In Someone’s Shoes

Can we step back and instead of walking a mile in someone shoes walk that mile in awareness and in our own shoes?

I did a workshop on this statement the other day. Some people were confused and many seemed to get it right away. The idea is we need to be aware of our own reference frame before we can even begin to have the experience of another’s.

Even then, as helpful as self awareness is, we cannot “know” someones experience. We can only build a connection to the other person’s experience.

Someone brought up their experience of spending a night on the street in New York, pretending to be homeless. I applaud them for reaching towards the experiential, but it also rocks my brain when someone, somehow, thinks that they had an experience that bonded them somehow with a way of life. That’s a little like spending the night in a psychiatric facility or prison and thinking you know what it’s like to live there. Not even close.

So simply put, if you want to help you don’t need to have the experience, you can simply “Do unto others as you would have done unto you and don’t expect anything in return.” You see how that ties into knowing your own needs and desires? You can go ahead and have all the experiences you want, just make sure you know who is having the experience.

Give to others in need.

Period.

If you need to somehow get ready to do that then you really need to walk a mile in your shoes.

Be well, be compassionate.

Bryan