Positive News

Published March 9, 2024

Affordable housing is critical for many individuals and families. Yet, finding low-income housing without a lengthy waiting list can often feel overwhelming.

In this article, we’ll explore the importance of accessing immediate housing solutions. We will share some practical steps and resources for locating low-income housing options without a waiting list.

Importance of Finding Low-Income Housing Without a Waiting List

The significance of securing low-income housing without a waiting list cannot be overstated. Finding immediate accommodation can provide stability and security for people facing housing instability. It can be a crucial foundation from which to build a better future.

Individuals can focus on other aspects of their lives by eliminating the uncertainty and stress of waiting lists.

How to Find Low-Income Housing with No Waiting List

1. Research Local Housing Authorities

Start by researching local housing authorities in your area. These organizations often manage low-income housing units. They can provide valuable information on available properties without long wait times. Contact them directly to inquire about any immediate housing options.

2. Nonprofit Organizations and Charities

Nonprofit organizations and charities in your community may operate housing programs specifically designed to assist individuals needing immediate housing. These programs often prioritize placing individuals in available units without the delay of a waiting list.

3. Community Development Corporations (CDCs)

Community Development Corporations (CDCs) are nonprofit organizations that focus on revitalizing and developing low-income communities. Many CDCs offer affordable housing opportunities without long waiting lists. This makes them a valuable resource for those searching for immediate housing solutions.

4. Transitional Housing Programs

Transitional housing programs are designed to provide temporary housing for individuals in crisis. While not a permanent solution, these programs can offer immediate housing assistance while you search for more permanent low-income housing options.

5. Online Resources

Utilize online resources such as websites dedicated to affordable housing listings. Some platforms specialize in connecting individuals with low-income housing options that do not have waiting lists. Be sure to explore these resources to expand your search and increase your chances of finding suitable housing without delay.

Charities and Government Programs Who Can Assist You

National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)

The NLIHC is dedicated to achieving socially just public policy that ensures people with the lowest incomes in the United States have affordable and decent housing. Their work focuses on advocating for policies that support affordable housing within healthy neighborhoods.

Catholic Charities USA

Catholic Charities USA provides emergency shelter and long-term assistance to vulnerable individuals, especially those facing housing challenges. They are committed to supporting affordable housing policies and addressing the immediate housing needs of the most at-risk populations.

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity is renowned for helping families build and improve places to call home. Their focus on affordable housing is crucial in addressing housing challenges faced by low-income families nationwide.

US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Through its public housing, rental subsidy, and voucher programs, HUD helps provide decent, safe, and affordable housing to millions of low-income families. Their initiatives aim to ensure housing affordability and accessibility for those in need.

United Way

United Way offers community resources for housing assistance, including emergency aid grants provided by various partner organizations to help individuals pay their rent. This collaborative effort addresses immediate housing needs within local communities.

Florida Housing Finance Corporation

The Florida Housing Finance Corporation is dedicated to increasing affordable housing options for low-income families in the state. They offer various programs and initiatives to support affordable housing development and homeownership opportunities.

The Salvation Army – Florida Division

The Salvation Army’s Florida Division provides housing assistance to needy individuals and families. They offer shelter services, rental assistance, and support programs to address the housing challenges faced by low-income individuals in Florida.

Housing Opportunities Project for Excellence (HOPE)

HOPE assists low-income individuals and families in Florida by providing housing counseling, rental assistance, and support services to promote affordable and stable housing solutions.

Published February 15, 2024

Feeling inspired and motivated can set the tone for a positive and productive day. There’s something magical about starting your morning with uplifting words that resonate deep within.

Whether you’re seeking a boost of encouragement, a gentle reminder to stay hopeful, or simply a dose of optimism to brighten your day, these stay positive quotes infuse your mornings with a sense of possibility and joy. 

