What is Empathy?
Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand and share the feelings of others, like walking in someone else’s shoes.
Many times, without realizing, our brains can interpret the emotions or feelings that we detect in others and copy them automatically. For example, if you see or hear of someone who hurt their finger, the areas of your brain associated with that pain gets activated, as if you can feel their pain.
Humans are naturally tuned to show empathy; however, we can still actively try to develop this trait and use it in our day-to-day lives.
A general example of empathy is if your friend is looking for a job but keeps receiving rejections, you might say to them: “Perhaps you feel disappointed and discouraged right now, is that right?” If you are right, your friend will feel relieved to hear someone understand his or her feelings accurately. It is essential as well as effective to empathize with a person before offering any sort of advice.
