Integrity is about being true to yourself, your values and your word. Yet it is easier to ignore the situation that my come up – even if it impacts our values. One step in standing up for our values and helping others is being able to understand the other persons point of view. The word for that is EMPATHY.
As adults we know that empathy is a key to our ability to have good social interactions with others. That may include siblings, parents, work or school mates or even someone that we have a fleeting interaction with on the street. How do we help to develop empathy in ourselves or our children?
Here are three questions you might ask yourself or discuss with your children that will help us to understand the other persons point of view.
- What are they feeling right now?
- How are they viewing the situation
- What is really important to them right now?
If you can look deeply into yourself to see if you can even begin to imagine the answers to those 3 questions you are on the road to understanding the other person’s point of view. You are developing EMPATHY. The question that is left is “What will you do with that information?” Will you ignore it? Will you use it to take compassionate action – in line with your values?