Tag Archives: Empathy

A Newfound Sense of Empathy: Taking Medicine for Dizziness or Headaches

When I got out of bed this morning, I wasn’t feeling very well. To be more specific, when I stood up, I felt a bit dizzy. The more I moved my head, the dizzier I felt. I laid down — dizzier, still. It wasn’t until I realized if I sat up, the dizzying feeling stopped. Now, this might not sound strange to a lot of you, but for me, being sick (or feeling unwell) is not something I’m familiar with.

I rarely — rarely — get sick. And when I do, it’s usually some kind of cold. The experience I had this morning was very humbling. There wasn’t a lot I could do to make myself feel better. I just sat there on the bathroom floor, trying not to think about … the things that usually happen when you’re sick. The best word I can think to describe it: humbling.

It’s important to rest when you’re sick, but when I wrote that piece, I didn’t consider the incapacitating feeling of being dizzy or having an “unusual” or abnormal feeling in your head. If your head’s not right, there really isn’t anything you can do.

I’m saying all of this because my experience this morning gave me a better understanding of why people take aspirin (or other kinds of pharmaceuticals). I suppose I’ve been rather lucky in life — I haven’t been very ill (or had many injuries). My one visit to the hospital was for taking a baseball to the face (maybe one day I’ll share that story on here). So, because I’ve had little need to take these kinds of drugs, I’ve always wondered why people appeared to be so dependent on them (I’m taking more about aspirin or things that help you when your sick, not other, more debilitating kinds of maladies/diseases). After my experience today, I have a newfound understanding for those who feel it necessary to take this kind of medicine.

Today (and Yesterday), It Snowed in Washington, DC

This morning, I woke up to some light flurries in the Metro DC area, but what I really want to talk about is . I spent most of the day in the office and the blinds weren’t open. I happened to leave the office and catch a glimpse of the outside — snow — lots of it. This is my first time living in the DC area and everything I’ve been told about living here is that snow is (not common). Having grown up in Canada and spent a great deal of time living in places where there are , the snow didn’t bother nor affect me, really — or so I thought.

As I understand the importance of , I make a point of working out. I also had a few errands that I needed to take care of. I started the car and then dusted off the snow, which was rather wet and heavy, before pulling out of the driveway and heading down the road. I live in a place where I have to drive on a two-lane road for about 5 miles (in nearly all directions) before there are lanes with which I can legally pass someone.

About 1.5 miles into the trip, I came upon a school bus. I know that school buses typically will go near (or less) than the speed limit on this particular two-lane road, so when the school bus was going ~30mph on a 45mph road, I still didn’t think too much of it. I made it to the end of the road, turned onto a road with two lanes (in both directions), and accelerated to the speed limit, before engaging cruise control. After about 2.5 miles, I “caught up” to traffic.

It wasn’t that there was a lot of volume, no. It was just that everyone was going particularly slow. At first, I grew a little frustrated with this, which is understandable. I grew up in the . Heck, we even once had to (twice!) because there was so much of it. Suffice to say, I’m comfortable driving in snow. Moments after my frustration grew, it subsided. I quickly realized that these people were probably nowhere nearly as comfortable as I was driving in the snow. Once I arrived at this state of compassion, my frustration disappeared. I eventually was able to move around the crowd and drive at the speed limit, but that’s not the point I want to highlight.

The first point, compassion. By putting myself in the shoes of the other drivers, I fostered a sense of compassion for their situation. Not only compassion, but empathy. I, too, (of course), had once never driven in snow and had to learn how a car behaved in the snow.

The second point, perspective. I would gather that a fair number of the drivers out on the roads in DC yesterday were not expecting to get into their cars after work to be greeted by a snowstorm. When they were, there could have been any number of reactions. Some may have cursed the snow because they wanted to make it home (or to the sports lounge) to see the college football national championship. Some may have wanted to race home to see their family. For others, the snow presented an opportunity to assume a new perspective on their situation. As I said earlier, snow is not a common occurrence in this part of the world. .

Politicians Are Inherently Good

I believe that people are inherently good and because I believe that politicians are people, too, I also believe that politicians are inherently good. [.] You’ll find many about the topic as to whether people are good and you’ll also find many people in general debating this topic (, , , and ). Some people think it’s clear that . You’ll even find academic articles written on the subject of humans inherent goodness ( and ). While I acknowledge the religious component to this debate, from everything I’ve seen of people, I think they are inherently good.

Yes, there are heinous acts committed everyday around the world, but I don’t think that people are doing these things in their “right mind.” That is, I think that there is some form of . I think that people couldn’t do some of the things that they do without being, in some way, detached from what they are doing. While the human condition encompasses a wide variety of human behavior, I don’t think that humans, without being (unaware) to some extent, of what they are doing, that they could do what they do (when they harm other humans).

I am in the process of working on a series of posts where I make the claim that is way behind and while this implicates the politicians who, by the very nature of the system, are directly involved with the writing and publishing of American public policy, I do not think that politicians are deliberately (and maliciously, that’s key) making it this way. I think that because of the way that the system of the American government is set up and the system of the American media, it’s much easier for American politicians to get away with the kinds of things they get away with, but I don’t think there is harmful intent.

Some may call me idealistic, but I believe that (most) humans on the planet, given an opportunity to help a fellow human, would do so. When presented with an , I think that most humans will do what they can to help someone out. More importantly, I think that those who wouldn’t help out are still human, but are expressing what would call, “.”

We can understand this a little easier by looking at some of the things that  has to say: “The thoughts that go through your mind, of course, are linked to the collective mind of the culture you live in – humanity as a whole. They are not your thoughts as such, but you pick them up from the collective… You believe in every thought that arises and you derive your sense of who you are from what your mind is telling you who you are.”

And then pair them with the lens of : “…when I believed my thoughts, I suffered, but that when I didn’t believe them, I didn’t suffer…”

Inherently people are good. While I understand that some people my disagree, this is a topic that I have a hard time honestly taking a step back and hearing both sides. I think that people always, always mean well. Like I said earlier, yes, there are some “bad” things that happen in the world, but I do not think that its intentionally harmful (and I really hope not, too). I think that psychology’s perspective on the shadow, along with viewpoints from spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Byron Katie help us to understand why some people may do “bad things,” and still, inherently, be good people.

Lastly, I wanted to offer a perspective from someone who I think has something important to say on this topic. wrote, what I think, is one of the more important books of this generation. It came out in 2010 and it has already been translated into more than 30 languages. He gave (50 minutes), which was then turned into a . The implications are profound and I have included the animated speech below for your viewing pleasure.