A Celebration of Women

shares some pitfalls of falling into the ‘state of apathy’ for anyone on this planet, let alone Women in Recovery.

Working to stay passionate about life in some way is Key to Successful Recovery, Spiritual or otherwise.

Here are some thoughts to chew on…

Please leave comment above, if you have any further insights or opinions.

Empathy

 

1. the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it .2: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this.

 

…a good college try at ’empathy’, guys!

To show ’empathy’ is to identify with another’s feelings.

It is to emotionally put yourself in the place of another. The ability to empathize is directly dependent on your ability to feel your own feelings and identify them. If you have never felt a certain feeling, it will be hard for you to understand how another person is feeling. This holds equally true for pleasure and pain. If, for example, you have never put your hand in a flame, you will not know the pain of fire. If you have not experienced sexual passion, you will not understand its power. Similarly, if you have never felt rebellious or defiant, you will not understand those feelings. Reading about a feeling and intellectually knowing about it is very different than actually experiencing it for yourself.

Among those with an equal level of innate emotional intelligence, the person who has actually experienced the widest range and variety of feelings — the great depths of depression and the heights of fulfillment, for example, — is the one who is most able to empathize with the greatest number of people from all walks of life.

On the other hand, when we say that someone “can’t relate” to other people, it is likely because they haven’t experienced, acknowledged or accepted many feelings of their own. WALK the WALK is key to understanding; and those that choose to TALK the TALK, will eventually need to take steps towards reality. Then and only then, will they be able to experience empathy, in any given situation.

Once you have felt discriminated against, for example, it is much easier to relate with someone else who has been discriminated against. Our innate emotional intelligence gives us the ability to quickly recall those instances and form associations when we encounter discrimination again. This is one of the ways nature slowly evolves towards a higher level of survival. In other words, over time, awareness of our own feelings may lead us to treat others in a more pro-survival way.

We then can use the “reliving” of those emotions to guide our thinking and actions.

For this process to work, the first step is that we must be able to experience our own emotions. This means we must be open to them and not distract ourselves from them or try to numb ourselves from our feelings through drugs, alcohol, etc.

Next, we need to become aware of what we are actually feeling — to acknowledge, identify, and accept our feelings. Only then can we empathize with others. That is one reason it is important to work on your own emotional awareness and sensitivity– in other words, to be “in touch with” your feelings. — and to help children stay in touch with their feelings.

 

On a side note, when one Takes Action…

‘I’m not full of apathy towards your needs,

 

I’m full of empathy!’

 

Apathy

–noun, plural -thies. 1.

1. absence or suppression of passion, emotion, or excitement.

2. lack of interest in or concern for things that others find moving or exciting.

3. Also, ap·a·thei·a, ap·a·thi·a /ˌæpəˈθiə/ Show Spelled[ap-uh-thee-uh] Show IPA. Stoicism . freedom from emotion of any kind.

 

 

To experience apathy, is to have absolutely no experience in a situation, ergo lacking true ability to understand, leading to having no interest …

To show apathy is to take absolutely no action, have no understanding; and some say no capacity or desire to have any understanding of the feelings on a situation that involve anyone other than self. This state of inaction has a variance of causes, with clinical depression included as one. Therefore, if you find that you have or are losing interest in loved ones’ lives, world news, the cat, the dog, or especially the birth of a friend’s baby; check it out.

 

I am full of apathy towards your needs. (It is a noun, so treat it as such.)

The worst case scenario that our world faces today is that ‘apathy‘ is becoming stronger and stronger everyday, growing like a dark underground movement. Our world could handle all the bullying, challenges , wars and more, if only the masses would Take Action and force themselves to care, or at least try to care. The willingness to let go of that fear, laziness or whatever…keeps a very large percentage of this world spiralling towards entropy, adding to the imbalance that we see everywhere today.

People are, for many reasons, taking the Path of Least Resistance to a level that makes the state of entropy their way of life, never standing up for anything, never taking action on anything, never speaking out on anything. This way of life holds deeper danger than that of facing the actions caused by even a full blown HATE.

To paraphrase from memory, Martin Luther King:

 

‘The ‘inaction of the innocent’…

is much more sinful and damaging to society

than the ‘action of the guilty’.

Nothing born alive in this world was designed to stagnate. This form of inaction will only lead to more misery in the long run. It is highly suggested that you do whatever it takes to get yourself interested, passionate, alive about something in this life. The opposite is ending up like the walking dead; and that is a whole other issue.

 

APATHY cannot take control in your life, for inevitably you will suffer.

Take Action!