Empathy strongly influences how we connect with people and determines the nature and quality of those relationships, which shows why it matters. Empathy works as a useful skill in professional and personal settings, demonstrating where you can use it. Understanding empathy better and communicating with empathy creates stronger, more fulfilling relationships. Furthermore, empathy helps leaders become more effective, allowing them to guide and support their teams successfully; these are some key benefits of showing empathy. Although most people recognize empathy’s value, we find it difficult to gain deeper knowledge or apply it consistently every day, indicating it isn’t always easy. Seeing real examples of empathy in action helps us better understand opportunities to show empathy and develop this skill.
What Empathy Is?
Empathy and sympathy are distinct concepts, not interchangeable. People often confuse empathy and sympathy. Empathy goes beyond simply feeling pity or sorrow for another person’s situation. Empathy requires deep understanding. Empathy involves trying to understand the other person’s perspective. The ability to understand another’s viewpoint is the most important part of empathy. To empathize, you imagine experiencing life as they do. Perspective-taking involves seeing situations from the other person’s point of view.
Perspective-taking helps people understand how others experience things. Empathy requires understanding the emotional impact of a situation. Empathy requires considering both the emotions someone feels and their causes. You do not need to share the same beliefs or opinions as someone else to empathize with them. You don’t need to feel exactly what they feel. The main goal of empathy is to understand the other person’s viewpoint. Understanding their perspective allows you to communicate in a way that shows you understand their experiences and feelings. Empathetic communication shows you understand what they face. Empathetic communication shows you understand the emotions they feel.
What Empathy Is Not?
Empathy and sympathy differ. Sympathy means you feel sadness or regret for someone who suffers. When you feel sympathy, you feel negative emotions about another person’s situation. Sympathy lets you see someone else’s suffering from a distance, without feeling their emotions. Empathy means you try to understand another person’s experiences and feelings, either by sharing them or understanding what they are like. Empathy needs you to actively try to understand the other person’s situation and feelings. Empathy needs a stronger connection or understanding than sympathy. Empathy needs you to mentally put yourself in the other person’s place to feel or understand their feelings and situation.
Three Kinds of Empathy
Empathy shows up in various forms. Individuals identified three empathy types. You can feel one type or multiple types at the same time. All empathy types involve understanding someone’s situation or feeling their emotions. Understanding these types helps you recognize how empathy works. People show empathy through thinking, feeling, and acting. These three types cover how empathy appears every day. Emotional empathy happens when you feel what someone else feels.
Emotional empathy focuses on sharing feelings. Your feelings match theirs. For a short time, you take on their feeling. Their feeling starts a feeling in you. Your feeling copies theirs. You share the emotion with the characters. You often see this when people watch movies. The movie’s sadness makes you cry because the characters feel sad. Cognitive empathy uses thinking, not just feeling.
You imagine yourself in their situation. You understand their feelings and view without feeling the emotion yourself. Imagine your friend tells you about a hard time. You listen and think about why they feel bad. You understand your friend’s view. You understand why your friend feels frustrated or upset. Your friend feels you understand their situation. You used cognitive empathy to understand your friend’s experience. You used thinking to fully understand your friend’s view. You thought about your friend’s situation. Compassionate empathy makes you act.
Compassionate empathy starts with understanding someone and leads to helping them. Compassionate empathy mixes understanding and wanting to help. Compassionate empathy turns feeling or understanding into action. When you see someone need help and give it, you show compassionate empathy. You understood the other person’s situation. Your understanding made you act. Empathy makes you want to lessen someone’s pain or help with their needs.
Showing Empathy in Daily Life
Context or environment changes how we express and experience empathy, so empathy appears differently depending on the situation. For instance, we express empathy differently in personal friendships than in professional settings. We can show empathy in many parts of our lives, as we have many opportunities to show understanding and compassion in our daily lives. We show understanding and compassion for family and friends’ feelings in our relationships, and workplaces and educational institutions provide chances to show empathetic understanding and compassion towards colleagues, clients, students, or teachers. Concrete illustrations and real-world examples clarify how we express empathetic understanding. The following examples will show how people apply empathetic understanding and compassion in their interactions, and these examples show how empathy creates deeper connections through mutual understanding and rapport.
How Empathy Helps a Friend Who Fails a Test
Imagine you are a student. Your friend is next to you. Your friend just received results for a major test. Your friend’s test result was a failing grade. Your friend looks sad. Your friend tells you she studied hard for the test. She feels upset because studying hard did not help her pass. You might have passed the test. Even if you passed, you remember failing tests before. You know how failing feels. You understand your friend’s sadness because you felt similar sadness. Your actions and words show her you remember failing and relate to her distress.