100+ Stay Positive Quotes

Positivity Quotes for Work

1. Don’t complain but compliment. Don’t compete but empower. – Debasish Mridha
2. Optimism is a happiness magnet. If you stay positive, good things and good people will be drawn to you. – Mary Lou Retton
3. If you are positive, you’ll see opportunities instead of obstacles. – Widad Akrawi
4. An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of superior personality. – Brian Tracy
5. No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. – Robin Williams
6. Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. – Tony Robbins
7. Words can inspire, thoughts can provoke, but only action truly brings you closer to your dreams. – Brad Sugars
8. Successful people maintain a positive focus in life no matter what is going on around them. They stay focused on their past successes rather than their past failures, and on the next action steps they need to take them closer to the fulfilment of their goals rather than all the other distractions that life presents to them. – Jack Canfield
9. Successful people are not gifted; they just work hard, then succeed on purpose. – G.K. Nelson
10. Even if I don’t reach all my goals, I’ve gone higher than I would have if I hadn’t set any. – Danielle Fotopoulis
11. I truly believe in positive synergy, that your positive mind set gives you a more hopeful outlook, and belief that you can do something great means you will do something great. – Russell Wilson
12. The real test is not whether you avoid failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere. – Barack Obama
13. Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success. – Shiv Khera
14. Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best. – Theodore Isaac Rubin
15. If you have a positive attitude and constantly strive to give your best effort, eventually you will overcome your immediate problems and find you are ready for greater challenges. – Pat Riley
16. Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. – Robert F. Kennedy
17. While you’re going through this process of trying to find the satisfaction in your work, pretend you feel satisfied. Tell yourself you had a good day. Walk through the corridors with a smile rather than a scowl. Your positive energy will radiate. If you act like you’re having fun, you’ll find you are having fun. – Jean Chatzky
18. When you fail, that is when you get closer to success. – Stephen Richards
19. Work hard for what you want because it won’t come to you without a fight. You have to be strong and courageous and know that you can do anything you put your mind to. If somebody puts you down or criticizes you, just keep on believing in yourself and turn it into something positive.” – Lea Labelle
20. Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event. – Brian Tracy
21. When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It’s very simple. – Paulo Coelho
22. Don’t be afraid of hard work. Nothing worthwhile comes easily. Don’t let others discourage you or tell you that you can’t do it. – Gertrude B. Elion
23. A positive atmosphere nurtures a positive attitude, which is required to take positive action. – Richard M. Devos
24. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success. – Joyce Brothers

Positivity Quotes About Life

1. You cannot change reality, but you can control the manner in which you look at things. Your attitude is under your own control. Weed out the negative and focus on the positive! – Helen Steiner Rice
2. The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible. – Winston Churchill
3. Good things happen in your life when you surround yourself with positive people. – Roy T. Benett
4. There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly. – Buckminster Fuller
5. You do not find the happy life. You make it. – Thomas S. Monson
6. We may not have hit the peak yet, but we are on the journey up. – Brian Nhira
7. Tough times never last but tough people do. – Robert Schuller
8. All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney
9. The joy of life is becoming a person you are proud of. – Bill Orender
10. Just for the record darling, not all positive change feels positive in the beginning. – S. C. Lourie
11. Sometimes, when things are falling apart, they may actually be falling into place. – Mark Alan Williams
12. If you can stay positive in a negative situation, you win. – Anonymous
13. Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. – Zig Ziglar
14. Stay positive and happy. Work hard and don’t give up. Be open to criticism and keep learning. Surround yourself with happy, warm and genuine people. – Tena Desae
15. Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look. – Jodi Picoul
16. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan
17. Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something is not your liking, change your liking. – Rick Steves
18. Inspiration comes from within yourself. One has to be positive. When you’re positive, good things happen. – Deep Roy
19. To live a fulfilled life, we need to keep creating the ‘what is next’, of our lives. Without dreams and goals there is no living, only merely existing, and that is not why we are here. – Mark Twain
20. The moment where you doubt you can fly, you cease for ever being able to do it. – JM Barrie (Peter Pan)
21. Look at the sparrows; they do not know what they will do in the next moment. Let us literally live from moment to moment. – Mahatma Gandhi
22. The less you respond to negative people, the more positive your life will become. – Paulo Coelho
23. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. – Marcus Aurelius
24. Don’t forget to tell yourself positive things daily! You must love yourself internally to grow externally. – Hannah Bronfman
25. You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. – Mae West
26. Staying positive does not mean everything will turn out okay. Rather, it means you will be okay no matter how things turn out. – Unknown
27. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. – William James
28. The world doesn’t always give you what you want, but it often gives you what you need. – Naval Ravikant
29. Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. – Maria Robinson
30. It doesn’t matter what cards you’re dealt. It’s what you do with those cards. Never complain. Just keep pushing forward. Find a positive in anything and just fight for it – Baker Mayfield
31. Life is tough, and things don’t always work out well, but we should be brave and go on with our lives. – Suga
32. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. – Henry Ford
33. The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. – Oprah Winfrey
34. If you see the world and yourself through a lens smudged by negativity, then you’ll find much misery. If you look outwards and inwards through lens brightened by positivity you’ll find much to be happy and appreciative about. – Henrik Edberg
35. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained. – Marie Curie

