How To Love and Be Loved | Part 3: Developing Empathy for Yourself and Others #234

“Empathy is part of our human nature. It's the capacity to feel what other people are feeling. It's what separates animals from human beings. It's part of our nature; but it also has to be nurtured.” – Joe Ehrmann

If we don't address the wounds that we experience in life, we will go on to similarly wound others. In this episode, the third in a special series of six, Brian and Joe Ehrmann discuss why developing empathy for ourselves and others is a crucial step in helping us to understand and move forward from the hurts of the past. Topics discussed include why we often build rigid defense mechanisms and destructive life patterns to cover our wounds, how we can transform these patterns and become wounded healers and what role faith takes in this journey.

 

READ FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

 

YOU WILL LEARN:

How a lack of empathy manifests in society. The differences between positive and negative empathy. Why journaling helps to make sense of the journey to healing.

 

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

InSideOut Initiative

 

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:

“If we don't enter into the woundedness of ourselves; if we don't identify and name our own life patterns; if we don't see the destructive behaviors that come out of that woundedness, we become the wounders.” – Joe Ehrmann

“We take the people we love, the people we want to be invested in and that we care about, and we can't help but wound them because we haven't addressed our own woundedness.” – Joe Ehrmann

“You have to take that first step of entering those wounds with a sense of empathy.” – Joe Ehrmann

“One of the missing pieces in America is a lack of empathy. We do victim blaming, we have apathy and indifference. But we've got to learn how to develop positive empathy for people, their situations and, particularly, for ourselves.” – Joe Ehrmann

“They always say the most competitive sport in America is parenting.” – Joe Ehrmann

“You've got to take those wounds from your past and heal them so you can move forward.” – Joe Ehrmann

 

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Theme Music:  “The Cliffs of Moher” by Brogue Wave