The Empathy Test
Can we feel empathy in our bodies? What exactly does it feel like? How will we know when we feel it?
Try this little test. Click on the video below and expand to full screen. Turn up your volume and watch the video. Notice the sensations you feel in your body when you watch. Notice how they shift and change with the changing events in the video.
That's empathy! Empathy is to feel with, not to feel sorry for. It is an embodied experience of compassion with no attachment to outcome or effort to analyze. It is the purest form of presence and being with.
Didn't feel anything at all? Not to worry. It doesn't mean you are an uncaring person. It might simply mean that this video did not resonate with you at this time, or you had some distractions.
The exercise of paying attention to your body sensations, regardless of the experience is enough to sow the seeds of personal empowerment and emotion regulation.