Spread Positivity Quotes

1. Wherever you go, no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine. – Anthony J. D’Angelo
2. My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful, and optimistic. And we’ll change the world. – Jack Layton
3. Whoever is happy will make others happy too. – Anne Frank
4. Say something positive, and you’ll see something positive. – Jim Thompson
5. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. – Maya Angelou
6. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. – Buddha
7. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. – John F. Kennedy
8. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Aesop
9. A positive attitude causes a chain of reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results. – Wade Boggs

Morning Positivity Quotes

1. Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you. – Walt Whitman
2. Each day provides its own gifts. – Marcus Aurelius
3. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. – Theodore Roosevelt
4. The most wasted of days is one without laughter. – E.E. Cummings
5. Today is a good day to try. – Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame
6. Make a determination that you will live your purpose today. – Daniel Budzinski
7. Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life. – Omar Khyyam
8. Stay positive. Better days are on their way. – Unknown.
9. What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
10. When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome. – Wilma Rudolph
11. Recognize what you have inside you. – Eric Pullier
12. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. – Lao Tzu
13. Whatever is worrying you right now – forget about it. Take a deep breath, stay positive and know things will get better. – Unknown
14. You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way. – Dr. Seuss
15. Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart. – Roy T. Bennett
16. Every day may not be good… but there’s something good in every day. – Alice Morse Earle
17. Believe deep down in your heart that you’re destined to do great things. – Joe Paterno
18. The sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers strength and courage as the day gets on. – Charles Dickens
19. Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment. – Stephen Covey
20. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson
21. Work hard, stay positive, and get up early. It’s the best part of the day. – George Allen, Sr.
22. Write it in your heart that every day is the best day in the year. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Published December 12, 2023

Have you ever had someone tell you about something that riled them up, and you said to them that it’s too trivial to be angry about?

My friends, that is a classic example of invalidating someone’s feelings. Admit it or not, many of us have done this to someone at least once. This is precisely why we must learn how to validate someone’s feelings.

How would you feel if we were to reverse the situation and you were the one getting told that your anger is unreasonable? Not very nice, right? That’s precisely how the other person felt when you invalidated their feelings.

Contrary to popular belief, validating other people’s feelings doesn’t necessarily mean agreeing that their emotional response is appropriate. Instead, it’s about showing that you understand their feelings and that feeling that way is perfectly alright.

If you don’t know where to start, here’s our quick guide on validating someone’s feelings.

Importance of Emotional Validation

In a world where emotions are often brushed aside or invalidated, the significance of emotional validation cannot be overstated. Emotional validation encompasses genuinely listening to and comprehending someone’s feelings, thereby acknowledging their experiences and assuring them that their emotions hold value and importance. This seemingly simple gesture of validation can profoundly impact an individual’s well-being and sense of self-worth.

When we take the time to validate someone’s emotions, we create a safe space for them to express themselves authentically. This fosters a deep connection and understanding within relationships, demonstrating our genuine interest in their experiences and emotions. It shows that we are willing to empathize with and support them, promoting a greater sense of trust and strengthening our bond.

