By John Schorling<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been talking to medical students this week about empathy and compassion before they begin their clinical rotations.\u00a0 One of the points I\u2019ve made is that humans\u2019 brains are wired so that helping others who are experiencing difficulty activates areas associated with feeling positive emotions.\u00a0 This contributes to why practicing compassion, being aware of another person\u2019s suffering and having the desire to alleviate it, is protective of burnout for those in the helping professions.<\/p>\n
Another important point is understanding the difference between empathy and empathic awareness.\u00a0 Empathy, feeling what another person is feeling, arises spontaneously as a result of similar areas of the brain being stimulated whether we are experiencing an emotion ourselves or witnessing someone else who is experiencing it.\u00a0 Empathic awareness, being aware of the feelings we are experiencing in the presence of another, is different than empathy.<\/p>\n
This distinction is similar to the one between being caught up in thoughts and being aware of thinking.\u00a0 This shift, from feeling an emotion to being aware of feeling it, can allow us to move from feeling sad if we\u2019re with someone who is down to noticing we\u2019re feeling sad.\u00a0 Also important is recognizing that our sadness is arising because we\u2019re with someone who is feeling this way.\u00a0 If we aren\u2019t aware of this, we may focus on ourselves and react in a way that we hope will make us feel better, like withdrawing from the situation.\u00a0 If we are paying attention and recognize both how we are feeling and that it is at least in part because of empathy, then it is natural to want to move toward the other person and help them.<\/p>\n
The acronym STOP<\/strong> can be helpful in remembering to practice mindfulness in the moment in general, and it can apply to practicing compassion as well.\u00a0 The S<\/strong> stands for Stop<\/strong>, pausing for a moment to gather our attention. The T<\/strong> is for Taking a breath<\/strong>, to center ourselves.\u00a0 The O <\/strong>stands for Observing our experience<\/strong>, noticing what we are feeling, and being aware of how what we are feeling might relate to what those we are with are experiencing.\u00a0 In doing this, we can move from empathy to empathic awareness.\u00a0 Finally, the P<\/strong> stands for Proceeding with awareness, <\/strong>deciding what the most skillful thing we might do in this situation is, \u00a0and Practicing compassion,\u00a0<\/strong>putting this awareness into action.<\/p>\n The holiday season often provides ample opportunities to practice this.\u00a0 It is a time when we may be thinking a lot about giving to others, both with presents and with presence.\u00a0 There may be many opportunities to bring awareness to how we are feeling in relationship to others, and to perhaps work with cultivating empathic awareness, with the intention of fostering compassion and compassionate action.<\/p>\n May kindness and compassion light all of our lives this holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve been talking to medical students this week about empathy and compassion before they begin their clinical rotations.\u00a0 One of the points I\u2019ve made is that humans\u2019 brains are wired so that helping others who are experiencing difficulty activates areas associated with feeling positive emotions.\u00a0 This contributes to why practicing compassion, being aware of another person\u2019s suffering and having the desire to alleviate it, is protective of burnout for those in the helping professions.<\/p>\n Another important point is understanding the difference between empathy and empathic awareness.\u00a0 Empathy, feeling what another person is feeling, arises spontaneously as a result of similar areas of the brain being stimulated whether we are experiencing an emotion ourselves or witnessing someone else who is experiencing it.\u00a0 Empathic awareness, being aware of the feelings we are experiencing in the presence of another, is different than empathy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1202,"featured_media":1907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-monthly-musings"],"acf":false,"yoast_head":"\n