|  Blog Post   |  One of my favorites: Empathy.
empathy quote from Brene Brown

One of my favorites: Empathy.

To feel with, not for.
To imagine what it might feel like, not say that you can’t imagine.
To identify with the emotion underneath the experience, not to have gone through the exact same experience.
To ask how someone feels, not walk a mile in their shoes (because you can’t).
To sit beside, not across or above.
To seek to understand, not to know exactly.
To witness someone’s lived experience, not to tell them it is wrong.
To be with, not take on.

Empathy doesn’t mean I take on your emotions or fix them or agree with them. 
Empathy simply means to love well.

It requires boundaries, a lot of them. 
It also requires vulnerability. 

I must know and recognize emotions within me to see them and know them within you.
To be in it with you.

And now we are in it together, walking one another through it and home.

Author:

Justine is a Licensed Professional Counselor with more than 25 years of experience in traditional mental health and personal and professional development. Justine has been certified in the work of Dr. Brené Brown for ten years. Justine is the author of eleven books, including five Amazon bestsellers covering subjects such as infertility, faith, and grief. She has been honored to do two TEDx Talks, The Permission of the And and The Donut Effect. She travels nationally and presents virtually to global audiences delivering keynotes, workshops, retreats, and trainings on topics such as leadership, courage, resilience, mental health, preventing and coping with burnout, and courageous and curious conversation, especially in creating cultures of belonging and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Justine lives in St. Louis with her husband Chad, their three dogs, and for four months of the year hundreds of monarch and swallowtail butterflies.

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