This is the sixth of 10 weekly reading assignments and kind action recommendations using the book “The Power of Kindness” as inspiration.

Reading: Read the chapter called “Empathy”

As I’ve been encouraging you to do in some way each week, be relaxed and warm when you do your reading. See this reading as an act of kindness for yourself.

Kind Action: Put Yourself in Another Person’s Place

The concept for this kind action is described toward of the end of the chapter when Ferrucci introduces Laura Huxley and her book “You Are Not the Target.” He writes, “After we have had a difficulty with someone important in our life, we relive the episode, identifying with the other.”

That’s the idea for this week, trying to see a conflict or difficult situation from the perspective of the other, someone important to you. In doing this, please take time to write down your reactions and thoughts.

Additionally, and in the spirit of imagining what it would be like to feel what someone else is feeling, consider who you’d like to try being if you weren’t you. Imagine being this person for a day or longer. What are the qualities or circumstances that draw you to this person? What is the first thing you’d do as this person? In contemplating this, does anything surprise you about the experience?