Moreover, emotional validation empowers individuals to manage their own emotions better. By validating someone’s feelings, we help them develop a healthier relationship with their emotional experiences. They no longer need to suppress or dismiss their feelings out of fear or shame. Instead, they learn to embrace their emotions as a natural part of their human experience. This acceptance allows for personal growth and self-compassion, as individuals can learn to accept themselves without judgment or resorting to self-blame.

How to Validate Other People’s Feelings                 

Validating other people’s emotions isn’t an easy task. That’s why we’ve outlined some steps to serve as your guide:

1. Listen With an Open Mind.

Listening without judging is easier said than done. Most of us are raised with prejudices, which usually rear our ugly heads when we hear others discuss something we disagree with.

That’s why the first step to validating someone’s feelings is to listen with an open mind. Keep in mind that everyone’s experiences aren’t the same. That’s why we have different reactions to similar circumstances.

So, to validate someone’s feelings, start by listening without prejudice. Focus on what they say instead of judging them for feeling that way. 

2. Don’t Interrupt When They’re Talking

Interrupting someone when they’re talking is not only rude but also one of the worst ways to invalidate someone’s feelings. You’re telling the other person what they’re saying isn’t unimportant.

As a result, that person will feel like their feelings don’t matter or that they are just overreacting. They’ll feel guilty and ashamed because they think it’s wrong to feel that way. The next time they feel that way again, those feelings of guilt and shame will resurface, slowly chipping away at their confidence.

So the next time someone pours their heart out to you, just listen. You may nod at certain times to show them that you’re listening. But never cut them mid-sentence. That’s the best thing you can do for them.

3. Show That You Care

One of the best ways to tell someone their feelings are valid is by showing that you care. You don’t need grand gestures. Just holding their hand or a simple tap on the shoulder is a massive encouragement for someone struggling. It lets them know that someone understands and it’s perfectly alright to feel that way. 

4. Match Their Mood and Energy Level

When a friend tells you some great news, and they can’t contain their excitement, you need to match their mood and energy level. Don’t be a Debbie Downer. What would you feel if you were in their shoes and the other person didn’t share your enthusiasm? It’s a total bummer, right?

Besides, sharing their enthusiasm is another way of showing that you care for them. It lets them know that you’re happy for them. They won’t have to feel guilty for feeling so happy while you’re not.

5. Ask Questions

Asking questions is one of the best ways to show that you’re listening and interested in what they say. It doesn’t necessarily mean interrupting them while they’re talking. You can ask questions after they’re done pouring their heart out.

Questions like “How long have you been dealing with this?” or “Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” are a great start. However, steer clear of intrusive questions, especially if you’re not that close. It can make people feel like they’re being interrogated and may only cause them to retreat to their shells.

6. Acknowledge the Source of the Emotion

We all have different life experiences. As such, we react differently to similar situations. Leftover foods being casually thrown away might not be a big deal to someone who has never experienced hunger growing up. But it can be a source of irritation for someone who grew up having to worry about their next meal constantly.

You may not always understand why people get so emotional over things you consider too trivial. You need to remember this when listening to someone talk about their feelings. You need to acknowledge the source of their emotions instead of judging them right from the get-go.

7. Avoid Giving Advice

This is the last thing you’d want to do. Not everyone who confides in you is looking for advice. Most of the time, they just need someone to vent to – someone willing to listen and understand. 

Even if you think you have some solid advice, remember that your priority is to listen. You might mean well, but giving them a piece of your mind may only make the situation about you instead of them. So it’s better to avoid giving advice altogether.

8. Express Empathy

Show empathy by putting yourself in their shoes and understanding their perspective. Use phrases like “I can imagine that must be difficult” or “I understand why you would feel that way.”

9. Reflect Their Feelings

Mirror their emotions back to them to let them know that you acknowledge and understand what they are experiencing. For example, saying, “It sounds like you’re feeling frustrated” or “I can sense that this situation is making you anxious.”

