Empathy is the ability to recognize, understand and directly experience the emotion of another. It means understanding that the behavior may be connected to something outside of the immediate situation. Empathy is being with a person using most of our senses. Seeing what their body language is when they are speaking; is it angry or are they quiet and possibly not wanting to talk at all. Does the body language match their tone of voice when you are listening to their story? Can you listen to the anger and hear why it is there? Can you hear the sadness in their voices; can you hear what makes them happy? Can you hear the story and see and understand why they feel the way they do? Can you listen without interruption? Can you say ‘I'm sorry you feel …show more content…
11 Humans seem to make the same immediate connection between the tone of voice and other vocal expressions and inner feeling.
Recognitions that are both accurate and tolerable are central features of empathy. 12 Empathy necessarily has a "more or less" quality. The paradigm case of an empathic interaction, however, involves a person communicating an accurate recognition of the significance of another person's ongoing intentional actions, associated emotional states, and personal characteristics in a manner that the recognized person can tolerate.
Empathy is a selfless act that enables us to learn more about people and relationships with people - it is a desirable skill beneficial to ourselves, others and society. Phrases such as ‘being in your shoes’ and ‘soul mates’ imply empathy. Empathy has even been likened to a spiritual or religious state of connection with another person or group of