We Need Real Empathy
Empathy is not sympathy, compassion, pity, or a host of other words that often get mistaken for empathy. Real empathy is the full expression of both feeling what others are feeling and understanding what those feelings mean.
Interpersonal empathy requires us to become aware and acknowledge the physical feelings we are having when watching others or hearing the stories of others.Those physical reactions are typically unconscious, our bodies mimicking or mirroring others. We need to ask ourselves: What do these feelings mean?
To gain social empathy, we need to expand that walk and step into the lived realities of other groups. Ask what feelings you would have if you were a member of that other racial, ethnic, economic class, religious, sexual orientation, and ability group?