Last week, I started reading "Living the Spiritual Principles of Health and Well-Being" by Drs. John-Roger and Paul Kaye soon to be released with book signings in Europe.
The book offers practical wisdom presented in several sections. One section that particularly fascinated me is "Causes and Cures of Disease." Many illnesses have an underlying emotional disturbance causing them, and in my own experience, that has certainly been the case. I hasten to add that blaming an emotional response for an illness does not further health and well-being. Quite the reverse.
In the book, one of the causes attributed to disease is fear. Its cure is empathy. What if there were no real source of fear, although the feeling of fear is real enough? Your mind and emotions create the feeling of fear through imagining, for example, the worst possible outcome. You may be drawn to news items which focus on negative scenarios. News agencies make their profit through our attraction to drama and what a friend calls "awful-ization." It is your thoughts about a situation that produce feelings of fear.
One of my most memorable experiences of fear was the first time I was in an earthquake, in Carpenteria, California. I was on my own in a fairly large house which we had rented for a few months. When the earthquake was happening and the house was rolling around (well constructed for earthquake conditions) I enjoyed the movement. I was in bed around 4:30 a.m. When the movement stopped and my mind started imagining what might have happened if ... the walls had come down, glass had fallen all over me, I ripped in to my feet with broken glass and so forth, I felt really scared. I was more shaken by my thoughts about it than by the event itself.
The Law of Empathy is the fifth spiritual law. The first is Acceptance, followed by Cooperation, then Understanding and Enthusiasm. Spiritual laws, unlike the laws of the land, are those which guide and direct our loving. Spiritually, we are not punished for our sins or shortcomings. We are punished by them. That is to say, it is when we go off track, or are separated, from our loving nature that we tend to experience imbalance and dis-ease.
More often than not, we simply do not know what good might be right around the corner of any crisis. There are many who are viewing the current global disturbances as creative opportunities to effect solutions to the issues we are facing. This could well turn out to be the most creative and productive era of all human existence. No one person, or even inspired leader, is in direct control of what the future holds. Lack of control for many is scary.
I have noticed those who make gloomy pronouncements about the future want to seem right about their predictions, and in control somehow. It is tempting to buy into the awful-ization. Personal concerns such as: What if I fail? What if I lose all my friends? What if I never find another job? What if my husband/wife rejects me? Those feelings of fear can hold you back from engaging in life, and deriving fulfillment from getting on with what is right in front of you.
So where does empathy come in? Empathy is a form of understanding. Fear cannot abide in an environment where there is understanding. Understanding is being aware of the thoughts that have produced the feelings, and literally standing under or in support of the greater, loving spirit that is present. Empathy and compassion offer you the opportunity to be with those feelings as they are, without any criticism, shame or blame.
Empathy respects your inner strength or innate essence, to know and do what is true for you. In her recent article, Judith Johnson writes about The Power of Bearing Witness. It speaks to empathy in action.
The action may be as simple as holding a hand, listening, smiling, being at one with what is taking place without having to fix it. It takes a certain strength and love to do so. You are not in control. You are cooperating with the love present, in yourself and the other person. This love heals on many levels. You may look beyond what you see on the face of things to recognize something deeper going on, more real, more connected, more intimate, more safe. This vibrant safety I view as the human spirit.
In stressful times, you can extend empathy towards yourself with care, understanding and getting to know how your thoughts are disturbing you. Instead of being critical and condemning towards yourself with blame and judgments about how you think you should be, do or feel differently, you can accept yourself as you are, in that moment. The feelings will change.
Where fear isolates, empathy connects. When you have understanding, you can then use the energy of fear to get active, to do what needs to be completed, to see friends, write a letter, make a phone call, do something for the joy of it.
Instead of fear holding you back, you may find that fear translates into awe and inspiration. The essence of fear is love, awaiting awakening.

We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle
Do you know someone who is skilled at offering empathy? How do you think empathy can assist the healing process? What are the most effective ways you know to express or receive empathy?
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Walter E. Jacobson, M.D.: How to Turn the Volume Down on Your Inner Critic
Denise Campbell, Ph.D(c), MSPH, CHES
Thanks for the shout out! This is such a wonderful article. I love the way you have brought life to the laws of spirit - showing how they actually work in our lives. I also love your statement "fear isolates, empathy connects." Amen.
