People often think about Empathic Communication (EC) as a practice for communicating with other people. It is that, of course. But it is also much more. The processes, EC offers us for connecting with ourselves, are core for integrating EC and for making significant changes in our lives. 

An aim of self-connection is to experience true choice and inner freedom about how we live and what we do. True inner freedom arises from self-connection. Without self-connection, we are mostly acting from old habits, and those habits do not necessarily attend to our needs.

​What is self-connection? For me, it means: I connect with myself. Connecting with myself includes getting caring and curious about what’s going on inside me, 

• inquiring about my feelings and needs (self-empathy), 
• paying attention to the myriad inner voices that cry for my attention (and mediating between them!), 
• working with self-judgments or 
• judgments of others, 
• making requests of myself (and paying attention when I say no!), 
• deepening my capacity for finding inner peace even when my needs are not met,
• and more.

Adapted from late Inbal Kashtan.
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With gratitude and loving memory,
Madhuri Radhika dd