Empathy is when you can put yourself in someone else's shoes. But what if you get it all wrong, as in, you think you can imagine being in someone else's shoes while in reality you are not! :) Funny right.
Say, you imagine a person - X, to be angry about a situation because of your understanding and then it turns out that X did not care as much and was not affected by that situation at all.
So in order to be empathetic, you first need to understand the situation completely. It is not about looking at the world through your lens and imagining your reactions in that situation. It is about developing insights into how other people feel and think in those situations.
This, as you can imagine, is not an easy task. For a person like me, I would recommend not to try and get empathetic in the first place. I mostly think from the "heart" as opposed to the "mind" when it comes to people I am fond of. And I mostly think the world is made of people like me, which is so not true.
There is one more thing. You need to remember nobody is helpless. People have their own mechanisms to deal with situations and difficulties. If people need your help, they will let you know. If you develop more trust in this basic rule of life, you would go easy on yourself too... :)
Say, you imagine a person - X, to be angry about a situation because of your understanding and then it turns out that X did not care as much and was not affected by that situation at all.
So in order to be empathetic, you first need to understand the situation completely. It is not about looking at the world through your lens and imagining your reactions in that situation. It is about developing insights into how other people feel and think in those situations.
This, as you can imagine, is not an easy task. For a person like me, I would recommend not to try and get empathetic in the first place. I mostly think from the "heart" as opposed to the "mind" when it comes to people I am fond of. And I mostly think the world is made of people like me, which is so not true.
There is one more thing. You need to remember nobody is helpless. People have their own mechanisms to deal with situations and difficulties. If people need your help, they will let you know. If you develop more trust in this basic rule of life, you would go easy on yourself too... :)
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