Empathy Is What It’s All About

<u><strong>Maureen O'Farrell graciously submitted an article to our attention. </strong></u><a href="http://medicaldaily.com/news/20120626/10472/stress-empathy-healthy-living-well-being.htm" title="Medical benefits of empathy"><br />
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Empathy could be more important to our health than levels of stress in our lives</a>. Our ability to empathize with others, part of a two step process, is what separates a person from being able to understand and cope with stressful situations rather than just feeling the stress. Although we might pick up stress in our daily lives from our tasks and our loved ones, developing more empathy could held reduce some of the negative aspects of this. Take a look at the findings to see some of the health benefits that empathy can bring you and how you might further develop this skill!<br />
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I'd also like to add onto this fantastic submission with an article I found about how we actually empathize with each other. Our <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-you-feel-what-another-body-feels&amp;page=2" title="neuron see neuron do">brain is actually hardwired to react when we hear or see experiences</a>. It is called mirror neurons, but works a little like monkey see, monkey do. When you hear or see something such as a friend telling you about an injury, your brain lights up with the same areas it would if it was happening to you. We do this with feelings as well because we are able to understand what that feeling is and empathize accordingly. How much we empathize can be related to how strongly we our brain is responding to these neurons.<br />
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Thanks Maureen for the heads up! We look forward to more of your contributions!