Do you want to be more influential towards friends, family, loved ones, and even strangers in your day-to-day life? If yes, just be empathetic. Empathetic people are more likely to have more friends, more meaningful relationships, and be highly productive generally. While the task of being more empathetic might seem intimidating, it is possible with practice over time.

What Is Empathy?

Empathy means understanding someone else’s experience so much that you can imagine having their experience for yourself. It is the foundation for affection and understanding. It helps us in relationships to understand the needs, experiences, and feelings of the other person.‌ 

Types of Empathy?

1. Affective (or emotional) empathy enables you to feel someone else's emotions.
2. Cognitive empathy allows you to acknowledge another person's mental state and better understand their perspective. This is more of a skill than emotional empathy and takes time to foster.

How to be more empathetic? 

1.Listen to other people and give them your full attention. 

Practice active listening when you speak to other people, and begin exchanges with the intent of learning from them. Do not intrude or spend the whole discussion detracted casting your responses. It's important to stay in the moment and authentically listen if you want to empathize and relate to someone. 

2.Imagine yourself in someone else's shoes. 

The best way to understand someone else's viewpoint is to pretend you are them for a moment. When listening to someone, account for their life and the challenges they face. Then, suppose how you might feel if you were in their situation. What would you do? What feelings would you have? In time, you will start perceiving what the other person is feeling. 

3.Acknowledge the other person's feelings and offer support. 

When someone confides their feelings to you, they generally seek confirmation and compassion. Think about how they must feel and then verbally admit those feelings. Follow up by displaying concern and support; ask them how they are doing or if there is anything you can do to aid. 

4.Listen, but also share. 

Empathy isn't just about having understanding for others but also about showing ourselves to others. Trusting someone with your genuine thoughts and feelings is pivotal to making a healthy and strong relationship with someone else. Empathy is fantastic because it isn't just a one-way road. It can go both ways. 

5.Don’t judge. 

Keeping an open mind will help you empathize better. Maintain a nonjudgmental station in your day-to-day interactions and do your best to account for where other people are coming from. When you approach them with no judgment, you’ll feel more open to hearing their perspective (even if you disagree with it). 

6.Introduce yourself to new perspectives through books, movies, and games. 

Soaking different novels, films, shows, games, and other media is an excellent route to develop empathy. Fiction and nonfiction stories enhance your capability to empathize by encouraging you to conceive what life would be like if you were someone else.

How is empathy different from sympathy?

Sympathy refers to showing grief or pity for someone else, whereas empathy is the capability to understand and actively participate in someone else's feelings. It's different from sympathy, as sympathy is simply concentrated on responding or replying to the experiences. Empathy takes it one step further to being able to put yourself in the person's shoes. Sympathy is not as useful when you want to forge a genuine relationship with someone because it does not concern seeing things from their standpoint whereas empathy does.