It is very important when there are people in the environment who can sincerely support you, enter your position, empathize. Unfortunately, such properties are not inherent in everyone. These are empaths, people who have the ability to feel the inner emotional world of others.
According to Z. Freud, people with empathic abilities can not only objectively evaluate and understand the feelings of another, but also pass these feelings through themselves.
This article will help you learn how to develop empathy.
What is empathy?
Empathy is not just the ability to empathize and feel someone else’s soul, but the ability to understand a person’s mental and emotional state, feel his emotions and at the same time be aware that they belong to him.
Empath is a person who is subject to his own subconscious.
Empathy is not a reading of the inner emotional world of another person by his facial expressions and gestures. True empathy does not need all this.
Empathic communication has several levels. Simply put, it is like living a different life, while you need to leave your own and penetrate the spiritual world of another person. Having entered such a state, the empath does not turn off his sensitivity, thereby monitoring the emotional change in the mood of the opponent.
If possible, how to develop empathy?
Empathy is a conscious empathy, it can be learned, but it will seem extremely difficult for people who have never felt before. It is impossible to change in an instant. This will take a lot of time, first you need to change your beliefs.
According to psychologists, this is a natural gift, therefore, if there is the makings of empathy, it can be trained and improved.
Empathy development
- Start tracking the gestures and facial expressions of other people. This will help to learn to feel their emotional state. Follow people, learn character traits, observe from the side. This will help not only to learn a lot, but also allow you to learn to objectively evaluate your actions. You look at how a person behaves in different situations, in which he is more nervous or shows excitement.
- Awaken your sensitivity to others, help everyone who needs help, because of their capabilities.
- Practice listening techniques. This is the most important point. You need to learn to hear another person. To surrender to this process completely and deeply, not to interrupt, in no case to criticize, not to draw negative conclusions, not to set any guidelines. You just need to expose your soul, leave everything outside your “I” and completely immerse yourself in your opponent.
- Talk to strangers. Do not wait until you are asked for help, if you see a frustrated person crying, come and try to console him. You should not immediately climb with questions, people are different, there are closed ones. And some will gladly respond to your offer of help, sometimes it is easier for an outsider to tell about their everyday problems.
- Read books, fiction and scientific, any literature that will help you in self-improvement. Learn the techniques, practice them. Draw conclusions from what you read. This will come in handy in practice. All this will help develop the ability of empathy.
- Imbued with the feelings of another person, check yourself if you have identified them correctly.
Thus, you can figure out how to develop empathy.
A good training will be participation in the production of artistic sketches. This is a great practice in remembering faces, in the ability to look at yourself from the side, to transform into other people, birds and even animals.
How to develop empathy yet? This will also help role-playing games, dancing, watching touching films, listening to good music. We must strive to develop our own emotional sensitivity, and empathy will appear along with it.
How to develop empathy in an adult? This can be achieved through special training. It’s better to train with a group of people. It can be relatives, family, colleagues or friends.
How to develop empathy: exercises
- You need to guess the emotion. Each participant in the game is given leaflets describing a certain feeling. And one by one depicts him, everyone guesses.
- "Reflection in the mirror." One participant becomes a mirror, and the other looks at him and shows different gestures and facial expressions. The task of the first is to repeat, reflect. This exercise is done in pairs. After a few minutes, people change roles.
- "Talking on the phone". One person allegedly speaks on the phone without uttering a word, the task of the other is to guess who he is talking to.
This is just a small list of games and exercises for developing empathy. In fact, there are a huge number of them, and therefore for yourself you can choose the appropriate option definitely.
Well, here, the feeling of empathy is developed in an adult.
What kind of empath is this unique person?
People who have achieved a high level of empathy through self-improvement are, firstly, very kind, and this is a genuine quality. Secondly, they are compassionate, sincere, sensitive, attentive, they will never blame anyone for their own failures. Are merciful.
These people competently manage their emotions. Otherwise, they can lead to dire consequences associated with the deterioration of their own health.
Being an empath is a true gift. There would be more such people in our world, country, society, how many wars, troubles and misfortunes could have been avoided. Therefore, both adults and children need to develop the ability of empathy.
Is it worth it to develop empathy in a child?
Of course yes. This is a wonderful life experience in knowing yourself and others. The child gradually develops sensitivity.
The first impulses of empathy arise from infancy. When the baby begins to respond to the crying and exclamations of other children. Two and three year old kids already know the emotions of not only their own, but also those of others. Moreover, the child does not just empathize, but can already express sympathy for another child.
Development continues up to ten years. Already at this age, they can empathize with loved ones and can take their place.
If you see aggression in a child, which manifests itself in relation to other children and even toys, it is worth the alarm. It is necessary to fight this, so that later you do not have to solve even bigger problems.
Empathy in children can be judged by examining how developed it is in parents. If they possess the above qualities, then children will become empathists, of course.
Of course, its development will also depend on the psychological environment in which the child is brought up. In a good family, this is a manifestation of love, warmth, kindness, affection, tenderness.
Well, this is not enough, the development of empathy lies entirely with the parents. Why? Because compassion and sympathy is not just the spiritual development of the child, but also the study of the relationship between people. Children begin to look closely at others and are already trying to project their emotions onto themselves, that is, to look for similar experiences in them with their feelings.
So, now it’s clear why you need to develop empathy in children.
Empathy in adolescents
Family is the foundation. Its walls are love, respect, mutual understanding, affection, empathy, polite communication with children. A child cannot independently develop empathy. He does not understand the feeling of pain. Therefore, those teenagers have the makings of empathy who lived in our imaginary house.
Empathy in adolescents is possible only when they have a good, sincere relationship with their parents. If this contact is broken, the psyche of the child first of all suffers, which, of course, will negatively affect its development.
To have empathy means to be able to empathize and understand the emotional emotional world of another person, be it pain or joy. Therefore, it is vital to give a teenager a solid, trusting, friendly foundation.
How to develop empathy in children?
The best experience is transmitted through games. For example:
- You can read a fairy tale full of emotions, and then discuss with each child each character, describe their character traits, and take stock.
- If the fish that live in the aquarium and the marine inhabitants could speak, what would they tell?
- What did the kids think when the wolf got into their house, did they get scared or didn't understand anything? And what did they feel when they were in his stomach?
Through role-playing games, the child learns to reincarnate, while developing soulfulness and thus begins to understand the emotional world of another person.
Let the child come up with a fairy tale on behalf of a fox or giraffe, who live in a zoo, and then in the wild.
What does a leaf feel when it is ripped off a tree or bush?
You can hold games for associations, for example, to show children different objects or figures. Of course, they will understand that they are all different, and you can draw a parallel that people are also different, but they need to be understood so that everyone feels good, comfortable living and living together.
Thanks to the above examples, it’s clear how to develop empathy in a child.
It needs to be developed! It will make our world kinder and better. People are increasingly locked in themselves, think only of their personal lives, other people's problems they do not care. This is scary. If everyone begins to think about this situation and solve it, it will become easier for everyone to live and interact with each other.