Empathy (#22)

I often remember all the things that were horrible in my life, rarely the joyous ones. I usually remember the memorys vividley. Even if this bad thing was not a very big thing. It still affected me and was a catalyst for what would help me understand later on in my life; empathy. Im not sure why I usually remember negative things. I wished it werent, but it is, its how my mind thinks, ive been presented with more negative connotations of life than the positive ones.

I often see or hear of horrible things happening to other people or things. Those memories are implanted on those peoples mind, and depending on the person, who knows if they have the mental will power to stand up against the emotions they're feeling and feel okay about what has happened. Some people have mental break downs everytime they remember something horrible. When i hear the stories, or watch a video, or read a book; i can feel the emotions, like poking and prodding in my body, the illusion forms in my mind of the same thing that has happened to them. I feel the anger, the sympathy, the stupidity, the sadness, the happiness; i feel the emotions. I have that empathy residing in my body.

But what is empathy? By definition its the ability to identify another individuals situation, emotions, feelings, and motives. Its basically the ability to see someones point of view from their view. To step into their shoes, to become them for a moment, to understand why they are doing what their doing.

I gained an understanding of empathy through the negative, horrible things that have happened to me. I started to ask questions and wonder why people did these things. I never did them. I always asked my friends and family and they tried telling me. I slowly gained a full understanding of empathy after I started using the empathy in action. I would often see people getting picked on or doing something stupid to fit in. I could feel the emotional state they were trancing through. I started trying to put myself in everyones perception, in their shoes, so to speak; As to try and understand why they were doing what they were doing. The idea of understanding why they would do what they do, was very liberating. I could suddenly makes sense of why people did what they did, why they thought what they thought.

This Empathy driving through my body keeps me wanting to do things to help people with the horrible events. It makes me want to help people understand themself if they want to understand themselfs, it makes me want to help them if they need help, I want people to just feel like themselves, feeling good (whatever that means to them), and just have the feeling of positiveness flowing through their body like energy. I want people to feel good about themselves, granted they want to feel good about themselves.

Empathy has taught me alot about life, and inadvertantly showed me alot about psychology. The negative things in life have done its role to show me how great the positive things are, and in reality without any bad things in the way, you wouldnt feel the same way about those good things. Empathy has helped me overcome mental barriers that can be hard for others to overcome, to step up my life in a whole new way.

To understand is the begginning of knowing....