Actionable Empathy

Week Two of the Building Peace Project saw the Team Hope having candid yet heartwarming discussions about Peace and what it means to us, both on a micro and macro level. Kirthi Di also had us discussing the key drivers of Peace, namely Empathy, Mutual Respect, Gender Equality, Religious Tolerance and International Cooperation. She encouraged us to ruminate about the same and jot down how any one particular driver of Peace can be developed in the course of our work.

Only trouble is, my daily college classes just got over and the exams are still a month away. So the only work I seem to be doing these days, is trying to catch up with my never ending To Read list.

So when I sat down to write this blog post, my thoughts kept bouncing back and forth between the story that I had read and the concept of Empathy. And as far as I can tell, those two have a lot to do with each other.

Reading a book is like going down the Rabbit hole to Wonderland. It takes you places you never thought you could go to. It puts you in situations that you might never get to face in real time. It leads to all sorts of wonderful chemical reactions in your head. Especially if you're reading fiction, it leads you to meet characters sometimes as complex as the people we meet in life. 

When we read about these characters, we understand things from their point of view. For a little while you forget yourself and immerse yourself in another one's reality. We step into their shoes and view the world through their glasses and that is all needed for Empathy to take root. 

Some studies conducted recently well document this quite well. Reading is directly related to emotional intelligence of which Empathy forms a major part. I read about two such studies here and here.

Which brings me effectively to my point. Empathy, as well as many other Psychological phenomena, are often stereotyped as not being actionable. When in reality, something as common as reading can help in developing Empathy, which in turn leads to Peace.

Which is why, I have listed Empathy as the very first of the key drivers of peace. It starts with oneself. Then, when another person is introduced to this mix, you get a  'self' and an 'other' and Mutual Respect will evolve from mutual empathy. When a gender difference is calculated in, only mutually empathetic and respectful individuals can find themselves as equals. With religion tolerance and international cooperation, this circle of peace widens. I have imagined it to look something like this.

I am a psychology student. In non technical terms, as future Counselors, our work will involve helping people achieve intrapersonal and interpersonal peace and growth. To be able to do this successfully, counselors build what is known as a therapeutic alliance with subjects. This is the creation of a judgment free zone where the subject and the counselor work to alleviate specific problems. This in turn required the Counselor to demonstrate three important qualities towards the subject. They are Empathy, Authenticity and Positive Regard for each other. Then and only then can the process of peace building be started.