Is empathy a blessing or a curse?

Is empathy a blessing or a curse?

According to the Wikipedia empathy is the experience of understanding another person’s condition from their perspective. You place yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling.

Is empathy a blessing or a curse? I have questioned this myself many times in life. I have felt weak and like an idiot for feeling other people pain so much. I know it is a good trait to have but sometimes I really can’t draw a line between someone else sadness and my sadness. For example if a friend is going through something and they come and tell me I will be thinking about their problem for days and feel equally sad or whatever emotion they are feeling and will try to find solutions and ways to make them feel better. I catch up energies really fast.

I don’t know when I started to be so empathetic or was I always like this but one thing is for sure it can be a blessing and a curse. Blessing in a way when I see or hear someone else problem, I am grateful that I am not going through that or if I ever go through it, I know what I will do. Curse in a way that I suffer and suffer for the fact that a loved one is going through that, they might even get over that pain but I will be thinking about it for longer than they might even think about it. I forget the fact that we all have to go through our share of pain and experiences in life.

I would say balance is really important and I always remind myself that whatever happens in our life, happens for a reason.

 

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