"Allison, how do you feel today?"

"I feel mind blown."

"Why?"

"There's gonna be a solar eclipse. That's a total solar eclipse."

"Oh my gosh, what are you going to do about that feeling?"

"I'm gonna go to my mind blown FeelWise card and look to see that I need to go to the Thrive card and journal. If you haven't journaled, it says to go on the Thrive card that says 'journal'. It'll ask you to write down nonstop how you feel about that for five straight minutes. After that, you'll look at the corner. 'Oh, go to the create card.' Are you an artist?"

"I'm sort of, but not really."

"You don't have to be an artist to create, you know that. Maybe you can pick a color and notice how often you encounter that color throughout your day. Next, what will you do?"

"I will share. Choose a person in your life that you feel safe with. Who would that be?"

"Tina."

"Me? Oh my goodness. So what you'll do is reach out to them, which would be me, and then you'll share something, a story, maybe what you created. I'd love to see it. Okay, the color that you're following, if you're doing that, would be great. Next, what we do is ask, choose the person that you're comfortable with, we again, and then you're going to ask them open-ended questions like that start with 'how,' 'what,' 'why,' or 'tell me about.' How do you think it's gonna feel to be in the sun?"

"I don't know."

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing. How would it feel to be in the sun when it's completely dark from the eclipse?"

"Yes, that's such a good question. It really makes me think about it and kind of makes me feel mind blown. It also brings my feelings into your feelings, which is the whole purpose of the Thrive series of cards. It's not just to feel good and acknowledge that, but to actually share those feelings with the people that you feel safe with in your life. In the end, this is about the mindset of empathy. Do you want to practice empathy without just snapping right into it? Here's a trick: make eye contact, notice the micro expressions in my face, just look at them and notice them. Then, notice and mirror my posture. Okay, good. Then observe my affect. How am I feeling right now?"

"Happy."

"Yes, and then practice whole-person hearing. So when you're listening to me, you're not thinking about other things in your head. Just me. And then check your response. How am I making you feel?"

"Happy?"

"You're practicing empathy."

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