Empathy Essay

“Empathy is the ability to enter into the life of another person, to accurately perceive his

current feelings and their meanings” (Kalisch, page 1, “What is Empathy”). When someone has

empathy it means that they can comprehend how a person is feeling at any given moment and

that they understand why someone made a certain decision. Usually empathetic people tend to

share the same habits and actions throughout everyday life. The habits these people will most

likely possess are: cultivating curiosity about strangers, Trying another person’s life, and to listen

hard/open up. A true empathetic person would most likely have these 3 traits otherwise, they

might not be as empathetic as they say.

Highly empathetic people are usually curious about strangers because of the natural

trait of curiosity. It’s good to sometimes talk to strangers, not to be annoying and keep

questioning them but to maybe learn some valuable lessons and inquire new information. With

curiosity, we talk to people outside our typical social circle, discovering people’s lives that are

very different from our own. When we put ourselves in the mind of someone else’s, we can

understand and maybe even help these people.

What highly empathetic people also do is trying other peoples’ lives. That saying, “walk

a mile in another man’s shoes” in this case literally means live someone else’s life. What’s a

better way to understand everything about someone than actually doing what they do? By doing

this, you can really see how hard other people’s lives are and what they encounter every day.

The best way to learn is experience and this is the most hands-on way to get that experience.

Another trait that comes along with being empathetic is to listen hard/open up. What

shows a true empathetic person

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