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Mentorship October 4, 2016
When someone you care about is having bad day, what is your initial reaction? Are you a woman who prefers using words or hugs to comfort someone? Are you a woman who tries to find the silver lining in dismaying situations?
Depending on your answers to these questions, you either respond with sympathy or empathy. By definition, being sympathetic means sharing someone’s sorrow and being compassionate while being empathetic means putting yourself in another person’s shoes. But because these definitions sound similar, the difference between the two emotions often gets mixed up.
To explain this, Brené Brown put together an animated RSA Short that clearly separates sympathetic and empathetic reactions. In this video, Brown talks about how “empathy fuels connection” while “sympathy drives disconnection.” For instance, when someone is stuck in a dark and overwhelming hole, the empathetic person climbs down to reassure the other person that he or she is not alone. The sympathetic person, on the other hand, keeps his or her distance.
As Brown explains, “Empathy is a vulnerable choice because in order to connect with you, I have to connect with something in myself that knows that feeling.”
To learn more about how your responses affect other people’s lives, watch the video above.
