Yes, this different to my usual projects but I wanted to make it to inform people about sympathy vs empathy vs being an empath. ♦︎What is sympathy?♦︎ Sympathy is being able relate to someone's experiences, in an effort to comfort then when they're sad, hurt, etc. It's a way to relate to someone's experiences but in a non-emotional way. Imagine you see someone out in the rain, sympathy is knowing that they might want a coat, and offering it to them, but staying inside ♦︎What is empathy?♦︎ Empathy is being able to understand and relate to someone's feelings, although it is a skill, and you consciously do it. Empathy is a skill anyone can learn. Using my rain analogy, you feel that coldness that cold rain gives you and you understand they're probably cold but you aren't actually in the rain. ♦︎What is being an empath?♦︎ Being an empath is trait not a skill, it's like being empathetic subconsciously, you just absorb people's emotions like a sponge. This is the most well known kind of empath, but there is others, which I will go into later. Suppose you are that kind of empath, you would feel as if you are in the rain, you'd feel the feelings of the person out into the rain. ♦︎Types of empath♦︎ Many sources debate the number of those of empath, I will go over some of the main ones, the agreed-by-most ones that according to psychology are the main three. It's very possible to be multiple types of empath and most empath are (like me!). 1. Emotional empaths. Pretty well known, this is the famous 'emotional sponge' form of empathy. Most empaths fall into this category. 2. Cognitive empathy. Understanding someone's perspective in an intellectual way, seeing why they feel the way they do. 3. Mirror empathy (that's what I call it at least). Mirroring someone's emotions, and expressing them. This can help the mirrored person understand how they feel better. There is debated other types like animal empath, environmental empath, etc but I won't go into those because these are the main 3 types. ♦︎My experience as an empath♦︎ For most of my life I didn't know I was an empath, I thought I just had quickly changing emotions. During stressful times I often absorbed other people's stress too, overwhelming me. I usually was labelled as 'sensative' or 'very emotional' but only recently did I realise that I'm an empath. I suppose it's the closest to mind-reading that we have in a way. Now that I understand that I'm an empath it certainly explains a lot, why I'm overwhelmed in big crowds, why I suddenly get snatches of other's emotions, and more. I definitely wish I had known my 'emotional tune-out' tricks sooner, they would have been very useful! I've been practising certain tricks and things for a while, so now I can tune in and out of people's emotions, it's certainly a lot easier to tune in than out! In my life, I've only met a few people in my life that I can't absorb the emotions of, are they guarding themselves deliberately? I don't know. ♦︎Outro♦︎ Well, now I hope you understand what it means to be an empath! If you need anything cleared up, ask me in the comments.
All by moi
