SATVATOVE INSTITUTE COMMUNITY NEWS

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May 26th 2007 Volume 3, Issue 6

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Dear Reader,

One of my big realisations when I took the Satvatove courses was that I am an empathic person. Empathy is within me, it's not something I need to acquire from outside, and by using the tools taught at Satvatove I can express that Empathy also externally. For me personally, Empathy, when expressed through the Satvatove tools, has become a ticket out of isolation and loneliness, a wonderfully colourful quality that enriches my life immensely. The article in this issue addresses various sides of Empathy, not only as a quality to connect with another person, but also to connect with our self and the extraordinary potential for growth and transformation that lies in the process of Empathy.

This month David and Marie visited Jennifer in the studio of Everydayexperiences.com, a local?????. By clicking the link below you can listen to an inspiring conversation between the three about Life Skills Coaching. We would like to say thank you to Jennifer Thomas for conducting the interview and for......

Sincerely, Annette

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THE DYNAMIC PROCESS OF EMPATHY

Transcription of an Adio Inspiration by David Wolf

Empathy is a quality of the soul. It can be expressed through a vehicule like reflective listening, or through silence. Even potential roadblocks to communication, things like advicing, giving solutions prematurely or critizising, even those types of communication mentioned on the roadblock list, we can also show empathy through them. Now that's not what we're teaching in the seminars. But I'm saying this now to distinguish the principle and the quality from the mechanics and generally speaking, if we're giving advice or orders or psychoanalyzing people, generally speaking, that is not the most effective way to show empathy. But we want to understand that empathy is a way of being, it's a spiritual way of being, it's connection. What empathy does, what we focus on, is how it can be expressed, through open ended questions, reflective listening, immediacy. It addresses a core human need to be understood, that's the essence. We all thrive when we're feeling understood. It's not like "oh I like to be understood", it's like when we're truly understood, when we're truly empathic for someone, or someone's really empathic for me, I get to see myself. It's a powerful process of self-realization, of personal developement, because I get to see myself. It's very active and that's why we use terms as mirroring and active listening. Because it's not like I'm sitting there and I parrot back what you say, the essence is very active, very dynamic. Empathy is a very dynamic process, not only of interpersonal relationship but of intrapersonal growth, of internal growth, because we're holding up the mirror for eachother. Through understanding, I trust myself more to peel off layers of the onion and go deeper. And so for me, I seem to be quiet and shy but I really love to talk, or I seem to be confident but I'm really scared to death inside. In some processes we connect with shadow sides of ourselves. When I say shadowsides, that doesn't' mean dark or evil sides, but it's parts of ourselves that we're keeping covered, parts of ourselves that we're not showing to ourselves or to the world. In that kind of spontaneous process we see what comes out, see what parts of ourselves we tend not to share, we tend not to be vulnerable about, see what comes out. In being empathic with soemone or with ourselves, we shine a light on the shadowsides of ourselves and we come to recognize them, to apreciate them. Soemtimes we shine a light on something we don't feel comfortable with and we can weed it out of our character. So we're shining a light on those shadowsides and in that way we facilitate soul to soul connection, through this priciple of empathy. It's a process of rediscovery. I like to use the quote by Kirkegaard: "A greatest hazard of all, loosing oneself, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all, no other loss can occur so quietly, any other loss, an arm, a leg, a wife, is sure to be noticed." And that indicates how we can get lost to ourselves. So Kirkegaard's point is that we can become lost to ourselves without noticing it and in being empathic with eachother, we rediscover, or we notice what was lost. So I've mentioned that empathy is an active process, it's dynamic, exciting. If we're thinking that we're being empathic and we're bored, there's not much happening, then we're not really being in empathy. Empathy is not about I get to talk about my feelings and I get to wallow in them. It's not about wallowing, it's about active, forward motion, it's a progressive process. It's about recognizing, shining the light on what's there. As part of my dynamic spiritual process, of pulling the weeds in my heart and fully manifesting my being. So there is an important distinction between experiencing what's happening for me and wallowing in pain, depression, bitterness. Fully experiencing means we're conscious, we're fully present what's happening for me, we're sattvic. I'm honest about what's true for me, that's differnet than wallowing to avoid being conscious and present. That's a few things about empathy, also related to the process of connecting with our shadowsides.

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LIFE SKILLS COACHING - AN INTERVIEW AT A LOCAL RADIO STATION

Click on the link to listen to the interview with Marie and David, conducted by Jennifer Thomas at Everydayexperiences.com.

http://everydayexperiences.com/monday5_7_07.mp3

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OPEN FORUM

Below is an exchange of correspondence based on the article My Experience as an Assistant from the previous Satvatove Institute Newsletter.

Dear Didier,

Can you kindly eleborate a little bit further about your experience.

Do I understand you right that inspite of having less time and a lot of stress you could cope with your spirtual programme?

Kamlesh

Dear Kamlesh,

Since you are asking me to elaborate on what I have written in "My experience as an assistant", I am going to do so.

When I was in Glastonbury, I was aware of the different choices that I had in order to be a staff member.

One possibility was to have mainly a good time by enjoying the facilities there, without being concerned by the development of the others and of my inner self (concept of Have-Do-Be, called inertia or ignorance in the Vedic perspective).

Another possibility was to be involved in doing the things that need to be done and to spend the extra time with doing things that were not necessary to do instead of experiencing my inner life (concept of Do-Have-Be called activity or passion in the Vedic perspective).

A third possibility was to work personally on my consciousness by doing my service as an assistant and at the same time by following my spiritual practises (around two hours meditation daily) which is a source of inspiration and happiness for me (concept of Be-Do-Have called enlightenment or goodness in the Vedic perspective).

Personally I am very much interested to understand deeply these different perspectives.

In Glastonbury I selected the 3rd option and in that way I was able to follow my spiritual practises and at the same time to be happily engaged as a staff member.

That experience has helped me to experience the importance of working on my consciousness in order to help myself and others in our lives.

I hope Kamlesh that this letter finds you in a very good health and consciousness.

Didier.

This is a new section in the Satvatove Newsletter. It's a place where we'd like to publish your responses, questions and inspirations derived from articles published in previous newsletters. I'm looking forward to your contribution. Please send your letter to Annette@Satvatove.org.

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May 26th 2007 - Volume 3, Issue 6

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