Here is the winning entry for our in school video contest for Kindness is… Congratulations to Aden and family.
Empathy: needs focus on others
Have you ever noticed how many times people are so focused on their own needs, wants and feelings that there is very little time or effort spent on how others might be feeling. Last month we talked about being open-minded and accepting the differences of each other, and what better way of doing this than to be aware of the needs of others as we make decisions. To do so effectively we must understand the feelings of other persons.
Some have put it this way, “We must climb inside the other person”, “Walk in their shoes”, to really be able to respond to situations in a way that is empathetic. The very first step in this process is to be able to read and understand people’s feelings. This calls for taking the time to listen and observe body language, gestures, tone of voice and other observations to help us understanding the other person.
The step of listening is so important in this observing. Not just hearing but ‘deep listening’ , observing where they are coming from and why they be taking the stand that they are taking. Of course asking good questions and listening closely to the answer without pre-judging or thinking we know the answer is the first key step in being motivated to respond to the needs of others.
How good are you at understanding? If you were to rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 where would you be at this point, and more important – what could you do that would increase the score? This month lets consider this together and see if we can raise our awareness in ourselves and in those around us.
Making choices or living on automatic?
It is that time of the year again when we take a moment to look at our life, where we are and what direction we are headed. When we make conscious choices that reflect what our goals and vision for our life is, we are taking charge of our life and thinking about the affect of our choices on our future.
But when we forget about our deepest desires, we may find ourselves running our life from an automatic mode that generally will find us following the patterns of the past. This trance we find ourselves in takes no effort, it is very familiar to us. We just go about our days doing the same thing we always do, without consciously considering the long term vision we have for our lives.
What about this year 2010? What if we were to begin choosing our path? What if we wrote down our real goals – ones from the heart – and then consciously made choices that brought us closer to those goals? The other choice is to spend another year asleep at the wheel, allowing our past way of doing things and our fears to limit our future and take away our dreams.
That is what Live Like a Champion is about. Taking one year that we choose how we are going to live and reach our goals. A year that we gather around ourselves a team of others who want to do the same and that encourage each other to do so. When we choose the direction we are going it always helps to have others around to support our efforts. Join me this year in Live Like a Champion.
Christmas Jar project
I have been moved by the stories I have heard this season about the use of the ‘Christmas Jar’ by families in communties around the United States. I would like to propose that we start our own tradition at Balanced Life Skills with all of our classes. The concept teaches a number of lessons that are valuable for all of us.
One lesson is how a little bit of action on a daily basis adds up to a total that yields great results.
Second lesson I draw from this is an awareness we can develop of the needs of our neighbors and the satisfaction we gain by taking action to be kind to others.
Third lesson is taking a moment each day to contemplate what we are grateful for that day. I would suggest that taking a moment to consider all we have to be thankful for would reduce the desire we have for wanting more.
I added a page to our site – Christmas Jar Project. If anyone in our community would like to join in this project please do so on a personal level or with us. What a great way of practicing kindness.
Happy Holidays to our community
Can you teach children empathy?
I found this question to be quite interesting. It was an article in the New York Times Magazine and I was reminded that it is what we will be discussing in the month of January. This is a very good time of the year to talk about empathy – thinking of others and not just ourselves. Watch this column for our starting subject What is empathy and how do we read and understand feelings?