Poll: Has your study of aikido made you more empathetic?

AikiWeb Poll for the week of February 6, 2005:

Has your study of aikido made you more empathetic?

• I don't do aikido
• Yes
• No
  

Here are the current results.

How can anyone who has practiced even for a few years know if the change came from AIKIDO or from growing and gaining more experience?


Amir

I believe aikido has made me more empathetic...

Bryce

I think increased empathy comes from Aikido as well as from other continuing life experiences--but my practice of Aikido has definitely made me more aware of my present surroundings, and i think also of the people i associate with. It helps me to deal with empathizing with people more effectively.

I think repeatedly trying to anticipate and feel my partners intent exercises and sharpens my body-language reading skill, an aspect of intuition.

I think intuition is not mysterious at all; I think it's the intellect and analyst of the subconcious mind. Nature gave it to us for a reason.

I feel I do have greater empathy. I also think I'm a much better judge of character. I doubt that without partner drills in class I would feel a connection with people as strong as I do.

--Chuck

I was pretty pathetic to start with.

Aikido is more than just a martial arts it is also a philosophy and one that I try to follow... so I would have to go with yes

Amir Krause wrote: How can anyone who has practiced even for a few years know if the change came from AIKIDO or from growing and gaining more experience? Amir

Good point. Only two ways to compare:
1. compare yourself with other people over the same time period
2. compare the improvement during aikido training to a period prior to aikido training

There are assumptions in both, though we are also assuming that we are more empathetic rather than that we just increase the belief that we are more emphathetic.

Personally I think if you train in aikido (or any martial art) it is difficult not to reflect at some point on the ethics of conflict and different strategies of conflict resolution. Since the accepted 'culture' of aikido suggests less aggressive behaviour and more empathy, I think many people tend down this route rather than the converse (fight first, ask questions later) route.

Ian

I voted "No". I think the people that have interest in aikido are very much empathetic to start with.

I said no. I think it's actually made me less empathetic. I was way too empathetic to begin with.

Wow, there is a word I don't understand.
Never herd it before. Call me slow, but I looked up empathetic in the dictionary and got showing empathy. So I looked up empathy being the next logical thing and got being empathetic.

LOL

So I don't know if I can answer this one.

Here's the Dictionary.com definition of "empathetic" - showing empathy or ready comprehension of others' states...There you go Andrew ...

Bryce

While in that case, I would say I believe I have always been empathetic to some extent, but Aikido defently had to help me be very empathetic now. I feel that I care alot more about others then I ever did before joining. As for telling if it has helped me or if it is from just living over time I can't say for sure. However I would say if it wasent for Aikido I would i'd most likely be dead by now anyways, and in that case I wouldent be showing any improved empathey.

I didn't vote because this seems to be asking for a rather simplistic answer to a complex question. It's rarely a simple "yes" or "no."