“Empaths did not come into this world to be victims. We came to be warriors. Be brave. Stay strong. We need all hands on deck.”
– Anthon St. Maarten, Author of Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny.
Think Like One. Act Like One. Become One.
Is your empathetic lifestyle out of balance to the point that you feel you’re being taken advantage of and resentment is creeping in? While this may be causing great emotional stress and internal turmoil, the truth is that you’re the only one that can make changes to balance your empathy. No one else.
Yes, there are a wide variety of circumstances beyond our control that influence our empathetic temperament. Everything from genetics, to upbringing, to our environment can influence our empathy range one way or another. But it is important to remember that we, as humans, have the free will to choose our own actions, regardless of how we are predisposed to feel or be influenced by circumstances.
By making deliberate choices, that is, by considering our options and deciding to make a strategic choice regardless of influences or predisposition, we can initiate deliberate change in the manner we desire. Even just making small changes can trigger a long-term chain reaction with profoundly positive results.
This is because choices, especially small ones, have the benefit of being easier to make and maintain. The more we repeat these small choices, the more they become a pattern. Once a pattern is established, following that pattern is easier than making individual choices outside the pattern. And the more choices we make similar to the established pattern, the more it becomes an accepted routine we follow. Indeed, practice makes perfect.
After we repeat the routine a few times, it becomes an unconscious habit. Thus, we start making decisions in other areas of our life to accommodate those habits, and this then becomes our lifestyle.
After living a certain lifestyle for an extended period of time, we come to identify with it; it becomes who we are – to ourselves and to others.
It’s not necessarily a quick fix or overnight success. But it is deliberate, achievable and profound.
Practice Makes Perfect
Here are a few more tips to actively balance empathy in order to change your thought pattern, influence your actions, and help become who you want to be:
For High Understanding /Low Sharing (Narcissists)
– Utilize the Power of Perspective Taking.
– Put yourself in another’s shoes on a daily basis.
– Remember a time when you were in a similar situation.
– Imagine a loved one in that same situation.
– Imagine what they are feeling, and also try to feel that way.
For Low Understanding /High Sharing (Neurotics)
– Mentally or physically separate yourself; take a time out.
– Focus on your body sensations.
– Listen to the background noises.
– Utilize the Power of Perspective Taking.
– How would you advise a loved one in the same situation?
The App To Help Make Small Changes Routine
If you are trying to find balance in your empathetic temperament, Happego (‘Happy-go’) is a mental health and well-being app that can help you make small changes in balancing empathy in order for it to become routine. Happego incorporates science-backed stimuli on smartphones, or electronic screens, every time you wake up the device so that your unconscious mind receives subtle signals to help you embrace and realize personal strategies for balancing empathy, or accomplish other goals you set for yourself.
Join User Experience Research And Be Entered To Win $2,500!
Happego is launching a User Experience Research Study that gives participants full, free access to the app, enters them into a $50 weekly drawing, and a $2,500 grand prize. The goal of the research study is to learn how to best leverage regular smartphone and tablet screen use to improve lives.
Join the research study survey that asks participants to complete a simple, three-minute survey each week for four consecutive weeks to qualify for monetary prizes. The research study is designed for Android users and runs through April 2020.
Get the Happego App (Happego Play Store and Happego App Store)