Being Empathetic

Empathy is being able to understand and share another person's feelings. Often misused as sympathy, "[E]mpathy is the ability to increase the ability to re-create another person's perspective, to experience the world from the other's point of view (Alder, Sevigny, 2015, p.50). A difficult skill to learn, it takes practice and determination to be empathetic; however, total empathy is impossible to achieve. Personally, I have experienced empathy from others and I have expressed empathy to other people. Experiencing empathy demonstrates the importance of being empathetic as opposed to sympathetic when going through stressful, difficult times. A person who is empathetic is typically highly sensitive and is able to absorb other people's feelings.

My sister recently had a double lung transplant, a major surgery. When someone would say to me "I am so sorry for what you are going through" it was much less comforting than when someone would say "I understand you are going through a tough situation right now. Would you like to talk about it?". To show me empathy, it was comforting when a person spoke to me in person rather than a text or phone call. It was also encouraging while they were talking to me when they would make eye contact with me and nod their head when I was talking to show me they were listening. I now understand the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is simply the act of soundwaves hitting the eardrum causing vibrations that are then transmitted to the brain; whereas, listening is when the brain gives the transmissions meaning. It is easily recognizable when a person is simply hearing the words you are saying because of their lack of eye contact, shallow responses, and physical body language. All of these motions demonstrate a lack of empathy. When I was being listened to it made me feel like I had people supporting me and that they were available if I wanted to talk to them. It was comforting when a friend or family member told me about one of their family members that had serious medical problems and when they explained how they dealt with their emotions during that time. Additionally, it made it easier to open up about the trying time I was going through and that made it easier for people to help me deal with my