The Empathy Cards Activity

Empathy cards are a powerful and very useful activity to foster empathy in your group and share emotions and feelings.

Search the internet for different emoji faces to make many cards. The emojis depicted on the cards can be a powerful prompt for people to identify and understand how they are feeling.

Lay all of the cards on a table or the ground, and gather your group around them. Take a moment to allow your group to survey their various cards.

Presuming your group has just completed a significant experience, ask them to pick a card which you think reflects how someone else may have been feeling during that experience. From here, either invite people to share this observation directly to this person.

If you have a large group, it is easier to simply invite people to identify the cards and not pick them up.

Encourage people to share how they felt about the card to empathize with the other person. If the other person feels that your empathy is unrequited, you can talk about the emotions and feelings you experienced.

The topics of this publication: self, reflection, emotions, integration, interactions, foster relationships, empathy, emotional intelligence