Unlimited empathy
Empathy is patiently and sincerely seeing the world through the other person’s eyes. It is not learned in school; it is cultivated over a lifetime. ―Albert Einstein
👥 Serves: 11-25 people, 2-10 people
🎚 Difficulty: Medium
⏳ Total time: 61-120 minutes
🥣 Ingredients: A group of people, 1 envelope, sticky notes (1 per participant), pens (1 per participant), outdoor space (optional)
🤓 Wholebeing Domains: Community, Radical Care
💪 Wholebeing Skills: Authenticity, Compassion, Empathy, Hosting conversations, Listening, Openness, Reciprocity, Relating to Others, Trust
Unlimited empathy
📝 Description
A group activity to foster empathy and deepen the bonds.
Empathy lies at the core of the human ability to connect to others. The word comes from the German Einfühlung, meaning ‘feeling into’. Empathy then, is to feel into the life of another, and to use that understanding to guide our actions.
This activity invites you to connect deeply to others through the power of questions and listening. It can be done in small groups (min. 3 people) as well as in large groups (max. 25 people), but we recommend making sure everyone agrees on a few core principles, such as openness, non-judgment, authenticity, active listening and of course empathy. These values ensure you create a trusting circle where people can share freely.
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This recipe has been featured in our blog post “The power of empathy and how to avoid empathy burnout” published on tbd* on 23 September 2020.
👣 Steps
Step 1 – Identify the questions (10’)
Give everyone a sticky note and a pen and ask them to write down a meaningful life question that is burning for them and that they find challenging to find an answer to.
Step 2 – Mix the questions (5’)
Everyone folds their sticky note and puts their question in the envelope. Everyone randomly picks a sticky note. Tell them to check they didn’t pick up their own question.
Step 3 – Answer the questions (45’)
Each person is invited to answer the question they picked up, empathising deeply with the person who wrote the question. If it is a large group, you may wish to set a time for each answer to ensure that everyone shares and that no question is left unaddressed. You can also split the large group into two, but you have to do this before collecting the sticky notes with the questions in two separate envelopes to ensure everyone is in the right group.
Step 4 – Sharing circle (30’)
The activity ends with an open sharing circle in which everyone is invited to share their insights and feelings.