What are personal and/or social problems that you feel empathy can solve, and why?
Edwin - Problems:
Painful feelings of conflict, disconnection, loneliness, alienation, depression, anger, numbness, stress, anxiety, fear, etc etc can be transformed into enjoyable feelings.
Also, when feelings are disjointed, disconnected, chaotic or blocked, - empathy can be a powerful agent to integrate them.
Presently the social political polarization is something I have been working on addressing with empathy. I see that empathy can heal the divide.
Dimitra - Problems
I think that relationship problems like poor communication, misunderstandings, emotional violence
Ingrid - Problems
I am not sure if empathy “alone” can solve problems; however, being empathic definitely helps to solve problems. Based on my own experience, empathy has helped me resolve interpersonal problems. I’ve noticed that it works for me because I can really hear and understand the other person’s perspective, my defensiveness softens, and I become aware of my own judgments as well as other ways that I may block empathy.
Cathy - Problems
feeling misunderstood and as if what is being said is not important; the belief that I have nothing in common with a person who seems different from me, particularly in the hot political arena.