Last Sales Talk Tuesday, I shared with the team the beautiful word Sonder, which I first heard about from my mentor Seth Godin. Connecting with people is easier when we understand Sonder.

This definition by the dictionary of obscure sorrows is my favorite:
Sonder
n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.

It perfectly aligns with a beautiful compassion exercise I learned from the amazing teacher Pema Chodron called Just like Me which the spiritual teacher Ram Dass explains below so eloquently:

• This person has a body and a mind, just like me.
• This person has feelings, emotions, and thoughts, just like me.
• This person has experienced physical and emotional pain and suffering, just like me.
• This person has at some time been sad, disappointed, angry, or hurt, just like me.
• This person has felt unworthy or inadequate, just like me.
• This person worries and is frightened sometimes, just like me.
• This person will die, just like me.
• This person has longed for friendship, just like me.
• This person is learning about life, just like me.
• This person wants to be caring and kind to others, just like me.
• This person wants to be content with what life has given them, just like me.
• This person wishes to be free from pain and suffering, just like me.
• This person wishes to be safe and healthy, just like me.
• This person wishes to be happy, just like me.
• This person wishes to be loved, just like me.

Now, allow wishes for well-being to arise:

• I wish this person to have the strength, resources, and social support they need to navigate the difficulties in life with ease.
• I wish this person to be free from pain and suffering.
• I wish this person to be peaceful and happy.
• I wish this person to be loved . . . because this person is a fellow human being, just like me.

So powerful.