What’s the Difference Between Compassion vs. Empathy?
Episode description
Compassion and empathy tend to overlap, but they are both very different and it’s important to understand this difference; especially when it comes to setting boundaries. Empathy is the ability to put yourself into somebody else’s shoes and feel what they might be going through or even try to experience what they’re going through.
Compassion, on the other hand, involves recognizing someone else’s emotions and taking action to help them ease or help them through their discomfort. A good breakdown between the two is that empathy helps us understand others whereas compassion is actively channeling that empathy to soothe someone. These should not be confused with sympathy, which is an act of feeling sorry for someone.
There are actually different types of empathy. We have cognitive empathy, we understand other people’s emotional states as well as their perspectives. Emotional empathy involves understanding their feelings but also feeling a similar emotional response. Compassion empathy is a mix of cognitive and emotional empathy, which understands the feelings of the other person as well as being motivated to assist them through those emotions.
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