Tag: empathy

The inner weather

I live in Chennai. The last few Decembers have been very eventful here. We had heavy rains, cyclones, floods. Come December, weather is on everyone’s mind. We are very cautious. We check the weather often.

Taking the cue from this, one thing that may help us in our daily lives is to check our “internal weather”. Especially on a Monday morning 🙂 Understand what exactly is happening inside. What are we feeling right now? Relaxed and sunny? Cloudy? Is there a storm brewing? And act accordingly.

“The birds have vanished into the sky,
and now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.” – Li Po

Photo by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash

Ting – Are you listening?

The Chinese character for listening is Ting.

What can we learn from it about listening?


1) Use your ears to hear what the other person speaks.

2) Maintain eye contact. Use your (10) eyes to pick up any non-verbal messages conveyed. The body language. The facial expression.

3) Focus. Be one with the other person. Give the other person your ‘one’ undivided attention.

4) Treat the other person like royalty (king). Make them feel valued.

5) Use your heart. Show genuine empathy.

I learnt about “Ting” thanks to Janaki Sabesh who spoke about it in one of our Parenting with Depth sessions.

(Image source: https://www.codevelop.co/)