One of the best traits anyone can have, I think, is empathy. Empathy is a direct route to the heart of how someone is feeling. Unfortunately, if you aren't in touch with your own feelings, it's impossible to have true empathy. You can go through the *skill* of parroting back what someone said to you or even reading certain physical cues (i.e. tears must mean sadness, so you express words of empathy when you see the tears), but true empathy is really feeling the emotion like a power punch in your own gut before you can give it back so someone else. One of the major lessons I teach my clients is empathy; consequently, it is also the hardest to teach. It's like saying, "Yes, [Read more...]