Empathic Empaths?
Surprisingly, Most Empaths Don’t Act Especially Empathic
Empathic Empaths? Maybe not. Surprisingly, most of us empaths don’t act empathic.
In this article you’ll learn:
- What is an empath?
- What could we empaths do differently?
- And how can empaths become more empathic?
What Is an Empath?
Being an empath is not a behavior. It is not something that a person can choose. Nor is “being an empath” anything that a person can develop. (Unlike empathy, which we’ll get to separately.)
Instead, every empath was born as a Highly, Highly Sensitive Person. Altogether, 1 in 20 people on this sweet Planet Earth has been born as an empath.
So, what IS an empath? Simply a person with at least one lifelong gift for directly experiencing what it is like to be another person.
Altogether, this empath coach has identified 15 different gifts that an empath might have. You might have several or just one. Either way, being wired with even one talent as an empath means that you qualify.
But did you know how “Empath” is different from “Empathy”? Many of us are pretty fuzzy about the details.
What Empaths Lack Matters as Much as What We Have
Born empaths have talent, by definition. However, we are not born with skills. They’re what we lack.
Empath skills must be learned. Which isn’t difficult, so long as we don’t expect those skills to come automatically. Which is why so many of my students have improved their lives a lot by learning the system of Empath Empowerment®.
Aside from empath skills, we may also benefit from learning how to act in an empathic manner. Because unskilled empaths DON’T necessarily act empathic at all.
Shocking but true: Most of us empaths do NOT in an empathic manner. Even if we think that we do.
What Does It Mean, BEING Empathic?
Showing empathy or being empathic happen after a person has learned the skill of empathic behavior.
Some of us pick this up very early in life. Otherwise empathy can always be learned. This is a social skill, not a skill for moving in consciousness (which is what skilled empaths learn).
Empathy is a very human skill. It happens when consciousness is positioned at fellow human beings. Nothing fancy. Simply human! Empathy is done through human actions like these:
- Listening
- Watching an other person’s facial expression
- Asking questions to learn what another person thinks or feels or does
After paying attention in human ways, empathy helps us to relate… humanly.
Empathy, sympathy, compassion — all these are versions of the same thing. But none of them is worth much, really, unless we follow that up with something else that is also very human…
SHOWING Empathy
Saying things and doing things — that is what it means to act empathic.
Sweet! Important! Examples are:
- Smiling when you hear somebody else’s story or sorrow or joy. (Different kinds of smiles for each, right?)
- Nodding when you listen to that person’s news.
- Touching that person’s hand.
- And definitely NOT vibing people out, etc. Although that’s what unskilled empaths love to do all day long.
When you show empathy by acting empathic, this is a powerfully human kind of behavior. Spiritually sacred, I’d call it. Also very human.
Let’s Remember, Empathic Behavior Can Be for Good Things, Too
Sympathy, compassion, and empathic behavior — let’s not get all gloomy about them.
Because they can involve sharing human joys, too. Infinite variations on delight, not just life’s infinite variations of human misery!
- Just as every empath can become a Skilled Empath
- Every empath can learn to act like a friend. Which includes showing empathy.
