My theme for the A to Z Blog Challenge @AprilA2Z during the month of April is ~ My Life Is My Masterpiece ~ Lessons Learned
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Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins
~ Native American Plains Proverb ~
There’s nothing more empowering to a person than having another person walking by your side during difficult times. Empathy and compassion doesn’t mean you take away the struggle and challenge of another person’s life. It’s just being there and fully grasping the reality of that struggle and challenge. There’s nothing like finding the courage and strength within yourself to bring you through what seemed insurmountable. This needs to come from within. The difference between feeling alone during that time vs. having others willing to listen and encourage makes all the difference in the world.
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The 2016 A to Z Challenge #atozchallenge is 26 Days in April (No Sundays) of blogging using each letter of the alphabet as a prompt for each blog. My theme for this Challenge is My Life is a Masterpiece ~ Lessons Learned
![A2Z-BADGE_[2016]](https://meinthemiddlewrites.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/a2z-badge_2016.jpg?w=150&h=150){kind=icon}
Blogger users can also follow me at atozchallenge2016.blogspot.com
* Note: My letter sketches were made from ideas I found on Google Images. *
Great post. I agree it would be great to show this video in elementary schools. I think it is a learned skill. The tendency is to want to fix and minimize. “At least…” or, “that reminds me of a time when I blah blah blah.” Taking away from the person’s pain, and kidnapping it. Also, sympathy takes away from the person’s process. It is sort of belittling, like the person being sympathetic is “better than.” Thanks Mary Lou.
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It’s true! I do it myself …… thinking about my own similar experience and thinking it helps to tell someone about that. Instead of just letting them share their reality. 🙂
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You should give your lettered drawings first star billing and put the AtoZ ones below.
Empathy: well done, Dearie (Damn you, Steve!)
Sir Leprechaunrabbit
@leprchaunrabbit
yourrootsareshowingdearie.wordpress.com
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Thanks for the suggestion! I thought about it yet wanted the AtoZ identifying mark up front. So glad I joined you all! 🙂
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I love Brene Brown, but have never seen that little cartoon clip. It’s wonderful. The problem here is how do we get the people who don’t understand the difference btwn empathy and sympathy to watch it?! It needs to be required viewing before talking with anyone else on a personal level. We can make that happen, right?
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Ally ~ I was thinking as I was reading your comment that it would be good if a video like this was shown in elementary and high schools. It might already be! 🙂
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Lovely post and quotes, thank you for sharing 🙂
@LunaNoctis from There She Goes
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You’re welcome, Natalie! I just visited your AtoZ posts and want to read them all! 🙂
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I believe I can and do empathize but what I find very difficult is to let it go just at that – like at the end of the video. I feel almost a compulsion to make it ‘alright’; standing by feeling the other person’s pain and agony and just saying i feel for you – how does that help? Say a person is facing domestic abuse – i just cant say i feel for you (and i do) and then carry on with my life without even attempting to suggest or do something to better her life? But having said that, i have noticed that people dont want solutions to their problems, they just want a shoulder to cry on, a listening heart. Yet I am still caught in the middle struggling to accept that an empathetic ear and heart is enough…
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Beautifully said, Dahlia! I think there’s a tendency to want to fix things. Just being there and understanding the reality is really enough. 🙂
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I hope so…
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Great post! We could all use a lesson empathy.
Piper Presley
Editing Tools: Blogging From A to Z
http://www.presleyromance.com/blog/editing-tools-blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge
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Thanks, Piper! Glad you stopped by! 🙂
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I love Brene Brown and her advice – this one is great and she does another fabulous one called “damn you Steve” about how we tend to always look for someone to blame when things go wrong. Leanne @ cresting the hill
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I just googled ‘damn you Steve’. Gonna watch it right now! Thank you Leanne! 🙂
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Nice read on Empathy .
@dixita011 from
Cafenined words
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Thank you! AtoZ Bloggers are on a roll! 🙂
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Yay ☺☺
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love the clip! very powerful and relevant to where I am in my life at this moment and in life in general x @Daisy from
Daisyinthe willows
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Brene Brown is wonderful and I loved this cartoon clip too! I can see you’re in the Empathy mode by reading your AtoZ posts, Daisy! Very educational and very much needed. 🙂
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Très beau !
Bonne journée, bises.
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Merci, Carole! 🙂
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