Thinking Out Loud

Absorbing Energy

Empathy is tricky business; it’s also natural and part of being social creatures. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that someone has empathy because what they see happening is very different from what you see. Empathy, however, is part of us all even though we feel it, have it, and express it (differently).  Read More

Is It Okay To Hurt Other People?

Is it okay to hurt others? No, not to deliberately be mean and to intentionally cause hurt but sometimes it is necessary to bring up a topic or issue that we know may hurt or upset the other person. And because we know that person’s feelings may get hurt, we are reluctant to begin a conversation where that is likely to occur. Read More

How Does Your Voice Sound…to others?

Tone of voice affects all of us, perhaps more so to those of us with greater auditory sensitivity. The auditory component of our communication style is tricky because how we hear our voice is not how others hear it. For one thing, it literally sounds different: We hear the sound internally, through  tissues and bone. We also know how we feel when we express ourselves and the intention behind the words.  Read More

Pause Button

Even though modern brain science has helped us get beyond thinking of ours in mechanical terms, I sometimes refer to our brains as meaning making machines. That’s because it is so automatic when we try to understand, we give some kind of meaning to what we perceive/hear/feel.  But giving meaning without enough information risks getting it wrong and that’s when we need a pause button.  Read More