We have all walked with empathy and sympathy to varying degrees.
Although sympathy is traditionally defined as a feeling of pity and
sorrow for others' misfortune, I've grown to understand it in terms of
support, harmony and fellowship - giving or receiving. Sympathy is an
acknowledgment of emotional hardship along with the provision of comfort
and assurance. Empathy, on the other
hand, is understanding what others are feeling because you have
experienced it yourself or can put yourself in their shoes. Both
indicate attunement. Both facilitate the free flow of life energy
between energetic beings. It is being open to the way everyone and
everything around us feels - observing and then deciding what we want to
do with that sensory input. Empathy and sympathy serve as an access
point to the more subtly communicated or guarded aspects of one another
and the bigger picture we are a part of. They bond us.
We are often inundated by our senses. It can seem quite burdensome and exhausting in some instances and invigorating in others. The feeling realizations that we arrive at are like the ocean, with waves cresting and bottoming out or with tides ebbing and flowing continuously. That push and pull is very real. We develop ways of managing the uninterrupted stream of input. Some people block themselves off entirely, some build elaborate defenses, some are inspired by and channel it, some reroute it, some filter the desirable from the not so, some unconsciously own it (to both their benefit/detriment and others'), some gleefully drift in it and allow it to wash over them, and some of us absorb and transmute it. We all dabble in some way or another as there is no way for us to avoid its presence and effect. Our attunement, no matter the state or our current understanding and use of it, is a fundamental aspect of our Being. We are connected sensitive beings. I do not feel that there is any way to physiologically detach yourself from what you are inherently a part of, however, there are numerous ways that we attempt to do so intellectually and psychologically.
We are often inundated by our senses. It can seem quite burdensome and exhausting in some instances and invigorating in others. The feeling realizations that we arrive at are like the ocean, with waves cresting and bottoming out or with tides ebbing and flowing continuously. That push and pull is very real. We develop ways of managing the uninterrupted stream of input. Some people block themselves off entirely, some build elaborate defenses, some are inspired by and channel it, some reroute it, some filter the desirable from the not so, some unconsciously own it (to both their benefit/detriment and others'), some gleefully drift in it and allow it to wash over them, and some of us absorb and transmute it. We all dabble in some way or another as there is no way for us to avoid its presence and effect. Our attunement, no matter the state or our current understanding and use of it, is a fundamental aspect of our Being. We are connected sensitive beings. I do not feel that there is any way to physiologically detach yourself from what you are inherently a part of, however, there are numerous ways that we attempt to do so intellectually and psychologically.
