Our ability to offer empathy can allow us to stay vulnerable, defuse potential violence, help us hear the word 'no' without taking it as a rejection, revive lifeless conversation, and even hear the feelings and needs expressed through silence.

The best way I can get understanding from another person is to give this person the understanding, too. If I want them to hear my needs and feelings, I first need to empathize.

I don't think you can have an authentic connection when one person is diagnosing the other.

Every moment each human being is doing the best we know at that moment to meet our needs. We never do anything that is not in the service of a need, there is no conflict on our planet at the level of needs. We all have the same needs. The problem is in strategies for meeting the needs.

What bores the listener bores the speaker too.

Our survival as a species depends on our ability to recognize that our well-being and the well-being of others are in fact one and the same.

Depression is the reward we get for being 'good'.