Your actions and words show empathy for a friend who failed a test. You focus on her feelings. You say words that show you understand her pain. You might say, “I am so, so sorry about your grade.” You add phrases that recognize her effort and feelings. For example, you might say, “I know you studied hard, and I understand your disappointment.” Your phrases show her you relate to her situation and feelings. You do not try to fix her problem. You do not tell her what she should have done.
Demonstrating Empathy When a Student Gets Bullied
I find myself in the school restroom and witness students causing trouble for another student. They are verbally harassing the individual and forced them into a restroom stall. I witness the bullying and recall my own experiences with bullying or mistreatment. I consider the student’s emotional state based on my experiences and try to understand the situation from their perspective. I can wait to intervene until the students leave, and after they do, I approach the restroom stall and help the student exit. Helping the student shows I recognize their pain, and I helped them. I also recognize the student suffers and the situation is unfair, so I choose to intervene and stop the bullying.
I can also stop the harm directly. I tell a school authority about the bullying to support the student. My experiences help me relate to the student’s pain and drive my intervention. Reporting the bullying demonstrates empathy because it shows I care about the student’s well-being and want to ensure their safety. Remembering my own experiences with being picked on helps me show empathy by allowing me to connect with the student’s feelings of fear, humiliation, and helplessness. To show empathy to someone being bullied, I can offer support, listen without judgment, and take action to help them, like reporting the incident or simply being present.
Showing Empathy to an Overwhelmed Co-Worker
My colleague faces an overwhelming workload and cannot finish their tasks. The coworker has a large workload, and the company requires them to work this weekend. My job differs from my coworker’s job, and I cannot take on their tasks because I lack the skills to help with their work. However, I have sacrificed personal time for work before; work commitments previously took time from my personal life. Because of this, I feel sympathy for my coworker because I understand their stress. I choose to support my coworker with a kind gesture. I visit the workplace briefly on the weekend and give my coworker a small treat. I present the coffee and donuts while they work and offer my coworker encouragement.
My actions do not reduce their workload or solve their problems, but my gesture shows I recognize their difficulty and understand sacrificing personal time for work. This action communicates my concern and compassion, and giving a treat shows I know they are struggling. Showing empathy doesn’t require solving someone’s problems; small gestures like offering support and a treat can demonstrate you care and understand their situation. Remembering similar experiences allows you to connect with their feelings and offer genuine understanding when a coworker is overwhelmed.
Showing Empathy to an Employee Having a Bad Day
A customer entered the store this morning and felt angry with my employee. My employee suggested screws to help the customer, but the screws did not work for the customer’s project. The customer yelled at my employee, and I stepped in to help. I found screws that worked for the customer’s project, and the customer left the store.
I immediately turned to my employee, who looked like they were about to cry. I felt sad for them, because I know yelling feels bad, and yelling at work feels especially bad. I tried to see things from their side, remembering how it feels to be treated unfairly. I showed my employee I understood how they felt and spoke to them. I told my employee I was sorry for what happened and said they probably felt upset. I acknowledged that being yelled at is unpleasant.
I let my employee calm down and told them they could take a break. I did not blame them for the incident or question their actions. I recognized they were struggling and told them their feelings were valid. My words helped them feel supported.
This experience showed me that understanding how someone else feels is important to show empathy. Validating someone’s feelings helps them feel heard and understood, which is crucial for healing. Putting myself in my employee’s shoes helped me respond with empathy because I could recall my own experiences with unfair treatment and emotional pain. When comforting an employee after a customer yells, you should offer support, acknowledge their feelings, and allow them space to process the situation. You should avoid blaming them, scrutinizing their performance, or minimizing their experience.
Showing Empathy to a Client Struggling With Loss
Clients seek help to start therapy, and this client lost his spouse some time ago. He struggles to accept and cope with his wife’s death, and he shares his feelings in therapy, describing his sorrow as recurring and persistent. His grief remains intense despite the time passed, and it’s understandable you’re asking why it still feels so strong after several months. I listen attentively and respectfully during our sessions, and I try to understand your grief. I know loss causes deep emotional pain, and I understand grief doesn’t follow a set path; I recognize grief changes and surprises people. Grief comes in waves of calm and sorrow, so it is normal for grief to keep coming back, even when you think you’re doing better.
