Empathy and compassion

Empathy and compassion stem from the same desire — to better relate and understand others’ experiences. But, there’s also a difference between what it means to be an empathetic person versus a compassionate person.

Compassion and empathy are fundamentally different but closely related. Consider these definitions:

• Empathy definition: empathy is our feeling of awareness toward other people’s emotions and an attempt to understand how they feel.
• Compassion definition: compassion is an emotional response to empathy or sympathy and creates a desire to help.

Empathy is an understanding of our shared humanity. It’s the ability to see yourself in another person’s shoes. Compassion adds another dimension of a desire to help.

As a person, both are crucial.

The good news is that you can train and improve both empathy and compassion.