Hello everyone, it’s John Chiko. So today I will be starting a series called Emotions For Our Future, which will be focused on the emotions I believe will help humanity solve its many problems and build a better future for us all. The first emotion I want to talk about is empathy, which I believe is the catalyst to showing care to those who are in pain and discomfort. Empathy is the ability to understand and share someone else’s feelings and experiences. This, to be more specific, empathy  is achieved by imagining what that person is going through and putting yourself in their shoes, or rather understanding  their emotions and experiences from their perspective.

I believe that this ability is essential to communicate effectively with everyone that we interact with in our lives. It is essential to communicate with anyone that is not us, anyone that is not living the same life as we are, someone on a different path for one reason or another. It is usually those that have felt pain that are most open to helping those that are feeling it, because they understand. People are less likely to act or acknowledge anything that they are dissociated from. It’s most likely someone that has experienced homelessness that will take action to help and prevent homelessness for those that are experiencing it, because they understand the loneliness, the isolation and the darkness that can swallow you at your most vulnerable time.

If more people were empathetic, then they would most likely act against most of the injustices that they see take place in front of their eyes, in their own communities. People are not in bad places because they are bad people, no. It’s because people are in pain. Understanding this collectively, would allow us to find the root causes of the problems we are facing and treating them, with the aid of people who truly want to fix these problems. If empathy itself could speak, then it would have two phrases, “I understand” and “I will help”. But what I do understand is that empathy is a very powerful draining emotion, it is not for the faint-hearted.

I believe that to tackle homelessness across the UK, we must find skilled people that have empathy based on their work and personal experience. Doing so would allow us to create collectives and networks that will allow us to find solutions to homelessness by putting our knowledge, experience, and resources together to create practical solution to homelessness with the areas that we live and operate in. It is a tall order, but in all honesty, it is the most practical solutions, because really and truly these are our problems at the end of the day. Most organisations are solely focused on profit without any of the corporate social responsibility.

But that is my first of emotion for our future, Empathy. I understand, I will help.