It is important to maintain empathy even when exposed to disturbing negativity.

“The more you're exposed to, you see a lot more negativity and it's disturbing and disgusting to me, but instead of me becoming bitter and evil about it, I've chosen to become more self-aware and I have more empathy for people and I never want to change that.”

He believes the ultimate expression of love is found in the everyday connections with friends, family, and strangers, rather than focusing solely on romantic relationships.

“All the wisdom traditions would suggest that the love that you have for your co-workers, your friends, your family, the stranger on the street, the person driving the car, the uh person that you just bumped into at the grocery store, at the coffee shop, like the love that you can embody and experien”

Tactical empathy is the process of demonstrating an understanding of the other person's perspective to build rapport and gather information, independent of whether one agrees with them.

“Tactical empathy is about me actively demonstrating verbally to you that I understand where you're coming from.”

Empathy without wisdom makes individuals vulnerable to malevolent actors who disguise themselves as victims to exploit the compassion of others.

“The problem with that attitude is that it doesn't arm you very well with an understanding of evil because truly malevolent people camouflage themselves as victims and they take advantage of the empathic”

Cruelty, arrogance, and rudeness are behaviors she refuses to accept or tolerate in her life.

“but I still to this day like cruelty, arrogance, rudeness, short-temperedness is just I don't have time for it.”

It is important to find and recognize the value in every individual, regardless of their actions or circumstances.

“You have to be able to look at somebody and see some value in everyone.”

Excessive empathy that hyper-fires in the wrong situations toward the wrong targets is a dangerous condition known as suicidal empathy.

“If I have no empathy, I'm likely to be a psychopath. If I have too much empathy, if it hyper fires in the wrong situations toward the wrong targets, you end up with suicidal empathy.”

The most important supportive message one can provide to someone suffering is the reassurance that they are not alone in their experience.

“But the thing that I think is so important about the message that you're delivering is not you're going to be better or it's all going to be okay. It is you are not alone.”