A fun finding is when a person is blocked from imitating others, they can't recognize what the emotion is.
Mimicry helps us understand others, because by imitation we can feel what they feel.
I remember visiting a town in Canada that had a feeling of sorrow in it, and me and my friend that I was traveling with immediately felt some of that sorrow, and dampened our good mood. Spiders and other things didn't help. This is a basic form of empathy. We felt what others felt in that town.
At a motor …show more content…
Not feeling these emotions but totally understanding them.
So how do we get a grip on feeling empathy and make sure that what we feel is empathic concern, so that we can change the situation and the world, and not emphatic distress which not only hurts us.
Having empathic concern turns us into helpers. We are more likely to keep our emotions regulated.
Also, people with empathic concern are relatively stable in life.
People who experience empathic distress, have a whole other set of concerns and struggles.
Compassion is the key that separates the two kinds of empathy and turns empathic distress into empathetic concern.
The biggest question now is does empathy make you happier? Does being a more empathetic person lead to increases in happiness? I think it does.
Empathy makes you more capable of sharing joy, achievement and pleasure. Empathy makes you closer to others and strengthens your connections.
It also increases the likelihood that others will empathize with you when your going though your own pain and suffering, and that they will likewise be more likely to support