The gentle nuances of empathy

This week, I have been on a training course as a Creative Practitioner with the Arts Council of Wales. It was the first training course that I have been on since becoming deaf and living with 2 hearing aids, so I was a bit nervous about it. I needn't have been, it was a tremendous experience. The tutors were marvellous, the content was brilliant and the delivery was spot on. And now today, I find that I am reflecting and taking time to holistically process the experience.

It has made me realise that this new disability has given me a gift, the ability to very quickly sense the empathy levels of other human beings. As if I have been tuned into the nature of quintessence.

Quint Essentia is a latin word meaning 'fifth element' and according to Plato, the fifth element is related to health, to knowledge, the heavens, the essence of living things, that travels in great circles to create the cycles of life.

For sure, my 6th sense is awakened in terms of sensing the whole of a person in an instance, sensitive to their kindness, reassurance, understanding, acutely aware of when they are being accommodating or showing concern, their patience, tolerance of difference, the whole myriad of qualities that are the building blocks for empathy.

I found a depth of these qualities in people's auto- reactive body language, in the shine of their eyes, in their facial expression, even in a glance, a slight nod, tones of voice, speed of speech, physical positioning,  the sense of a human knowing.

And  by the same token, I found I was able to instantly to pick up when people were uncomfortable about my hearing loss, when they needed support in opening up to the qualities of empathy, that to my mind, make us beautiful human beings. 

And it has set me wondering, how do we impart the nature of empathy to those that do not express it? The most obvious answer  is that we teach empathy by embodying it, by being it. I am reflecting upon it most deeply because it is a great learning. Not only understanding the gentle nuances of empathy but how we pass these on.