It is very important when there are people around who can sincerely support you, enter into your position, empathize. Such properties are inherent, unfortunately, not for 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 let these experiences pass 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 the mental and emotional state of a person, feel his emotions and at the same time realize that they belong to him.
An empath is someone who controls their own subconscious.
Empathy is not reading the inner emotional world of another person by his facial expressions and gestures. A true empath doesn't need all this.
Empathic communication has several levels. Simply put, it's like living a different life, while you needleave 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 opponent's mood.
If possible, how to develop empathy?
Empathy is 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 long time, first you need to change your beliefs.
According to psychologists, this is a natural gift, so if you have the makings of empathy, it can be trained and improved.
Developing empathy
- Start to follow the gestures and facial expressions of other people. This will help you learn to feel their emotional state. Follow people, study character traits, observe from the sidelines. This will help not only learn a lot, but also allow you to learn to objectively evaluate your actions. You will see 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, to the best of your ability.
- Practice the listening technique. This is the most important point. You need to learn to listen to the other person. Give yourself completely and deeply to this process, do not interrupt, do not criticize in any way, do not draw negative conclusions, do not put any attitudes. You just need to bare your soul, leave everything outside of your "I" andcompletely immerse yourself in your opponent.
- Talk to strangers. Don't wait to be asked for help, if you see an upset person crying, come over and try to console. Do 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 a stranger to tell about their everyday problems.
- Read books, fiction and science, any literature that will help you in self-improvement. Learn techniques, practice them. Draw conclusions from what you read. This will definitely come in handy in practice. All of these will help develop the capacity for empathy.
- Finding the feelings of another person, check yourself if you have identified them correctly.
Thus, you can figure out how to develop empathy.
Participation in the production of artistic sketches will be a good training. This is a great practice in remembering faces, in the ability to look at yourself from the outside, to transform into other people, birds and even animals.
How to develop empathy more? Role-playing games, dancing, watching touching films, listening to good music will also help with this. You need to strive to develop your 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 is better to train in the company of 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 sheets of paper that describe a certain feeling. And in turn one depicts him, everyone guesses.
- "Reflection in the mirror". One participant becomes a mirror, and the other looks into it and shows different gestures and facial expressions. The task of the first is to repeat everything, to reflect. This exercise is done in pairs. After a few minutes, people switch roles.
- "Talk on the phone". One person allegedly speaks on the phone without saying 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 to develop empathy. In fact, there are a huge number of them, and therefore you can definitely choose the right option for yourself.
Well, now, the sense 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 cultivation are, first of all, very kind, and this is a genuine quality. Secondly, they are compassionate, sincere, sensitive, attentive, they will never blame anyone for their own failures. Merciful.
These people manage their emotions well. Otherwise, they can lead to terrible consequences associated with the deterioration of their own he alth.
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 be avoided. Therefore, both adults and children need to develop the capacity for empathy.
Is it worth developing 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 for empathy arise from infancy. When the baby begins to respond to the cries and exclamations of other children. Two- and three-year-old children already know the emotions of not only their own, but also those around them. At the same time, 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 know how to 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 sounding the alarm. It is necessary to fight this so that later we do not have to solve even bigger problems.
You can judge empathy in children by studying how it is developed in parents. If they have the above qualities, then children will become empaths, 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 a child, but also the study of relationships 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 whywe need to develop empathy in children.
Developing empathy in adolescents
Family is the foundation. Its walls are love, respect, mutual understanding, affection, empathy, polite communication with children. A child cannot develop empathy on his own. He doesn't 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 child's psyche suffers first of all, which, of course, will negatively affect his development.
To have empathy means to be able to empathize and understand the emotional inner world of another person, whether it be pain or joy. Therefore, it is vital to give the teenager a solid, trusting, friendly foundation.
How to develop empathy in children?
The best experience is through games. For example:
- You can read a fairy tale full of emotions, and then discuss each character with the children, describe their character traits, and draw some conclusions.
- If fish that live in an aquarium and marine life could talk, what could they say?
- What did the kids think when a wolf got into their house, were they scared or did not understand anything? And what did it feel like being in his stomach?
Through role-playing games, the child learns to reincarnate, while developing sincerity and thus begins to understand the emotional world of anotherhuman.
Let the child come up with a fairy tale on behalf of a fox or a giraffe who lives in the zoo, and then in the wild.
How does a leaf feel when it is plucked from a tree or a bush?
You can play association games, for example, 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 can live well, live comfortably and exist together.
The above examples show how to develop empathy in a child.
It needs to be developed! This will make our world kinder and better. People are increasingly withdrawing into themselves, thinking only about their personal lives, they do not care about other people's problems. This is scary. If everyone starts to think about this situation and solve it, it will become easier for everyone to live and interact with each other.