10. Validate Their Experience

Recognize their valid and legitimate feelings, regardless of whether you would feel the same way. Avoid minimizing or dismissing their emotions by saying things like “I can understand why that would be upsetting” or “Your feelings are completely valid.”

11. Offer Support

Let them know you are there for them and willing to support them. Ask if there’s anything you can do to help or simply offer a listening ear. Knowing someone is there to keep them can make a big difference.

12. Avoid Judgment

Refrain from judging or criticizing their feelings. Everyone experiences emotions differently, and respecting and accepting their unique perspective is essential.

Published Sept. 26, 2023

Empathy is probably one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. Many of us seem to think that it’s about sympathizing with others or having compassion for them. But empathy is so much more than that.

In a strict sense, empathy is about seeing things through other people’s eyes, walking in their shoes, and feeling what they feel. It’s the connection that stems from the shared experiences that brings us together as human beings.

What is Empathy?

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It means putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and feeling what they might be feeling.

It involves being kind, caring, and supportive towards others, even if you haven’t experienced the same situation. Empathy helps us connect with people, show compassion, and build meaningful relationships.

Why is empathy important?

You see, life is like a prism. We may be looking at the same prism but each of us only sees a few sides of the entire structure. What you’re seeing right now is different from what others see. You may perceive the prism as beautiful because you only get to see the good side of it. But for those people who are facing the uglier side, the view can be bleak.

This is what makes empathy important. It allows us to view life from a different angle. Seeing things from their perspective helps us understand people better. We begin to understand where they’re coming from as well as their motivations and aspirations. From that comes sympathy, compassion, and selflessness. We become more aware of other people’s sufferings rather than focusing on our own.

Here are 100+ inspiring empathy quotes that will show you what it really means to empathize:

