When someone is struggling, you don't have to fix it.                                                     Just be there. 

Before you weigh in, tune in.

During his time as president, Barack Obama suggested the biggest deficit in the world was an empathy deficit. He defined it as the ability to see the world through the eyes of those who are different from us.

But maybe that’s shifted these past two years, as our world has faced a common problem: we’ve lived together through a long and gruelling pandemic. The virus came for all of us. No exception. And while it left its mark on some more than others, it is clearer now that we’re as much the same as we are different. Empathy might, in fact, be the silver lining to all of this: whatever our circumstances, it’s clear that we all need to feel seen and heard.

If empathy doesn’t come easily to you, the good news is that it can be learned and practiced. Empathy can help us know ourselves and our own feelings. It can help us lead, help us communicate and help us support and connect with others. At home. At work and at school.

For Mental Health Week this year – May 2-8, 2022 – #GetReal about how to help. We may be different, but that doesn’t make us rivals. Let’s stop polarizing and start empathizing. Be there for each other when times are hard and be ready to listen. You don’t have to agree to understand, and you don’t have to fix it to help.

#GetReal. Before you weigh in, tune in.

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