In a way, empathy is a kind of mindfulness meditation focused on someone else’s inner world. - Rick Hanson

The Reactive mode tears us down, while the Responsive mode builds us up. Adversity is certainly an opportunity to develop resilience, stress-hardiness, and even post-traumatic growth. But for a person to grow through adversity, there must also be Responsive resources present such as determination and sense of purpose.

positive experiences fill us up, while negative ones wear us down.

Being for yourself simply means that you care about yourself. You wish to feel happy instead of worried, sad, guilty, or angry. You want people to treat you well instead of badly. You want to help your future self — the person you’ll be next week, next year, next decade — to have as good a life as possible.