In March, I attended the first in-person South By Southwest (SXSW) in over three years.
If you’re not familiar with SXSW, it’s a city-wide tech/music/film festival that takes place in Austin, TX every year. For the past three years, in-person enjoyment has been cancelled due to Covid, announced two days before SXSW 2020 was scheduled to begin. Thus, it is needless to say that this was a momentous occasion. It was my first SXSW and my first event attended after the peak of the pandemic.
SXSW has many events to choose from– conferences, films, meetups, coaching, lounges, workshops, exhibitions– the list goes on. The opportunities was almost overwhelming.
A course by Others Unlimited
A workshop that immediately caught my eye was a workshop called “Empathy for a$$holes.”
Why this workshop?
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the title really captivated my inner a$$hole.
But also now more than ever, empathy is an important skill to have and it can always be improved upon.
Being able to understand how others feel is a great way to open up communication and make those around you feel more comfortable. When we can understand others, we can be more understanding and compassionate, which is something we all need in our lives.
Here are my key takeaways from the workshop:
➡️ Empathy is a difficult subject to teach.
Have you ever asked a child to share a toy with a crying sibling/friend, but they didn’t understand why?
What did you tell them? And did your words have a clear impact on the child?
Children, and especially a$$holes, have a hard time reflecting on these feelings.
Some people develop these qualities naturally over time, while others have to work hard to learn them.
When we share our struggles with others and seek their help, we feel more empowered than ever before! It’s not easy, but being empathetic can help us become better people– and if we want a better society, we must develop more empathy in this world!
Thankfully, workshops (like this one) are offered to help people cultivate and practice empathy.
➡️ Empathy is not about being nice.
Empathy is often associated with “nice” qualities like compassion and kindness.
But there is much more to empathy than this.
Empathy can be a powerful tool—it allows you to see the world through another person’s eyes, which can help you understand them better and make decisions that are more likely to be in their best interests. Putting yourself in another’s shoes and getting to the root of the issue is truly what this is all about.
It also helps you understand your own emotions and how they affect other people.
➡️ “Behind every different emotion is an unspoken longing.”
In everything we do, there is a desire to be heard, respected, and loved.
Humans are designed for connection, and that’s why the pandemic was so hard on so many.
When you empathize with others, you can sense their deepest, unspoken desires. It’s like a superpower. When you get into the habit of doing this regularly, you’ll find that everyone around you will be happier and more fulfilled– and so will you!
And inside all of us is the power to help fulfill these desires.
Empathy is for everyone
Empathy is all about being present in the moment while taking into account where other people are coming from as well as where they might need help moving forward in their lives. This can take practice but it’s definitely worth working toward!
Thank you to the @othersunlimited team for teaching us a$$holes about empathy.