We seem to live in a world that is often dominated by bad news. The media is full of stories of pestilence, crime, war and economic collapse. We are encouraged to conform to the latest celebrity musings and made to feel that we have to look and act in a certain way.
In Britain and elsewhere a blame culture sometimes seems to predominate as we seek to escape responsibility for our actions, and look for scapegoats to justify our own shortcomings, and at the same time no one seems to want to take any notice when we have a problem, in particular large companies whose employees are more interested (understandably) in keeping their jobs than offering any real help or concern.
Wouldn't life be better if everyone could just take a little more time and trouble just to at least listen to whatever others have to say or may think? Wouldn't a more empathetic society be a better society?
Charity, as they say, begins at home. If we want change in society, then we have to engage in society and change ourselves before we can hope to influence others. If we can learn to think of ourselves a little less and others a little bit more, think of the change that could come about!
Well, real change in ourselves is possible.
Psychologist Carl Rogers defined empathy as "both the capacity to sense what the client is feeling and the ability to communicate this sensitivity at a level tuned to the client's emotional state".
Using this definition, a study was published in the Journal of Humanistic Psychology that investigated the relationship between meditation and the level of empathy in counsellors.
The study consisted of three groups of students. The first group of 16 were taught meditation, the second group of 12 were volunteers to learn meditation, but were not actually taught it, and the third group of 11 where totally opposed to learning meditation. All groups were checked before the study and again four weeks afterwards.
The study showed that those who had actually learnt meditation were significantly better at empathising than the other 2 groups, who showed no sign of increased empathy at all.
The conclusion of the study was that those who were the least empathetic before the study but the most open to experience, were those who improved the most.
So, if you would like to see a world where people empathise more with others, meditation can certainly help.
James enjoys cooking for friends and family, and is proud of his new kitchen. Visit his latest website about wall mounted kitchen faucets where you will find tips and great deals on wall mounted kitchen faucets.
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