Summary

Empathy and mental wellbeing go hand-in-hand. Having empathy allows human beings to live together. Human evolution may have been very different if we did not develop the ability to empathize. Empathy contributes to our mental wellbeing. Calling a place our home is not a given for everyone in the USA. Imagine what it would be like to be homeless. Learn to become empathetic towards people who are homeless. Any of us could be homeless and there are many factors which could make us homeless. Participate in your community to make your community a place which provides services to people who are homeless in an empathetic way.

Cultivating Empathy for Mental Wellbeing

Empathy affects our mental health positively and possibly negatively.

Let’s explore empathy’s impact on mental wellbeing and how cultivating empathy may contribute to mental wellbeing.

Empathy Defined

Empathy is the ability to sense emotionally and cognitively how other people are experiencing their lives. Emotional empathy relates to experiencing the feelings of others. Emotional empathy applies to positive and negative emotions. Cognitive empathy allows a person to understand the perspective of another person in a given situation without feeling their emotions.

Research demonstrates that empathy can be taught.

Why This Matters

Human beings have evolved as a result of our ability to empathize with others. Without empathy, our evolution may have been based on survival of the fittest. Consider what we would be like without empathy.

Our ability to assume the perspectives of other people, of fellow mammals, of our animal companions, and of the rest of our world, fosters our sense of interconnectedness. Recall the benefits of social connectedness for mental wellbeing. Interconnectedness with nature has also been associated with mental wellbeing. As we navigate the ship in life, we encounter many people, many animals, and many life forms. Were we unable to assume the perspective of others or to share their feelings, our ship would collide with their ships, leaving wreckage at the end of each encounter.

The capacity to empathize is necessary for our individual mental wellbeing and for the mental wellbeing of towns, cities, states, provinces, nations, countries, continents, international unions, our world, and the universe.

Mental Wellbeing at Home

Shelter is a top priority for many of us. Nursing 101: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Physiological needs constitute basic needs for us.

Where do you call home?

Why did you decide to establish yourself in this home?

How do you feel at home?

What elements of this place make it a home?

When did you realize this home is yours?

Would you agree that having a home, whether it be a rented room, an apartment, a condo, or a house, contributes to your mental wellbeing?

And, what if you did not have a choice about having a home? Perhaps, mental health issues prevent you from making sound choices. Maybe you don’t have the finances to afford housing. Consider not being able to work because you are disorganized in your mind. Contemplate how a person running from war, abuse, a stalker, organized crime, climate disasters, and a sordid number of situations out of their control can possibly focus on finding work, securing housing, paying bills, and managing a family.

Homelessness and Mental Wellbeing

According to the Point-in-Time count held in 2022, 582 462 persons in the USA were homeless, which translates to 18 persons for every 10 000 people. Homelessness does not discriminate based on religion, gender, sexual orientation, skin colour, or other personal characteristics. Of course, there are certain segments of the population at greater risk for homelessness. But, people of all backgrounds can become homeless.

Home is not a given for many people, even in the USA. Across the world, homelessness is on the rise. Gentrification of neighbourhoods generates an underclass unable to obtain safe, affordable, and sanitary housing. Inequities in reimbursement for working a full-time job and lack of living wages create economic disparities and a virtual class system in the USA.

Homelessness results from a confluence of factors, the proverbial ‘perfect storm’. The storm causing you to be homeless may be different than the storm leading your friend to be homeless. Your homelessness is the only thing that will matter to you when you are one of unfortunate persons living in homelessness, correct?

So, throw negative critiques of another person experiencing homelessness out the window.

Empathy for Mental Wellbeing for Yourself and for Those Experiencing Homelessness

Imagine being homeless. Imagine how you feel being homeless. Imagine the day-to-day reality of being homeless.

Taking on the perspective of someone who is homeless dissolves the distance between ‘them’ and ‘us’. Perceiving the circumstances of the individual living in homelessness dissipates the tendency to stereotype ‘them’. Appreciating the contributing variables to the storm before a person’s homelessness deters the adoption of blaming the victim approach to homelessness.

That is empathy in action. Empathy makes us human. Empathy draws us together. Social connectedness and empathy will add to your mental wellbeing and to the mental wellbeing of your community.

Call to Action: Cultivating Empathy for Mental Wellbeing

Learn about homelessness in your community.

Attend municipal meetings to discover what the elected officials are doing to address homelessness.

Contribute to local organizations offering services to persons experiencing homelessness.

Join a Board of Directors or run for office to co-create caring, empathetic, and practical policies to resolve the social barriers which leave our family members, our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues, our fellow human beings in the undeserving situation of being homeless.

Begin a loving-kindness meditation practice, a contemplation of compassion and self-compassion, a gratitude exercise, an apostolate working with persons experiencing homelessness, a community activity to work towards peace and understanding, or a social justice activity consistent with your faith and lifestyle to generate benefits for our less fortunate brothers and sisters.

That’s what I call cultivating empathy for mental wellbeing.

Final Note on Cultivating Empathy for Mental Wellbeing

Envision the world from the perspective of someone searching to find a place to call home.

Ramin Karimloo performs a wrenching cover version of “Cathedrals” by Jump, Little Children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_OSuqVPvEc

Consider how the Supreme Court’s decision on the court case before them, City of Grants Pass, Oregon v. Johnson, will affect the lives of everyone. The outcome could reinforce the class system already in existence in the USA, if some people (‘they’) are not legally allowed to sleep on park benches while other people (‘us’) are permitted to take a nap on a park bench.

Let’s make certain that some people do not spend a lifetime looking for home.

Be safe. Be happy. Be empathetic. And, let’s make this world better for all of us.

Resources:

Supreme Court Preview: City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. Rachel Reed. April 22, 2024. Harvard Law Today. https://hls.harvard.edu/today/supreme-court-preview-city-of-grants-pass-v-johnson/

State of Homelessness: 2023 Edition. National Alliance to End Homelessness. Trudy Meehan and Jolanta Burke. March 14, 2022. https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/#key-facts

Homelessness case before US supreme court could have far-reaching effects https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/22/homelessness-us-supreme-court-case

An excess of empathy can be bad for your mental health. https://theconversation.com/an-excess-of-empathy-can-be-bad-for-your-mental-health-178677

The Science of Empathy. Helen Riess MD. (2017 Jun). J Patient Exp. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5513638/