Welcome back! How have you been? We’ve both got to admit that it has been a long time since the last time I said anything to you – but here I am again.
Reflections in retrospect
Today I am going to talk to you about EMPATHY. Dan Pink, in his book A Whole New Mind, talks about how the world would be a much better place if we were all empathic towards each other. He gives an example of how a doctor who really listens to his/her patients is usually more successful in diagnosing them with the correct ailment. Empathy really does have the power to show us the true side of a situation and help us understand where its origins lay. Most of the time these days, everybody just looks at what others are doing and estranges their behaviour. We all do this to make ourselves seem socially acceptable in comparison to others, however, in reality if we try to put ourselves at everybody’s level, try to understand why they are the way they are and accept them, we become more acceptable within a larger group. In my own life, I have made the strongest friendships where I have connected to people on the level of why they do certain things.
Staring at the present
My world, personally, revolves around empathy. I have always wondered about how it would feel like to put myself in someone else’s shoes. I have always wondered whether or not I was any good at really knowing what someone else was thinking or feeling. Well –
I finally have the chance to put that to the test.
In his book, Pink gives a link to a test provided by the BBC that tests how well you are able to distinguish between a fake and a genuine smile. I took the test within 10 minutes and found that I was rather good at it. After all, I got a score of 15 out of 20, however, when I thought back to what I had just done I realized that there was more to this score than a mere two-digit number. I realized that most of the times I got the answer correct was when I felt the smile radiate right through me or simply just dull me, even if it was on a computer screen. I got the answers wrong where I didn’t follow my emotions or intuition, but rather followed the path of logical and linear analysis of the facial expression. I found that my intuition fired up like the ignition of a car when I looked into the eyes of the person who was attempting to smile. I suppose the old proverb is right
“The eyes are windows into a person’s soul.”
A look into the future
TAKE THE TEST YOURSELF and see what you get. Share what you learn through the test, in the comments section below.
Amit Garg 