I also believe that empathy does create limitations if we are not careful. A high level of empathy for oneself almost always leads to a better place. Empathy for others often brings greater understanding and peace but it can also lead us to take on others problems if we are not careful. What I mean by this is empathizing with a person in great pain can feel like pain within ourselves and alter our thinking patterns. We have an obligation to protect ourselves by allowing the feelings of others to pass through us but to not take them on as our own. This requires awareness and practice of letting go of emotions on a regular basis. For myself, I use a regular mediation to clear my mind of these thoughts while trying to retain the lessons of the thoughts to allow for the process of understanding to reach a higher level.
I've written about how much I admire Jesus' ability to connect to the inner life experience of people he met, and now I see that he had social empathy as well. He could distill the truth of the social order from the social ghosts that terrify so many people.
Our perceptions of our world are heavily influenced by people who cynically profit from the creation of fear. That's a living, breathing reality. But the world only faces "such challenges as are common to man". "The world" isn't summed up by human social order, it is also the continual cataract of blessing on us. It is good to be alive, and the real world knows
Your blog is very timely in more ways than one.
Love,
Malcolm
So good to see you here! Thank you for dropping by.
Empathy for oneself can be one of the greatest challenges to master, and doing so can deepen your understanding of the loving that you are, Definitely worth putting into practice.
I am so glad to know that this article is timely for you.
With love and blessings to you,
Anne
Do you know someone who is skilled at offering empathy? The Dalai Lama is wonderful as his kindness and caring nature is so helpful.
How do you think empathy can assist the healing process? It is a great way to send good caring energy throughout the body and we are energy.
What are the most effective ways you know to express or receive empathy? To listen and to luv - to be present - open and compassionate.
May all people be happy
Ommmmmmmmmmmmmm
Your radiant joy and understanding warms my heart. Thank you so much for contributing your knowing and beauty to the discussion.
May you be abundantly blessed in every way!
With loving happiness to you,
Anne
The depth of your loving and compassion always shines though.
Bless you for helping each of us take that next step to express our empathy.
"Instead of fear holding you back, you may find that fear translates into awe and inspiration. The essence of fear is love, awaiting awakening."
Much Love,
Eli
Your rich gifts of enthusiasm, joy and wisdom touch me. I so appreciate how you share of your beautiful Self in so many ways.
With love, grace and delight to you,
Anne
I think it helps to first accept your circumstances as they are. Your circumstances are not accidental nor coincidence. Sharing personal experience may be an effective way to relate and empathize with another in times of adversity.
To your point about fear, it helps to be aware of the silent dialogue taking place, the pattern and frequency of it as well. It’s how fear is created. With the awareness comes the ability or consciousness to turn it off. It all comes down to moving beyond your self. And leaning into the circumstances by embracing and getting to know, feel and appreciate the breath you have and what it means to have it.
So good to see you here again! I agree with you that our circumstances are not accidental or coincidence.
I am ever more convinced that awareness is one of the greatest gifts we can receive. Awareness has the potential of giving us fresh choices about issues in which we may feel stuck.
I love what you say here: "leaning into the circumstances by embracing and getting to know, feel and appreciate the breath you have and what it means to have it." That goes deep for me!
With love and appreciation to you,
Anne
It is an attribute.
True empaths live challenging lives,
due to their hypersensitivity.
With love,
Anne
As for empathy, I had one of those strange messages come into my head a couple years back: "Empathy is the highest of all intelligences."
I'm afraid it cannot be taught, but is transfered through how we treat each other, most notably our children. In fact, in was in Carpinteria that I watched them try to teach it....
There was an earthquake when I was in Carpentaria! What a beautiful message you received about empathy. I had not seen it that way before.
One time, I asked a successful comedienne to teach me how to be funny and present comedy. She wisely told me that I would learn by seeing the funny side of life. She could not teach it as such. Perhaps the same with empathy.
I appreciate your insights!
With love and blessings,
Anne
Thank you very much for your comment - and question. I am not sure the people "only suffer in life because of their shortcomings and lack of empathy". There are many causes of suffering.
From my own perspective, I can never really know or understand why bad things happen to good people. No matter who is experiencing "bad" things, each one can derive learning from them and in that way, the learning becomes a blessing.
Empathy can give us an inner route that enables a person to survive and thrive no matter the outrageous slings and arrows that shower them. Knocks can be the incentive to build our inner resources.
I appreciate your sense of caring for those who are disadvantaged.
Blessings to you,
Anne