Empathy Quotes for Adults

1. One of the most important aspects of being a human being, is being able to be in a relationship. Being able to successfully form and maintain a relationship. And at the heart of that capability is the capacity to put yourself in somebody else’s shoes, to see the world as how they see it. That capacity is empathy. – Bruce Perry
2. This capacity for empathy leads to a genuine encounter – we have to progress toward this culture of encounter – in which heart speaks to heart. – Pope Francis
3. The state of empathy, or being empathic, is to perceive the internal frame of reference of another with accuracy and with the emotional components and meanings which pertain thereto as if one were the person. – Carl Roger
4. Empathy is forgetting oneself in the joys and sorrows of another, so much so that you actually feel that the joy or sorrow experienced by another is your own joy and sorrow. Empathy involves complete identification with another.  – Dada Vaswani
5. If you find yourself saying ‘But I’m just being honest’, chances are you’ve just been unkind. Honesty doesn’t heal. Empathy does. – Dan Waldschmidt
6. All men are born firstly with the instinct to protect themselves. But few grow to really love themselves, and even fewer learn to love their neighbor as themselves. – Criss Jami
7. If you look into someone’s face long enough, eventually you’re going to feel that you’re looking at yourself. – Paul Auster
8. An exchange of empathy provides an entry point for a lot of people to see what healing feels like. – Tarana Burke
9. Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eye for an instant? – Henry David Thoreau
10. Empathy comes from the Greek empatheia – em (into) and pathos (feeling) – a penetration, a kind of travel. It suggests you enter another person’s pain as you’d enter another country, through immigration and customs, border crossing by way of query: What grows where you are? What are the laws? What animals graze there? – Leslie Jamison
11. The greatest cruelty is our casual blindness to the despair of others. – Anonymous
12. Empathy is the greatest virtue. From it, all virtues flow. Without it, all virtues are an act. – Eric Zorn
13. I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person. – Walt Whitman
14. Empathy speaks to us in those silent moments, away from our wounded ego and our wondering heart, in those empty spaces where questions run riot like lost and rejected soldiers… it tells us that each soul is worthy, valued, loved, and honored and we only ever need to face our own shadows, our own pain… and to be our own mirror. – Christine Evangelou
15. All I ever wanted was to reach out and touch another human being not just with my hands but with my heart. – Tahereh Mafi
16. Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart’s revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are. – Jonathan Franzen
17. We need to teach our children empathy and care and love and communication and social responsibility in preparation for adulthood. – Maya Soetoro-Ng
18. When good people consider you the bad guy, you develop a heart to help the bad ones. You actually understand them. – Criss Jami
19. If bullies actually believe that somebody loves them and believes in them, they will love themselves, they will become better people, and many will even become saviors to the bullied. – Dan Pearce
20. Practicing kindness increases our ability to be empathetic. It helps keep our hearts open. And that, truly, is the best way to live. – Kristi Bowman
21. The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other. – Meryl Streep
22. Empathy begins with understanding life from another person’s perspective. Nobody has an objective experience of reality. It’s all through our own individual prisms. – Sterling K. Brown
23. Yet, taught by time, my heart has learned to glow for other’s good, and melt at other’s woe. – Homer
24. Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. – Leo Buscaglia
25. Have compassion and empathy in your heart. Many people are suffering deep emotional anguish beneath the surface of their lives, and smile even as they hurt inside. – Jim Palmer
26. If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. – Frederick Buechner
27. Empathy means both understanding others on their own terms and bringing them within the orbit of one’s own experience. – Jacob A. Belzen
28. To embrace suffering culminates in greater empathy, the capacity to feel what it is like for the other to suffer, which is the ground for unsentimental compassion and love. – Stephen Bachelor
29. If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void. – Karen Armstrong
30. Judge tenderly, if you must. There is usually a side you have not heard, a story you know nothing about, and a battle waged that you do not have to fight. – Traci Lea Larussa
31. The only time you look in your neighbor’s bowl is to make sure that they have enough. You don’t look in your neighbor’s bowl to see if you have as much as them. – Louis C.K.
32. The real test of love is loving those who we feel are the hardest ones to love. – Criss Jami
33. Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It’s the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else’s pain is as meaningful as your own. – Barbara Kingsolver
34. Empathy is one of humankind’s prized possessions. Acts of consideration and kindness are inevitable when a person can mentally step into someone else’s shoes. Even if it’s just for a moment. – Izey Victoria Odiaze
35. Whether it is rational or empirical, your approach to life must always be empathetic. Emotional intelligence is acquired when knowledge and empathy are combined and applied to situations regularly in everyday life. – Stewart Stafford
36. When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. – Henri Nouwen
37. It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being. – John Joseph Powell
38. The seeds of care and empathy are built into every human being and a variety of soils and fertilizers will allow those same seeds to grow and flourish. – Gudjon Bergman
39. Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? – Marcus Aurelius
40. When we focus on ourselves, our world contracts as our problems and preoccupations loom large. But when we focus on others, our world expands. Our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection – or compassionate action. – Daniel Goleman
41. I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. – Maya Angelou
42. Anyone who has experienced a certain amount of loss in their life has empathy for those who have experienced loss. – Anderson Cooper
43. There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world. – Mary Anne Radmacher
44. If we can get man to the moon, we can get man to walk in each other’s shoes. – Mary Gordon
45. Experiencing terrible pain opens our hearts and minds to express compassion for other people and communion with ourselves. – Kilroy J. Oldster

Empathy Quotes for Kids

1. You should not judge; you should understand. – Ernest Hemingway
2. If you judge people, you have no time to love them. – Mother Teresa
3. Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up. – Jesse Jackson
4. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. – Plato
5. You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself. – John Steinbeck
6. Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you. – Susan Sarandon
8. One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone. – Shannon L. Alder
9. Empathy is a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing. – Marshall B. Rosenberg
10. The little things you do can be very significant to others. – Wayne Gerard Trotman
11. Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life. – Jackie Chan
12.  Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another. – Alfred Adler
13.  Empathy grows as we learn. –  Alice Miller
14.  If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from his angle as well as your own. – Henry Ford
15.  Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. – Albert Einstein