I build trust with you by showing empathy and understanding, and I use words to support and validate your feelings. My words show my knowledge of and empathy for grief. I can say, “This is incredibly difficult, and I understand,” and “Grief often feels chaotic, and that’s normal.” I validate your specific pain, and I can say, “It’s okay to have setbacks; grief doesn’t disappear in a straight line.” My words show I understand your prolonged grief, and I acknowledge the difficulty of your journey through grief. It is okay to have really bad days even months after the loss, and I want you to know someone understands how difficult this is and will acknowledge the pain of specific moments. This is a difficult journey, and I am here to walk alongside you.
Showing Empathy to a Patient in Pain
An older woman entered the health clinic and told me about her significant knee pain. Doctors diagnosed her with arthritis in both knees. I can offer her options to relieve her pain, including medical treatments or coping strategies, as helping patients with pain is part of my job. Empathy means understanding and sharing another person’s feelings. I show empathy through my words, using my voice to convey concern and choosing language that demonstrates I understand her difficulties.
It’s important to show empathy because I want her to feel I acknowledge her feelings, not just her pain. To “put yourself in the patient’s position” means I try to imagine what it’s like to live with chronic knee pain and think about how it affects her daily life; I try to see things from her point of view. An example of an empathetic statement I could make is, “I understand this must be very difficult for you.” I show her I know arthritis impacts her life. I offer practical help and look for solutions after demonstrating understanding, because combining empathy and concrete steps works best.
Showing Empathy to a Friend Enduring a Break-Up
Your friend is painfully ending a romantic relationship, and this lets you show her understanding and compassion. You might have disliked her partner or thought the relationship harmed her, but you must set aside your judgments to truly support her now. Showing empathy doesn’t involve offering positive spins on the situation; instead, it means accepting her emotions without criticism and validating her distress, no matter what you think. You can show empathy physically by offering comfort and support through touch, which communicates compassion.
Through communication, you can show empathy by listening carefully to her feelings and giving her your full, undivided attention. Listening without judgment is important because it demonstrates support and empathy, regardless of your own perspective. When showing empathy, focus entirely on your friend’s current feelings and prioritize helping her through this difficult time. Imagine her pain as if it were your own, and acknowledge the pain she is experiencing.
Showing Empathy to a Sick Spouse
The speaker came home from work and found their partner sick with the flu. The family already had a busy week scheduled with many activities for the children, and the speaker also had a work trip planned. This situation illustrates how someone prioritizes another person’s needs, even when facing many personal responsibilities. The speaker demonstrated empathy by focusing on their partner’s discomfort, remembering their own experience with the flu, and understanding their partner’s pain.
Specifically, the speaker made tea for their partner as an example of showing empathy. Making tea showed the speaker recognized the illness and wanted to alleviate their partner’s discomfort. The article states that understanding someone’s feelings doesn’t always require words; a simple act like making tea can effectively convey comprehension and concern for their well-being. Ultimately, the speaker’s actions showed they valued their partner’s health above their own commitments and recognized their partner’s illness.
Showing Empathy Towards Animals
Empathy isn’t limited to people; it extends to animals too. Humans feel and respond to the emotions of other creatures, and specifically, we understand and share the feelings of animals. Consider a cherished dog nearing the end of its life. As the dog’s life nears its end, you try to bring joy and comfort to her during her last days, focusing on her physical health and comfort. Eventually, the dog experiences unbearable pain, and her quality of life declines, leaving her feeling no pleasure. You recognize how much pain your dog is in and understand her physical and emotional suffering.
This leads you to a difficult decision about her care. You ask a vet for help with her pain and ultimately choose to euthanize her to end her suffering. Your understanding and compassion for your dog motivate this decision. You acknowledge her suffering and realize her pain is overwhelming. Choosing to euthanize means you prioritize your dog’s well-being over your own sadness, demonstrating that her comfort and relief are more important than keeping her alive. Compassion for your dog’s pain guides this difficult, but loving, decision.
Why Empathy Matters
Empathy is important because it builds deeper relationships and is crucial for life. When people struggle, understanding from others comforts them and helps them feel less alone. Empathy helps you support others in important relationships. Expressing empathy shows others you are present, acknowledge their experience, and try to understand their emotions.
When you truly understand someone, they feel encouraged and supported, and they realize their thoughts, feelings, and experiences matter. A key benefit of feeling understood is improved well-being; it fulfills a basic human need. Ultimately, empathy connects people, even across distance and differences, fostering a sense of belonging, shared experience, and assuring them they have support and companionship during hard times.