Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of someone else.
Empathy: the other person’s perspective
If we want to show empathy to someone else, we have to recognize that we are like them. We cannot be empathetic to someone if we don’t feel the basic bonds of humanness with them.
In addition to seeing the mutual grand connections, empathy also requires that you get into the mindset of that person’s actual circumstance. Assuming that someone else has the same vantage point on life, the same cultural connections and the same challenges/ privileges that you do prevents you from showing true caring.
Connecting Yourself to Others
You must strive to understand others, because this attempt to understand the other person is the essence of kindness. There are things we cannot know or understand about others, but I have found that making the effort to try to understand goes a long way. The hardest step is looking outside of your own self and your own experience.
Empathy Requires Caring
Concern for someone else means that you care what happens to them, and how they feel.
Empathy Requires Imagination
You have to be able to imagine things outside of yourself. Someone with a different set of circumstances than what you are experiencing right now. Maybe different from anything you have ever experienced. Think of a solution that might not be right for you, but might be right for someone else.
Empathy Requires Action
It is one thing to feel for someone, to sympathize with them perhaps, but unless you respond to that feeling, you are not empathizing. Act on what other people need or want. Give praise whenever you honestly can. Be a comfort, provide a shoulder to cry on. Help others by mentoring, assisting and teaching.
Empathy Requires Adaptation
We have all heard of the golden rule, but a higher step might be called the platinum rule. Instead of treating everyone the same (the way you want to be treated), take the time to learn how others want to be treated. Follow this, and the world is already a better place.