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Resonance

I've just returned to my office from a singing rehearsal in Elon University's Whitley Auditorium. The acoustics in there are quite lovely. Soft notes resonate with strength and duration.

I think a good deal about resonance as I interact with other people. I find that I tend to fall into mimicry quickly and without intent, feeding back good humor to someone speaking with pleasure, pain and stress to someone speaking from a low point. I work hard against the latter; empathizing with someone in pain is important but making them feel worse is not a good thing.

I've looked around at the people I've been around long-term and I've identified some as being particularly good at resonating joy. I try, fail, and try again at that. I also see many stress resonators, people who make crises more difficult by diverting time and energy away from solving time-critical problems to reiterating them over and over. I try not to do that. With the degradation of our political discourse over the last years I see many many anger resonators. Professionally angry people abound, their careers based on never listening to both sides of a discourse, their audiences and financial support contingent upon their ability to generate more anger. 

What do you resonate?

Comments

  1. Laura ClarkOctober 11, 2021 at 9:42 PM

    Being able to enter into the other person's emotion is good empathy. But you are right, move the pain with kindness and empathy but not amplifying the stress.

    ReplyDelete

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