Empathy I've talked a lot about how I take things in and process them. I also have a need or urge to actively reach out, not just to the cosmos, but to other spirits, awake or not. I don't mean to enlighten, as previously discussed. The purpose is for connection, cooperation, harmony and assistance, of course. Empathy is an excellent way to reach out as well as to take in. I must bear in mind that not all people would want to be touched but that doesn't mean I can't reach out to them. It may determine how I do it or whether I act on what I find. Empathy is tragically underrated, in my opinion, and woefully missing from our current civilization. It seems that so few even bother with it. I guess they feel it's too much work? Many equate sympathy with empathy, believing they are just synonyms. They are similar, but not the same. Most people can be sympathetic and sympathy is important. It generally allows us to comfort and console others. It makes us charitable to our fellow man, etc. We can feel touched by another person's tragedy or triumph because we care for them. We can share sympathetic feelings by being or having been in the same situation ourselves, personally. True empathy is deeper than this. To empathize is to feel what another person is feeling, even if I have not been in that situation before. I can still feel the full power of the emotions, as if it was happening to me. For an example, I will contrast sympathy and empathy in reference to a death in the family. If a fellow employee tells me that his father died, then I am sad for him. I sympathize. I console as best I can with words and whatever our relationship allows. However, I am not sad, per se. It wasn't my father. I'm not terribly close to this coworker so I don't really have any personal association from which to feel terribly sad. Yet, I know how loss feels and so, I sympathize with his situation. One level deeper and I might actually be sad. I might think of my own father and how I would feel if he died. This would approach empathy. I'm using an imaginary bridge to pull the coworker's grief into a shape that fits me. Still, I would be legitimately sad for the coworker and with him. It would be stronger if I had already lost my father before. Then those feelings would come back to me, a bit faded by time, but still with impact. This would allow me to experience the coworker's sadness on a more personal level but it would not technically be the full measure of his grief in my heart. Let's go another level. Suppose the fellow employee was my brother. Now I have a major reality bridge. We have lost our father. We are both sad. I sympathize perfectly with my brother. It's not perfect empathy, but very close because my personal loss is equal to my brother's. I do not truly feel his loss but I feel all of mine and I feel for him too because I love him. However, I am not my brother and I do not feel exactly what is in his heart. To me, true empathy would be this: I'd pass a stranger and make contact with him, either by touch or voice or spirit. I'd receive whatever feelings are in his heart and soul at that moment. This could be extended beyond humans too. Suppose I came face to face with a doe in the woods. I'd look into the doe's eyes. I would feel her nervousness, her impulse to flee. I'd feel her confusion, wondering what I am and why I stopped moving and if I shall move again and which way she should run to escape whatever I am. If I were a true empath, I would not be bound by my own human form or experience to feel only what humans feel. I would not require bridges of imagination or comparisons to my own reality in order to accept the feelings of others. I would be able to receive whatever they feel in full force and it would be as sharp and clear as my own feelings. One of the cautions of acting on Empathy is to let go of 'outcomes.' It is not my place to force another soul anywhere. I can commiserate. I can sympathize. I can offer all my good thoughts, a listening ear, tangible help perhaps, etc. Then I have to let the energies go where they may. That's the curse of it, in a way, until I learn to take my ego out of it. I think sometimes the bad feelings I get, from empathic contact, may stay with me because my ego is bruised when I didn't 'save the day.' Well, I will not always be the designated savior of the day. My ego needs to get over that. Then I think the Empathy can always be a blessing because it puts me in touch with another soul and I can revel in that without judging the emotions involved. I am empathic. I am not yet an Empath. I suspect I may be learning it. If and when I do learn true empathy, I hope I am also given control over it. I trust that I will be allowed to turn it off and on, eventually. Most gifts are that way. It seems that once I cross the initial learning curve then it all flows nicely, just as it was meant to. Otherwise, if this is not to be one of my best gifts, I can still make good use of what skill I have in this area. I have highly developed abilities for creating the bridges that allow me to be as empathic as is practical, at this time. As always, I hope to learn more. (Empathy)

If menu is missing, click here.