Snapshots of Transformation #1
Transformative possibilities are afoot the moment you dare to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
What if it were me? What if this was happening to me? How would I feel? What would I be thinking? What would I need? How would I deal with it?
You can never truly know, but the mere attempt allows humility to come rushing in as your perspective shifts and new insights flood your mind. Leaving the shallow waters of harsh judgement and knee jerk assumptions, you wade into the inherent complexities of another person’s plight.
This simple, yet difficult exercise is mutually beneficial for family caregivers and patients managing an unwelcome condition, bosses and employees, spouses, parents and children, almost any pairing of relationships you can imagine. You may find these observations on my experience with my wife’s illness useful.
What if it were me? Huffiness and hastiness must be checked at the door. They are of no use in this exercise. Humility and compassion are the main ingredients that crack the door open to transformation.
Worth Repeating
The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act to take that pain away,. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.
-John Connolly
