Tag: empathy

Be honest

Posted on by philipdodson

When we are honest in our relationships we stop the other person from having to wonder. When we withhold the truth and we conceal our true feelings and thoughts, the other person will sense something and because they do not know the truth, they will fill in the blanks. Our mind has to have the answer, the beginning, middle and end. When it does not, it fills in the blank and always in a bad way.

If we share our truth with others we free them from the suffering of not knowing and it enables us to truly connect in a very deep way that is not possible when we put up our shields to hide the truth from others.

Being honest with others stops us either building up and resenting others, which usually leads to an explosive outburst and hurt for all, or we say nothing and suffer because we did not speak our truth and we did not respect ourselves.

The only ingredients that we must not leave out ever from speaking our truth are kindness and empathy towards the recipient of our truth. If we leave them out we will only hurt and damage our relationships.

We can’t give to others what we don’t give to ourselves

Posted on by philipdodson

We can’t give to others what we don’t give to ourselves.

If we don’t love ourselves we can’t love others. If we are not kind to ourselves we can’t give it to others. If we have no compassion for ourselves then we can’t be compassionate with others. If we do not show ourselves empathy and understanding then we will not see and understand others.

Understanding is a powerful thing that we all seek and yet we do not start with ourselves. We do not take the time to own or be accountable for our journeys. When we own them we can learn and write a different story. We can then seek to understand others too. All to often we fill in the gaps with ourselves and make up stories and we do e we it’s others too.

Equally, what we give to ourselves, we give to others. If we are angry, fearful, unkind, harsh, judging, shaming, and so on, of ourselves then we will treat others the same. If we are kind, compassionate, loving and understanding with ourselves we will be with others.

Inner peace comes from treating ourselves kindly and outer peace follows.

It all starts with us. The world is what we create from our inner state.