Empathy isn’t sympathy necessarily. It’s the ability to recognize the presence of an emotional state even if you don’t understand why it’s present or what caused it. A society, a country, a world cannot grow closer together if the parts that create it don’t come to recognize what makes it. Empathy is a great beginning to making that growth start.
“That’s not my problem.”
“Those aren’t my people”
“Why should I care?”
These are the thoughts that counteract the very action required to start to care. We should care because we are human and in many cases if we can replace the object of scrutiny with our own image we might begin to see why it matters.
But that’s hard to do for various reasons. It’s not an easy thing to take ourselves out of our own comfort zone and to force ourselves to be uncomfortable for a second. Sometimes that second is all it takes to learn a little bit of empathy.
To realize sometimes what’s really important in the moment isn’t always about ourselves.
-Opinionated Man
44.1
I also found empathy actually absorbs the emotions of another and takes it on in an almost personal level when relating.
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I definitely agree with that, which is the power of true empathy and trying to relate to others.
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I don’t even know why it’s difficult to emphasize. We’re all human beings. If nothing else, we should just treat each other the way we would like to be treated.
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Yes empathy is so important. A brief and yet meaningful post!
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Empathy is a very difficult thing to enact. I can try to understand how another person/group feels about/sees things, but since I am not them it is near impossible to empathize with what they are going through. I don’t have their life experiences or ancestral history. The best I can do is to try to understand/sympathize with them.
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From our conversations I have a feeling you empathize more than you let on. 🤔
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Great post, more empathy please, less shame and disconnect👌
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It’s a hard thing to do, but maybe one day the world will get there as a whole.
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Empathy can always be leaned however sympathy cannot….
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For some, they’ll never learn to empathize in this life unfortunately. They only see themselves and those like them. It’s a sad fact.
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Pity there isn’t an empathy virus… we could sure use more of it…
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That would finally be a good virus to have! Heh
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Some people probably wouldn’t get it.
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Unfortunately, you’re right…
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In the case of the narcissist, he is all for himself and his ego and only understands his needs from his own viewpoint. Empathy is not his strong suit for sure.
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True and unfortunately many many people lack empathy, not just narcissistic humans. Even kind hearted ones lack empathy for those they cannot understand or relate to.
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Agree.
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Well said Jason, very true. 💜
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Thank you Willow! Just some thoughts.
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Excellent thoughts💜
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