Productive Empathy

Let’s talk about empathy.

It's a quality that's sorely needed in our society. While many people aim to be more empathetic, they're missing out on the most productive aspects of it. Empathy is defined as "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another." When most people practice empathy, what ends up happening is they feel what someone else is feeling and then get pulled into their mire. They're suffering and now we're suffering too. While that's relatable, it's not very productive.

So how can we use this virtue to benefit everyone involved? We let empathy inform us and, from there, we favor the high end.

Rather than letting empathy bog us down, think of it as a great way to gain more information. We need empathy to understand where someone is at. From there, with our fine level of feeling and perspective leading the way, we're able to deduce the most relevant course of action.

Solid in our own experience and fully informed, we're able to pull them up to their highest level of reality. Impractical empathy occurs when we let other people's feelings control our own experience. Productive empathy is used to inform and inspire.