Avoiding Empathy Burnout
For years I struggled with burnout as a result of my emotional capacity for feeling empathy.
I was exhausted.
Any time someone expressed sadness, frustration, hopelessness or a myriad of other emotions around their circumstances, I was invested emotionally right along with them. How is it that this benchmark of emotional intelligence was creating havoc in my own life?
Over time, I learned that not all empathy is good. Not all empathy is healthy. There are different types of empathy and because I can easily empathize with others, I have to be VERY careful what that empathy looks like for me.
The Basics: Definition
Clinically, empathy is “the ability to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling.”
According to Brené Brown who focuses on elements of vulnerability, “Empathy is communicating that incredible healing message of ‘You’re not alone.‘”
Differentiate: Empathy vs Sympathy
Empathy is often confused with sympathy. Sympathy is a feeling of pity or sorrow. In Kate Thieda’s article in Psychology Today, she discusses Brene Brown’s differentiation of empathy from sympathy using four attributes originally discussed by Theresa Wiseman:
- To be able to see the world as others see it (AKA: putting our own “stuff” aside)
- To be nonjudgmental…
