Empathy vs Sympathy Copy

Maurice Cheeks helps Natalie Gilbert sing the National Anthem at Trail Blazers game – YouTube

This video shows the winner of a song competition who had to sing the national anthem in front of a large audience and someone who acted on his feelings.

What would you have done? E.g. gone to help and support like the coach, stood by and done nothing or felt bad but still did nothing, cheered her on, boo-ed her, criticized her.

Many may have felt sympathy. Sympathy can sometimes be seen as lip service where we just express our thoughts to another about our feelings but don’t emotionally engage and try to put ourselves in the other person shoes and choose to see where they are seeing from. Like saying: “I am so sorry for you” or “Sorry that this has happened”.

What’s the difference between this coach and the rest who were present? What made this coach stand out? He “acted” on his feelings of empathy and took action. Do you know how many people in the world are naturally empathic? Only 7%

Brené Brown on Empathy – YouTube

Brene Brown gives her take on what Empathy is. We frequently get confused about the difference between sympathy and empathy and there are various analogies and examples that explain this here.