Contagious Empathy

Have you ever notice that yawning is contagious? It especially seems to be true when you are engaged one-on-one with someone. If they yawn you yawn. It’s often difficult to stifle your self from yawning no matter how hard you try.

We don’t exactly understand yawning. We certainly don’t know why it appears to be contagious. But what we do know is that there seems to be a direct correlation between the susceptibly to contagious yawning and our empathy with others. Yup, the more empathic you are the more likely you cannot resist yawning when your see another person yawn.

I know of a physician friend whose medical school classmates would simply write the word “yawn” on a sheet of paper and hold in up during rounds. He would involuntarily yawn. They got a kick out of it. He is a highly empathic doctor. And his empathy makes him particularly effective with patients.

The right brain is the neural site of empathy. The more we exercise the right brain the more the characteristics seeded there manifest in our lives. So as you consider living more from your right brain observe your susceptibility to yawning. In The RightBrain Revolution you should experience and we should witness a lot more contagious yawning.

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