In our increasingly fractured world, the ability to connect with and resonate with the experience of others becomes increasingly valuable. The key to this type of skill is empathy.
What is Empathy?
Greek ‘em’ ———> ‘in’
‘pathos’———> ‘feeling’.
Empathy or ‘infeeling’, at it’s simplest, is the ability to understand the feelings and perspectives of others. Another way to think of it is if sympathy is feeling for someone, then empathy is feeling with them. It is stepping into the experience of the other person and saying “yes, I understand what this feels like for you”, rather than offering support from outside another person’s frame of reference. This is clearly one of the foundations of genuine human connection – we can all resonate with that experience of being truly and accurately seen and experienced by another person.
“[Empathy is] awareness of others’ feelings, needs and concerns.“
– Daniel Coleman
Empathy is inextricably linked to our Awareness of how others are feeling as well as what their needs and concerns are. It is the animating energy of what Daniel Coleman calls EQ – Emotional Intelligence, an essential skill in the modern world. As the well known personnel management phrase puts it: “IQ gets you hired, EQ gets you promoted”. Being able to work intelligently and fluidly with others is an instantly recognisable asset in both our professional and personal lives, and the engine for this ’social flow’ is empathy.
“I call him religious who understands the suffering of others.“
– Mahatma Gandhi
Not only is empathy central to the depth of our immediate interactions with those at work or home, it has also been recognised as the thread that runs through all human acts of compassion. Empathy can be found at the root of extraordinary lives such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr . Their compassion for the suffering of others was firmly grounded in a very real and tangible connection they felt to those they met in life – something we too can experience through choosing an empathic direction each time we engage with someone.
“Empathy is intuitive, but is also something you can work on, intellectually.“
– Tim Minchin
Finally, it is important to recognize that just like our cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence is both an innate, intuitive ability that we are born with – empathy is literally soft-wired into our neurology. However, also like our IQ, it is also something that we can work on every day to improve. By exploring the articles and resources on this website, you’re taking the first steps towards unlocking more empathy in your life.
Life is full of inconsistent challenges which stretch and stress us in ways we can’t predict. Empathy binds us together as humans on this journey together. There has never been a more important time to experience this connection with others and it is something that can only happen within your own experience; no one else can be empathic for you. Thankfully, there are many resources, guides and communities such as this to help us move closer to authentic connection, understanding and communion in our lives and with others. Welcome to the journey.
Recent Comments