Empathy versus Sympathy
What’s the difference between empathy and sympathy? Aren’t they the same?
Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings and emotions of others. Sympathy is reacting to the feelings and distress of others as if it was our own or happening to us i.e. OVER-IDENTIFYING.
There’s a big difference between understanding intellectually a person’s struggles and having a heart for them versus identifying with and feeling the emotions as if they are your own.
Often in a dysfunctional relationship, we overact and take responsibility, trying to fix others or give too much. Unwittingly, this reaction is counterproductive for both people. This is very evident in co-dependent relationships.
Those of us who are empathetic often confuse the two until we heal our own wounds and traumas. It is really a sense of trying to maintain control in our own life that we have not come to terms with. Coaching and energy work is beneficial to get to the core of our ambivalence and conflicts, acknowledging our own hurts and our own traumas that were never resolved.
Somewhere along the line we put others needs, feelings, and emotions above our own well being mistakenly thinking that we were being helpful or kind.
Not allowing others to experience the consequences to their own choices, by trying to control the outcome for others, we lose our own self in the process. This is co-dependency.
Until we reach a place in recovery of understanding our own traumas and go inward to release and energetically shift this stuck energy, we stay on the merry-go-round of emotions and experiences that continue to enable others to stay in their dysfunction, as well as our own.
It’s OK to have a kind heart for others, and it’s OK to be empathetic and concerned - that is a healthy response. It’s not healthy to get so immersed in other’s struggles that we lose our own identity and do not pay attention to our own needs, emotionally, physically, financially, etc.
There are steps we can take to begin recognizing and shifting sympathy to empathy and responding in a healthier and more balanced way. It begins by focusing on ourselves, our own feelings and emotions when we are responding to someone else’s struggles.
Journal:
What is coming up for you when you respond to someone’s struggles?
What is the conflict in your life that is similar to theirs?
Where are you feeling these emotions in your body?
Mantra: I am connected to my higher self.
Stay well, stay safe, and step into your freedom.
In gratitude,
Sharon