Quotes About Empathy at Work

1. Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you’ll be a mile away and have his shoes. – Steve Martin
2. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. – Dietrich Bonhoeffer
3. Sometimes all a person wants is an empathetic ear; all he or she needs is to talk it out. Just offering a listening ear and an understanding heart for his or her suffering can be a big comfort. – Roy T. Bennett
4. Empathy depends not only on one’s ability to identify someone else’s emotions but also on one’s capacity to put oneself in the other person’s place and to experience an appropriate emotional response. – Charles G. Morris
5. When you show deep empathy toward others, their defensive energy goes down, and positive energy replaces it. That’s when you can get more creative in solving problems. – Stephen Covey
6. A focus on empathy is just what is needed to make the world a better place for all animals, humans, and nonhuman alike. – Marc Bekoff
7. Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins. And it’s up to you to make that happen. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world. – Barack Obama
8. I always think that if you look at anyone in detail, you will have empathy for them because you recognize them as a human being, no matter what they’ve done. – Andrea Arnold
9. We cannot transform negativity into the positive without empathy, and we cannot truly understand empathy without experiencing it in our present life, in our past, and in our future. – Brian L. Weiss
10. The greater good is achieved by not only telling people what they need to know but also filling them with a sense of empathy and love. – Abigail Disney
11. No one reaches out to you for compassion or empathy so you can teach them how to behave better. They reach out to us because they believe in our capacity to know our darkness well enough to sit in the dark with them. – Brene Brown
12. We need to understand the other side to impact the other side. We become much more effective as humans and leaders when we engage in hearty conversations with those who are different from us, not necessarily to change our opinions, but to build the empathy muscle. – Daniel Lubetzky
13. Empathy may be the single most important quality that must be nurtured to give peace a fighting chance. – Arundhati Ray
14. One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding is sufficient. – Charles M. Blow
15. Empathetic presence involves listening to someone’s pain with what I call the five A’s: attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing. – David Richo
16. The only way to change someone’s mind is to connect with them from the heart. – Rasheed Ogonlaru
17. Empathy is the starting point for creating a community and taking action. It’s the impetus for creating change. – Max Carver
18. Empathy represents the foundation skill for all the social competencies important for work. – Daniel Goleman
19. What you don’t realize is that the world does not need more perfection. It needs more compassion and empathy. – Tessa Dare
20.  The value that I really learned to appreciate deeply and which I talk about a great deal is empathy. I don’t think it is simply a “nice to have” but I believe it is at the centre of the agenda for innovation here at Microsoft – Satya Nadella 

Published September 21, 2023

The pursuit of happiness is one of the basic and inalienable rights enshrined in the United States Constitution. But how are we to pursue happiness, exactly?

More importantly, how are we to pursue happiness when we can’t even agree as to what happiness really means?

For people who’ve had to live from paycheck to paycheck, happiness means never having to worry about money anymore. But then we often see people who never had to worry about money their entire life and are still unhappy.

It’s because of this that we all have different interpretations of what the pursuit of happiness really is. For some, it can be about living day to day like it’s their last. While for others, it’s making sure that they make someone happy every single day.

If you want to know more about other people’s perspectives on chasing happiness, here are some uplifting quotes on the pursuit of happiness:

