Free Exercise from Dr. Sunita Osborn

Walk a Mile in their Shoes

To gain greater perspective on how your partner is grieving and to develop greater understanding regarding their experience, try completing the Walk a Mile in Their Shoes exercise. The point of this exercise is not to perfectly guess what your partner is experiencing but to offer you the opportunity to further delve into their reaction and to hopefully increase your sense of compassion and connection toward them. If it’s helpful, you can read the entire story to your partner or, alternatively, you can share some realizations you developed from this exercise (e.g., “I realized that I often told you that you weren’t saying the ‘right’ things or that I needed you to act differently. I imagine that was really confusing for you”).