What is Empathy?
Empathy is a big word and can be explained in many different ways. The Minds Journal definition of empathy is “the ability to step into the shoes of another person aiming to understand their feelings and perspectives, and to use that understanding to guide our actions.” We have to be willing to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. If we can see how another person is feeling and really understand other perspectives, we would be able to have more unity in life. In showing empathy, the most important part is taking the understanding that is gained from other people’s perspectives and feelings and using it to guide us. The key purpose of empathy is to bring about a noticeable change. When we see things through another person’s point of view, we do get sympathy, but when we allow that new vision to cause our view of life and actions to change, we have gained empathy. Far too often we just see and understand the problem, empathy allows us to take that understanding and use it to change how we act. Empathy takes that new understanding and uses it to promote changes in our response to different situations.
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