Awareness, Inertia & Anticipation

Out at dinner with my husband recently, I was reminded of the power of communication that takes place in a bustling restaurant kitchen.

"Behind you!"

"On your left!"

"Order up!"

These quick, clear phrases shouted out by kitchen and waitstaff to one another help keep a kitchen running smoothly and at a lightning fast pace. While it probably developed as a necessity to keep dining room atmospheres calm and accident free, at the heart of this form of communication is actually a great deal of awareness and anticipation for our fellow humans. Observing it is like witnessing the power of empathy in action.

Firstly, there is the awareness for self and where one's physical body is moving and it's inertia is heading. Then there is the anticipation of where one could interrupt the path of another and their inertia too. Using our voices to activate the communication of movement, boundaries and potential obstacles to warn others just helps everyone get to their destination a little bit easier and get the job done!

It made me wonder, what if we all started communicating a bit more like this? The world already moves at such a fast pace. If we all excercised a bit more self-awareness in the grocery store, in traffic, while getting our families ready and out the door in the morning ... I wonder how much more smoothly things might run--and the amount of obstacles we could avoid--if we emulated this practice in empathy that restaurant staffs already know so well?

Today, try it out for yourself by activating the following empathic senses and see how your day ends up!