Empathy and Compassion

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in others shoes. It is the ability to understand the feelings and emotions of the other person.

Compassion is the emotional response to sympathy or empathy and creates a desire to help.

Where empathy creates understanding, compassion is more likely to inspire feelings of concern, worry, or sympathy.

Compassion is related to taking action whereas empathy is related to feeling.

Some of the ways we can be compassionate are as follows:

·       Forgiveness: Forgive someone who has wronged you.

·       Help someone in need: For example, helping an old person cross the road, helping a person carry the groceries to the car, etc. Even the simplest of such acts matter.

·       Listening and being patient with others: For example, actively listening to a person who is facing a challenge in their life.

Some of the ways we can show empathy are as follows:

·       Actively listening to others: It involves asking questions or restating what the other person has shared.

·       Being able to sense the other person’s emotions: The ability to identify and detect the emotion the other person is facing

·       Feeling what the other person is feeling: It may seem like you are absorbing their emotions.