Putting Oneself In The Other’s Shoes
More than once we have heard of this term: empathy. What is it? Empathy is the ability to perceive or interpret what another person may feel, or perhaps even think, always in a common context.
That is to say, it is a way of understanding and understanding what the other feels, but from an empathic position – worth the redundancy – putting oneself in the place of the other. A developed form of empathy involves not only understanding what the other feels, but responding to those feelings.
Perhaps proposed like this, it sounds like empathy was about something metaphysical or a divine ability, only for a select few. But the reality is that at some point we all develop empathy, to a greater or lesser extent. It would be good to develop it and enhance it to the maximum because it will strengthen us as people and in our relationships.
How to develop empathy
So how to be more empathetic? The ability to empathize directly depends on the ability one has to identify their own feelings. Mastering empathy requires being self-aware, non-judgmental and, especially, having the ability to listen and observe the other person carefully.
Empathy is not about understanding the other for our benefit, but about understanding them for yours. Attention is almost essential to be able to be empathetic. If while we are talking with another person we are thinking about something else, about our own problems, or what we will say when the other person finishes talking, we can never really find out what the other individual is feeling.
Much of all this is about being capable of an understanding beyond the verbal, and detaching from our own circumstances to put ourselves, as they say, “in the shoes of the other.”
Keep in mind that people do not always express what we feel in words, we can be saying one thing and feeling another, or we can say nothing and be feeling something. He who has empathy will be able to see through words and gestures and understand a little further.
Putting yourself in the other person’s shoes
It is normal that today we become a little selfish without realizing it, worried only about our problems, and thinking only about ourselves. But that leads to taking the opposite route to that of empathy. Empathy mobilizes us to feel the pain of the other, to regain interest in the people around us and to consolidate the relationship that we have with each of them.
Empathy is easier to put into practice as we get to know people a little more, since frequent relationships allow us to discover the reasons for the bad mood, happiness or sadness of the person with whom we relate, and also to understand his way of acting consistent with that state of mind.
Empathy is a great characteristic and we must value it as such. When someone empathizes with us, you have to know how to appreciate it, and when someone needs us, you have to develop this wonderful capacity to the fullest in order to help the other person, which always means great satisfaction.
