Focusing our attention on the environment, on the expressions and reactions of our fellow human beings. By observing their behavior and trying to understand their perspective. Using our imagination, to be able to guess what the person next to us is experiencing.

Avoiding hasty and biased conclusions.

Reading novels, listening to music, playing music. And creative or cognitive games. Practicing meditation. Learning from children and their basic instincts that are effortlessly expressed.

Giving weight to our social sensitivity and trying to contribute to the fight against inequalities. Actively listening to the people around us and trying to help, even when it seems difficult. This is how we can cultivate our empathy.

Whatever stone you pick up

In any of our interpersonal relationships, empathy will lay the most solid foundation. Because thoughts and feelings will be expressed and the channels of communication will be wide open and clear, with our ego being a part of us.

In our relationship with food, empathy will bring us in touch with our body’s true wants and needs, leaving aside any emotional factors that cloud the landscape.

In our love affairs, empathy offers us the possibility of understanding ourselves as well as our partner and what really gives us pleasure. Even if this contradicts the image that was impressed on us growing up, as an ideal love affair. And so we come one step closer to effective sexual communication and satisfaction.

In short, no matter what stone you pick up, you find empathy underneath. In the simple, in the most complex, in your big moments, but also in the everyday. Where you can imagine and where you can’t imagine.

Bet washing the dishes wasn’t the only thing on your mind

You’re doing something else at home, you forget, you’re thirsty. You go to the kitchen, observe the scene around, blush, mumble a few forbidden words.

Stacks of unwashed dishes, sink full like Santa’s overinflated sack, less spastic glasses, more spastic cutlery and pans. And king of all tapers. You think they have been bribed by the detergent companies not to lather until the bottle of soap is finished and you open the next one.

You forget that you were thirsty or you are forced to forget it because maybe your glass doesn’t fit somewhere over there to fill it with water. If the thirst persists, you reach for the bottled or the bottle you have in the fridge for the summer months. Even if the time has not yet arrived.

You usually despair and leave. If the situation has reached an impasse, ok, you roll up your sleeves with a heavy heart and start. Maybe you don’t do it all, amen this standing. You might even start nagging your partner about having to do it all by yourself.

What if someone told you that washing dishes with empathy is associated with a better quality of life, reduced stress levels and a boost to your immune system?

It’s no bad joke, washing dishes can improve our mental health

Florida State University researchers conducted a study to see if washing dishes can be used as a mindfulness practice to improve one’s emotional state.

So 51 student volunteers were asked to wash dishes. Before doing so, half had read text about the importance of the sensory process of washing dishes. The other half would wash the dishes having, respectively, read a text related simply to the proper way to wash dishes.

Because of the text they had just read before, the first half of the volunteers washed the dishes consciously. That is, they remained focused throughout on what they were doing, in a state of active attention to the present. Not thinking about the rest of the jobs they had already done or the ones they had to do next. Focused on the now, on their breathing, on themselves, on the thoughts and feelings that arose.

Now, in terms of washing dishes, the mindful approach includes noting the scent of the detergent, the feel of the suds, the temperature of the water, the shape, color and weight of the dishes, the movement of water and soap on the dishes, the our hands, in the sink.

So the dishes were washed and the conclusions drawn. In the first group, irritability and tension decreased by 27%, while inspiration and mental functioning increased by 25%. The feeling of affection also increased, while at the same time that of overestimation decreased.

The whole process worked with anxiety, increased good mood and brought a sense of well-being, ultimately benefiting mental health and immunity. That’s it for the first half. In the second half, who made up the control group, there was no benefit at all. They simply washed the dishes procedurally, seeing the process as yet another chore.

And how to remain a psychotherapy and not a psycho-extractor

Good for students, in research under laboratory conditions. But in everyday life, things get complicated. Because time is limited and courage is constantly diminishing. In a home with a family, with other jobs and emergencies and a 24-hour day that never seems to be enough, the splitting of consciousness just happens for fun.

So that the benefits are not lost and to get as much as we can from washing the dishes, we can do a little bit of our hand. Figuratively, before we literally put it down the sink.

A dish soap with lactic acid will help break down stubborn grease and wash away bacteria. A serious sponge will become our friend, sticking to the tough spots without scratching our dishes and without getting our hands out trying.

Having taken care of the dishes to soak, everything will be easier. If the water we will use here is also hot, half the work will already be done. Unless we are talking about dairy and starches, cold water will do wonders here.

Never forget to wear gloves. A soap capable of dissolving the toughest stains, we can all imagine what it does to our skin and nails. Villages that also protect against the changes in water temperature, which do nothing but suffer and dehydrate our hands.

It is now in taste, if we learn how to wash our dishes consciously, to start fighting over who won’t wash the dishes, rather than who will.