Empathy and sympathy are different. Sympathy has a component of action because you want to alleviate someone’s sorrow. Empathy is being able to experience someone else’s feeling or experience. It’s a precursor to good citizenship or justice.
Empathy begins in childhood. One baby hears another cry and begins crying, mirroring the behavior. Higher levels of empathy involve an imaginative element, stepping into another person’s shoes to understand their suffering.
There’s great value in self-empathy. Be kind to yourself. How would you treat someone who is facing your issues? Recognize your feelings and allow yourself to experience them.
Listen as Cris Beam joins Dr. Pamela Peeke to share more about empathy.
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