How to Strengthen Your Empathy: It’s Not a Feeling; It’s a Practice
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Empathy is a practice, not a feeling.
Yes, you read that right.
Whether you’re naturally good at feeling it or not, there is a set of skills behind empathy that anyone can learn and get better at.
Knowing this opens a door that some people might feel has never existed for them before. And for others, it opens up the possibility to connect even more deeply with the people around them.
In this episode on The IPS Podcast, we invited Karen Faith, empathy trainer and founder of Others Unlimited—a professional training and coaching firm that provides empathy training to brands, teams, and individuals.
In her more than two decades of working as an ethnographer conducting observational research for other companies, Karen discovered how to have ‘unconditional welcome’ for others and the importance of it.
With this experience to back her up, Karen started building a curriculum on how to strengthen empathy. This topic is something she talks about in her widely viewed TEDx talk “How to talk to the worst parts of yourself”, and something she will speak a lot more about in this podcast episode too.
Today, as a people researcher and empathy trainer, Karen teaches that curriculum to others, and here in this episode on The IPS Podcast, she shares many insights, and lessons about how to strengthen empathy and how to improve this most important skill, which we all could benefit from if we know how to master it a bit better.
EP 033 - Strengthen Your Empathy with Karen Faith: It’s Not a Feeling; It’s a Practice
“Compassion is for people who are suffering. Sympathy is for people who are suffering. Empathy is stepping out of my point of view and stepping into your point of view. And I can do that with you if you are happy, if you are confused, if you are suffering or not suffering.”
Some of the Questions:
- How have you come to the realization that empathy is indeed a practice and not a feeling?
- Have you noticed a difference between men and women in how they show empathy?
- What are some small or big things that you have noticed people doing that they think are helpful, but in reality are actually rather standing in the way of creating a true connection with someone?
What You Will Learn from this Episode:
- What ultimately led Karen to start Others Unlimited and give trainings on empathy
- An exercise that Karen uses in her workshops to strengthen empathy
- What unconditional welcome is
“When practicing unconditional welcome, it has the side effect of caring, of really feeling for someone else.”
Resources Mentioned:
- – How to talk to the worst parts of yourself | Karen Faith (People researcher and empathy trainer Karen Faith found it easier to welcome strangers than the strange parts of herself, until a breakthrough moment changed that for good. In this honest and funny talk, she shares the story for everyone who struggles with self-acceptance.)
- – Brené Brown on Empathy (What is the best way to ease someone’s pain and suffering? In this beautifully animated RSA Short, Dr Brené Brown reminds us that we can only create a genuine empathic connection if we are brave enough to really get in touch with our own fragilities.)
- – Folkstreams (Folkstreams is a non-profit dedicated to finding, preserving, contextualizing, and showcasing documentary films on American traditional cultures.)
- – ANTH101 (Anthropology is the study of all humans in all times in all places. But it is so much more than that.)
FOLLOW Karen Faith
You may also like these episodes:
- – EP 022: Learn from Various Experts How to Handle Distressing Times
- – EP 020 – Certified Sexologist Shan Boodram, Talks about Sex, Dating, and Relationships
- – EP 016 – “How to Have Better Conversations,” with Kalina Silverman, Founder of Big Talk
Question about this episode: What was your favorite lesson from this episode with Karen Faith?
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