Pursuit of Happiness Quotes

1. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within YOURSELF in your way of thinking. – Marcus Aurelius
2. The Constitution only guarantees you the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. – Benjamin Franklin
3. Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination. – Roy Goodman
4. The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase: if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it. – Carrie Snow
5. Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. – Thomas Jefferson
6. If there were in the world today any large number of people who desired their own happiness more than they desired the unhappiness of others, we could have a paradise in a few years. – Bertrand Russell
7. To live happily is an inward power of the soul. – Aristotle
8. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow. – Buddha
9. The purpose of our lives is to be happy. – The 14th Dalai Lama
10. Positivity, confidence, and persistence are key in life, so never give up on yourself. – Khalid
11. Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing. – Napoleon Hill
12. I think the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of reality because illusion never leaves us ultimately happy. – Parker Palmer
13. Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. – Aristotle
14. Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action. – William James
15. There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things that are beyond the power of our will. – Epictetus
16. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. – Mohandas Gandhi
17. It takes great wit and interest and energy to be happy. The pursuit of happiness is a great activity. One must be open and alive. It is the greatest feat man has to accomplish. – Robert Herrick
18. Some people cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go. – Oscar Wilde
19. Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is. – Maxim Gorky
20. There’s no more powerful lesson than knowing that your setbacks will one day help you succeed. – Reshma Saujani
21. Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it. – Groucho Marx
22. Success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success. – Herman Cain
23. Essentially pursuit of happiness is saying, everything’s allowed until we come down on it. – Howard Rheingold
24. It is not in the pursuit of happiness that we find fulfillment, it is in the happiness of pursuit. – Denis Waitley
25. Ironically, the pursuit of happiness can lead us into the eternal trap of chasing unhappiness. – Justin Kan
26. If you so choose, even the unexpected setbacks can bring new and positive possibilities. If you so choose, you can find value and fulfillment in every circumstance. – Ralph Marston
27. The high road and positivity is never the easy way but always the best way. – Nancy Wilson
28. It is the pursuit of happiness that brings us happiness, and not the happiness achieved. – Jack White
29. Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy. – Guillaume Apollinaire
30. Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities. – Aldous Huxley
31. A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dare live. – Bertrand Russel
32.  We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. – Thomas Jefferson
33.  Remember to pause and take in the beauty of the present moment in your pursuit of happines – Shree Shambav
34.  Happiness doesn’t mean checking all the boxes, Happiness means to stop putting life in boxes. – Abhijit Naskar
35.  Happiness never lays its finger on its pulse. – Adam Smith

Published May 18, 2023

In the dictionary, a shallow person is defined as one who lacks a depth of intellect or knowledge. They are those who are only concerned about superficial things. In short, a shallow person is just that – shallow.

That’s why, whether it’s a friend or a love interest, nobody wants to deal with a shallow person. There just isn’t anything interesting about them. There are no layers to peel and no depth to uncover.

Unfortunately, you can’t always spot a shallow person from five feet away. Sometimes, it takes years before you can finally see a person for who they really are. But by then, you’re already in too deep that you just choose to ignore all the red flags even if it’s glaring at you in the face.

To help you avoid such fate and save you from potential heartache, we’ve rounded up some of the most telltale traits of a shallow person.

1. They only care about outward appearance.

This is one of the most obvious traits of a shallow person. They judge people, objects, and basically every living and non-living thing based on their physical appearance.

For them, the outer shell is everything. They don’t care if someone is rotten to the core as long as they look great. They’d also rather invest in cosmetic treatments than develop their personality.

Physical attractiveness also determines how they treat people. If they find someone attractive, they’ll treat them fairly. But they won’t spare a glance at people whose looks aren’t up to their standards. This usually applies in their relationships too.

Shallow people like to surround themselves with attractive people – from friends to romantic partners. If anyone in their circle gains weight or loses their physical attractiveness, they’ll treat them differently.

2. They don’t have layers to their character.

People with complex personalities tend to have layers to their character. Some may appear happy-go-lucky on the outside but are very sensitive deep inside. While others may appear rude at first but will surprise you with their caring nature.

Shallow people, on the other hand, don’t have those layers. The longer you are with them, the more you discover that there’s no substance to their character. There are no layers to peel or mysteries to uncover. With them, what you see is what you get.

3. They avoid deep conversations.

One thing that shallow people avoid like the plague is meaningful conversations. You can’t expect them to talk about philosophical topics or those that require them to do introspective thinking.

It’s not that they don’t have opinions of their own. In fact, they tend to talk a lot. Though it’s mostly about themselves or other people’s lives.

4. They obsess over material things.

One of the easiest traits to spot in shallow people is their tendency to put a “price tag” on everything. Whether it’s their latest gadget or the person they met five minutes ago, shallow people value things based on their monetary worth or what benefits they can get from them.

If they have expensive new clothes or jewelry, they like to “announce” its price to anyone who cares to listen. They like to cozy up to rich and powerful people too.