Imagination?

Yes. How could you possibly "imagine yourself in someone's shoes" if you don't have an imagination? It is the general consensus that it is important to nurture our children's creativity and this explains why... so they can develop empathy.

How can you cultivate your imagination? Easy. If you turn on the news and listen to the stories of the things that have happened to people you can start cultivating your imagination. Those are real people who have feelings and emotions. Listen to the stories and start thinking about how you would feel if that happened to you or how you would feel if that happened to your parent, your child, or your friend. Would you be frightened? Would you be sad? Would you be jubilant?

If we never develop this emotional connection with people we will always feel like there is something missing in our lives. Our lives will remain unfulfilled and and we may even start feeling desperately lonely. This emotional connection is the "zing" in life. It is what makes life worth living.

Let's just stop and think about what is really important. Having good healthy relationships is important and the more you are able to imagine, listen, be sensitive, honest and appreciative of the people in your life, the better your life will be.

For instance, there are so many people who are striving to be rich and famous. (I should know I lived in Los Angeles and the majority just want to know, "what do you do for a living and what can you do for me?")

But, I don't think being rich and famous is really all it's cracked up to be. If most are using people to get to the top, imagine the lives of the people at the top. How would you be able to trust people? You would always be questioning their motives. Do they really care about me? Or, are they just pretending to care? I think it would be a very difficult life. Motives would always be in question.

Additionally, think about how we converse. When a person tells a story, rather than being fully present and listening to them and thinking about what they actually had gone through, our "wheels start turning." We start searching our memory banks for a similar story in order to "one up" them. This is verging on empathy but it really isn't being truly empathetic, it's just plain competitive.

Of course it is healthy to exchange stories but before barreling ahead to your story take some time to think about and emotionally connect to the originally story being told.

If our imaginations had been more nurtured I think many of us would have made better choices in life. We tend to barrel along in life putting one foot in front of the other without stopping to think where we are going and who we are affecting. Life is not a competition. Perhaps where we are so anxiously wanting to be is really not where we want to be at all.