The power of soup and a listening ear

This blog is pro conjugal marriage. What I love about it is how much compassion and empathy I see in her for others.

on this site we talk about holding tightly to truth and love. This blog is a great forum for the “truth” side of things. But the “love” part is something that has to be lived out off the page. I know that many of you are already doing this kind of real-life-love-in-action. I’ve seen it. But I’ve had a couple recent conversations with believers who want to love radically, but don’t know what it looks like. They fear that their involvement will translate as implied approval. My advice: don’t worry about that. Just be the most generous, supportive, inviting person that they come in contact with. By no means do I live this out perfectly, but I learn best by example. So I thought I’d give you one up-close-and-personal example of my own. ("The power of soup and a listening ear", Katy Faust, 27 Oct 2014)

Empathy vs Sympathy

The power of empathy is great. The voice is Brené Brown. She is the speaker from Ted that spoke about the connection between shame and vulnerability.

Four qualities of empathy from Theresa Wiseman (Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kings College London, London, UK) 

- Perspective taking - the ability to take the perspective of another person.  Or to recognize their perspective as their truth
- Staying out of judgement
- Recognizing and understanding emotion in other people
- Communicating your understanding of that persons feelings  

Empathy is feeling with people.
Empathy is a sacred space.
Empathy is a vulnerable choice. In order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling.
...
Rarely if ever does an empathic response begin with "At least"
"I had a miscarriage" - "At least you know you can get pregnant"
To silver line an expression of difficulty or pain.
...
Rarely can a response make something better. What makes something better is connection.