Having empathy for other people involves being able to understand what another person is experiencing or feeling. Empathy is an important element in building strong relationships with other people and helps resolve conflict by encouraging better understanding among people.
Empathy is not a trait that someone is born with and empathy can be learned. Developing empathy skills involves practicing certain behaviors when interacting with others. This includes responding to a person’s body language and through active listening where a person listens to what another is saying rather than preparing what they want to say next. To be empathetic a person should focus all their attention on listening to what another is saying and try to accurately understand the emotional state that they are in. Awareness of another’s feelings can be difficult if they are in pain or depressed but sometimes simply listening, so that the other person has someone to share their feelings with, can be enough to express empathy.
