Jessica Uche

Sympathy is great. A feeling of pity or sorrow over the plight of people. “Heiya, sorry dear, get well soon.” “You lost your mom? Wow! So sorry about that.”

But you see, empathy is greater. It enables you to identify with the emotions, feelings and thoughts of others. You are able to put yourself in the shoes of others thereby enabling you to act more humane and less-robotic.

Empathy thrives on observing and listening. With empathy you are able to observe, listen, deeply understand the situation at hand and know how best to lend help. This help can come in the form of crying with the person, laughing over silly jokes with them, encouraging them and even as supposedly little as listening to them without saying a thing. O yes! Sometimes we just want someone to listen to us.

And so in empathy you see, “You are ill? Have you taken medications? What did the doctor say?” and not the usual “pele, get well soon”
In empathy you see “Sorry dear, your mom is in a better place now, cheer up ehn…” in place of “Heiya, sorry ehn, RIP to the deceased”

No wonder emotional intelligence (EQ) thrives on empathy. Empathy enables you to emotionally connect with people in varied situations and proper mastery of it endears you to people, aids you to profer realistic solutions and best way to handle situations.

Be Empathetic.
Be Emotionally Intelligent.