Value Of Empathy

  “Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another, and feeling with the heart of another.”

 Anonymous

Empathy| In today’s world the value of empathy has just reduced to a term to express. The busy life and numerous task headed it become quite oblivious that people despite understanding tend to ignore also with the increased dependency on liquid asset has led people force not to think so deep. Value of empathy as it suggests is the value given to the ability to understand or share the feelings of another.

Human kind is such a different kind for we have emotions, love, thoughts, culture, dignity, hatred, and what not. We have plenty of emotions to frame, nourish, grind and express. Amongst these emotions empathy also plays its role.  So, ever wondered why we get attached to other person’s grief, memories, happiness, joy etc. Why, we care for other people when we relate to them?

Because of “Empathy”, simple enough to understand this term and yet a vague measure to implement. Very encouraging when expressed or read in text but very touchy when need to present. The ability to understand or share the feelings of others becomes complex when one itself is occupied with its own world.

A quote by Maya Angelou describes the exact idea:

“I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it.”

There is a story of a king who had a large empire, spread up to the river in the east and up to the forest in the west, mountains in the north and to the plains in the south. The king was very pompous and greedy. He had no empathy for poor’s and also to his court attendants. He had a very clever minister running his affairs on day to day basis. The minister had a heart of gold; he listened to the problems very attentively and gave decision on the basis of relevant observation. Also, he knew the value of empathy and based his decision on observation with keen understanding of other. The king affairs were going well until the minister retired. The king lacking the value of empathy was just a man with logic and facts; as a result the innocents were getting punished. The facts and proofs started to be transformed and soon the anarchy spread through his kingdom. The fool king lost his control before the anarchy consumed the kingdom to replace with republic and the kind was slaughtered.

The story says that a judgment with proof and logic is just like a king with facts and logic. But with value of empathy one may add a character to be righteous and justful. The ability to understand and share feelings of other reflects the bond and amplifies the communication medium between the two.

Be like a minister in the story not like a king. Learn the value of empathy life will be easier to confront and live. The world is to communicate with each other and the art of empathy is the key tool to build up healthy communication.