Compassion and empathy are two related terms that, while sometimes used interchangeably, have different and distinct meanings.
Empathy is characterized by an awareness of other people's emotional experiences and an attempt to feel those same emotions from their perspective. Compassion is characterized by the desire to take action to help the other person.
1. Recognition of the suffering of others 2. Understanding that suffering is a universal experience 3. Understanding and empathizing with the emotional experiences of other people
The differences between compassion vs. empathy include what the terms mean, the feelings they evoke, and the behaviors they inspire.
Empathy involves the ability to understand what another person feels. It means you can imagine yourself in another person's situation and feel
You might care about someone’s situation and feel moved to help them, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you understand what they are going through.
Compassion tends to be based on taking action, whereas empathy is rooted in feeling. Because compassion is action-based, people are more likely to feel that their efforts have been useful.
"Burnout usually has a gradual onset in which we tend to feel physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted after having been in a prolonged state of stress," Stone says.
When giving/caring/showing up for someone else feels more frustrating, stressful, and anxiety provoking for you—often to the extent that you struggle
This might include aiding someone with a task, such as carrying someone's groceries to their car. Or it might involve offering other