so figuring out that
āA person in my vicinity is sad and therefore I am also sad because I am experiencing empathyā
and
āA person in my vicinity is sad and therefore I am feeling distress because I care about how they feel but currently canāt help alleviate their sadnessā
are two different things was mindblowing
Wait.
WHAT?
The first is empathy, specifically emotional empathy, where you can effectively āfeelā another personās emotions and your own emotions reflect theirs as an automatic response.
The second is compassion, which is being aware of someoneās distress and having the desire to alleiviate it.
Generally, what people call empathy is actually compassion. You can care about someoneās pain and happiness without actually feeling those things with them, and you can feel another personās emotions without actually caring about them.
To make it easier to understand
Sympathy= āIām sorry broā
Empathy=āI feel you broā
Compassion=āI wish I could help broā
