or at the very least, highly improbable.
You have to be in touch, to some capacity, with your own feelings to be able to empathize with how another may be feeling. Whatever value you place on what you’re feeling, what it means to you, how you will respond or not respond to your own emotional messages will depend on how healthy a relationship you have with yourself.
Learning to deal with aggression, whether covert or overt, is always a journey of self discovery. Like all changes, it begins with you.
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