The empathy seesaw.
Start by taking a moment to settle and relax before you begin.
Find a comfortable sitting position and listen to what the body needs.
Shifting position to be comfortable and balanced if necessary.
Begin by bringing attention to the body in relation to the space it's in,
Sensing the room and any objects around.
And now shift the attention to the entire body as it sits here.
Next,
Move the attention to the breathing process in the whole body,
Breathing naturally and leaving the breath to find its own rhythm.
And now come back to the sensation of the entire body.
And bring to mind your reasons for doing this exploration on the empathy seesaw.
What is motivating and inspiring you to engage with this process of inner development?
And finally,
Wish yourself success in this process.
This exploration is to help you understand what empathy is,
Recognise your tendency towards either affective or cognitive empathy and help you practise balanced empathy and move between the two types of empathy.
It will also encourage you to question your life and open up to possibilities of change and fulfilment,
Helping you build a picture of what your potential might be,
What may be helping you develop your potential and what may be limiting you at the moment.
Balanced empathy requires both emotional warmth and closeness along with cooler understanding and perspective.
This feeling of closeness or warmth is your natural emotional basis of empathy and is always present.
This natural empathy comes from the basis that you are a social being and fundamentally you need others.
However,
This needs to be refined through cooler understanding and perspective,
Putting yourself in the shoes of others and truly understanding what they may need.
Otherwise,
Your empathy is partial or selective and can even inhibit a caring response.
To develop and put balanced empathy into practice,
You need to keep both types of empathy in balance by checking in on both sides,
Seesawing back and forth in any situation to keep them in balance,
Which will help you act appropriately in a given situation.
This also helps you avoid tipping over into emotional overwhelm or emotional disconnect.
So now,
Think of a person you know who is experiencing a challenge at the moment,
Someone who is in need of help.
This could be something very simple or something more emotionally challenging for them and choose someone who is safe for you to explore in this session.
So now,
Imagine them in front of you.
What's going on for them?
What would you usually think,
Feel,
Say and do in a situation like this?
Now,
Take a moment to notice your connection with this person.
Is it a warmer sense of emotional closeness or is it a cooler sense of understanding and perspective?
If you think you have a warmer sense of emotional closeness,
Try cooler understanding and perspective taking to balance it out by asking yourself what might they need in their unique situation.
Or,
If you think you have a cooler sense of understanding and perspective,
Try developing a feeling of warmth and closeness,
Asking yourself,
Am I fundamentally vulnerable in a similar way?
Now,
Move or see-saw between these two questions.
Again,
Asking yourself,
Am I fundamentally vulnerable in a similar way?
What might they need in their unique situation?
Now,
Having reflected on the two sides of the empathy see-saw,
What would you think,
Feel,
Say and do in a situation like this now?
And how do you think this exploration might help you in a real life situation?
And remember,
We are using the image of the spiral to show how certain personal qualities build on and reinforce each other in an upward spiral towards positive potential.
A positive reinforcement spiral.
Likewise,
Certain personal qualities also build on and reinforce each other in a downward spiral.
A negative reinforcement spiral.
So,
Using your learning from this exploration on the empathy see-saw,
Simply note what may be helping you develop towards the top of the spiral and what may be limiting you towards the bottom.
And finally,
Taking a moment to reconnect with your posture,
Rebalancing,
Relaxing and gently releasing any tension if necessary.
And becoming aware of the body breathing.
And taking a moment to recall your motivation for doing this exploration.
Now,
Bring to mind what you have experienced and learnt in this exploration.
Have you discovered anything about yourself?
Have you begun to cultivate any helpful qualities or overcome or let go of any unhelpful qualities?
And how might this process be beneficial and meaningful and contribute to the welfare and wellbeing of yourself and others?
Your family,
Friends and those close to you,
Those who inspire and nurture your positive development and all living beings and the environment they rely on.
And as this exploration ends,
Try to carry this with you wherever you go by recollecting it occasionally.
