8 Ways To Practice Empathy & Ward Off Depression

Practicing empathy is a simple way to add value to your life. Empathy enhances a person’s:

• Self-esteem
• Interpersonal relationships
• Happiness
• Overall life satisfaction

 
Empathy also improves a person’s social value. People are typically highly motivated and inspired by empathetic individuals.
 
Think of the Dalai Lama, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Jesus Christ. These are iconic figures we strongly associate with good. As a society we look up to these figures as people who changed the world with their philosophies and actions. All these figures displayed strong empathetic traits.
 
Empathetic people are considered leaders that we trust not fear, people we turn to for guidance and support, people who add value to our lives and the world.
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Empathy & Mental Health

Mental health disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), may reduce our sense of empathy. Life comes with its fair share of challenges each day and this makes it difficult to be anchored into an empathetic state of mind consistently.
 
Empathy is defined as the ability to understand and feel what another person experiences.
 
Empathetic people are able to tap into a wide range of emotions and are able to take on a different perspective with ease. This is effective in managing stress and finding satisfaction in one’s life.
 
What can help us develop this mind state?
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Active Listening

• We have conversations with our friends, family members, colleagues, and strangers routinely.
• “Active Listening” is a helpful practice during conversation.
  • ​Ask open-ended questions to learn more.
  • Summarize the other person’s feelings, repeat what they say, helping them
  • Maintain eye contact.
  • Keep a neutral tone.

Encouraging Others

• It doesn’t matter how small, bits of encouragement in your conversation can make a huge difference.
• You not realize how impactful a small statement of encouragement can have on someone that may be going through a tough time internally.
• Finding common ground and giving uplifting and motivating feedback strengthens your relationships with others.

Acts of Kindness

• Much like words of encouragement, random acts of kindness can have a powerful impact on others.
• These acts of kindness can be small, such as bringing in an extra coffee for a colleague, or simply offering to help someone.
• Acts of kindness help us to stay connected with an empathetic mind state, and by building stronger relationships with others this adds value to our lives.

 
Alone Time

• Interactions are important, but we all need time to recharge. Having alone time means we are not being influenced by others and we are able to re-connect with feelings we may be repressing.
• Spending time alone doing something nice for yourself such as cooking your favorite meal, listening to music, reading a book.

 
Connection to Nature

• During alone time, it can be very refreshing to make a connection to nature, going on a hike, going for a walk, helps us to re-charge and being out in nature gives us a peaceful setting to refresh our mind and spirit.
• Meditation and exercise are healthy habits that can also be practiced in nature.

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Being the Peacemaker

• Being the peacemaker during times of chaos is a nice display of leadership and is a hallmark personality trait of empathetic people.
• You don’t have to get in the middle of arguments and it may be difficult to be a peacemaker in the heat of the moment, however some skills that are helpful is:
  • Maintaining neutrality
  • Being non-reactive, no opinions
  • Asking what would help the person?
  • Encouraging them to follow that path

 
Self-Improvement

• Setting goals for ourselves, even if they are small become especially powerful when the goals are motivated by the concept of self-improvement.
• Typically, our goals have a specific gain which is fine.  It is nice to have goals solely for self-improvement and not a tangible gain.
• Goals based on self-improvement helps boost our self-esteem and helps us to know ourselves better.

 
Practice Honesty

• Life comes with many ups and downs, it is easy to feel disconnected with how we truly feel sometimes.
• We repress difficult emotions as a way to survive the challenging moments of our life, it is human nature.
• Practicing honesty is an important tool in which we strengthen our principles and gain access to a wider range of emotions.
• Empathetic people tend to have access to this array of emotions and are able to develop meaningful connections to others around them, as well as to themselves.

Disclaimer: All information, content, and material contained in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and/or medical treatment of a qualified physician or healthcare provider. ​


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