Why choose Empathy over Sympathy?
“Sympathy is about feeling pity and sorrow for someone’s misfortune or pain, whereas Empathy is about understanding someone’s pain and helping them to get away from it.”
Many of us show sympathy towards others and think of ourselves as ethical creatures. Your compassion will do nothing for others. It doesn’t help someone in pain. It only makes you feel pity for them. Showing sympathy is natural, and judging them is easy, but what’s hard is showing empathy. You must have the courage to show compassion to the one who needs it. Empathy is about understanding other’s problems and lending your hand in solving their problem. This way, you not only will help others to overcome their pain and suffering but also you will make real human connections that matter.
“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.” — — Maya Angelou.
However, many of us quit showing sympathy and not even trying to help them. It’s hard to spend time with others and solve their problems, but if you care, you can spend little time giving them the courage to face the challenge. You need to grow kindness in you, and you need to fight other’s problems too, and this helps you become mentally healthy and makes you ready to face any such issues.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” — Plato.
To really care about others and show empathy, you need to understand others and their problems better, and you should have a zeal to help them. You need to stop judging them and show your unconditional love for them. This way you not only can improve others’ life, but yours too. You need to treat other problems like yours. This way, you can handle problems in a better way and become so empathetic.
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” — Mother Teresa
The first step in empathy is to understand the problem in his or her point of view and then use your method or thinking to produce effective solutions. Putting yourself into other’s shoes is the only way to understand the suffering of others and then deliver solutions that work well.
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” — HARPER LEE, To Kill a Mockingbird.
If you can use empathy in your life instead of sympathy, you help others grow, and you grow into a better person. Instead of saying — “so sad, or I feel terrible for you.” Start now by saying — “ I know you are going through bad times and don’t worry about it. We will fix it together.” See both ways, and you can understand the effectiveness of empathy for others.
“Leadership is about empathy. It is about having the ability to relate to and connect with people for the purpose of inspiring and empowering their lives.” — Oprah Winfrey.
Empathy builds secure human connections that are real, and sympathy is all about fake relationships, and they don’t help anyone.
Be EMPATHETIC.
