i think one of the most important (if not THE most important) characteristic of a person is their ability to be empathetic to people around them. a lot of people often confuse the words “sympathetic” and “empathetic”, i know i used to, but there’s a key difference between the two. to me, being sympathetic means sharing someone’s feelings having had a similar experience, like being sad with someone after their dog dies because you know what it feels like to lose a pet or something close to you.
being empathetic means understanding, being capable of sharing another’s feelings and emotions, the difference being that it’s regardless of whether or not you went through something similar and that you’re reaching out without really, fully understanding what it could be like, but genuinely reaching out. regardless.
it’s the ability to look beyond your own life experiences and really put yourself in this person’s shoes and taking this person’s current situation into consideration. rather than standing on the side lines condescendingly thinking well, if this were me i wouldn’t be feeling that sad. well if this were me, i would have done this this and this and figured this out a long time ago. why doesn’t he just do this and stop whining about it? my problems are more important and you don’t see me whining or complaining.
No.
granted there’s also “tough love” advice, but this still centers itself around intentions of genuine care and concern, instead of pity and self-righteousness.
the entire essence of the word empathy goes beyond merely looking at someone going through something hard, goes beyond externally portraying the facade of being genuinely caring and concerned yet internally scoffing and thinking that if it were YOU in that situation you’d handle it better, with more dexterity.
