Empathy, Sympathy & Compassion

I was scrolling through social media, you know, the usual, when I came across a post pointing out the difference between empathy, sympathy and compassion. My whole life I used those words interchangeably because I thought they all meant the same thing: feeling sorry for someone. I could have not been more wrong 😓

Here are the actual definitions of the three words and why it's important to remember them!

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Empathy is feeling the same emotions as the other person.

❝I feel how you feel,❞

The opposite of empathy is unempathetic. Unempathetic people are just people who have not felt what the other person is currently feeling. 

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Sympathy is understanding what the other person is going through.

❝I know how you feel,❞

The opposite of sympathy is unsympathetic. If someone is unsympathetic they are not able to understand the emotions and/or the situation the other person is going through. 

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Compassion is feeling care and warmth for the other person.

❝Is there anything I can do to help?❞

The opposite of compassion is uncompassionate. An uncompassionate person does not help someone during difficulties in their life because they don't care.

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I always thought that if someone had low/no empathy they were a stink person, but in reality they could have a lot of compassion and sympathy to give! Now this may sound contradictory BUT just because someone might be lacking in one of these three areas, it does not erase the fact that they can still care for others.

Ahh sorry if this next bit doesn't make too much sense, but how I see it an uncompassionate and/or an unsympathetic person can overcome it if they want to. After all, it's nothing permanent. If they so desire to, they can learn ways to become more sincere and eventually grow.