Empathy is a wonderfully selfless response to someone else’s plight. Not only do you feel sympathetic for someone in a bad situation, but you understand their feelings. You fully experience the event with the perspective of the person going through it.

In some cases it’s almost as if you’re physically and emotionally living through the experience yourself. This can be very draining for the highly empathetic individual. They’re always seeing situations where they internalize another person’s emotions and feel they have to help in some way.

Some people don’t have that level of empathy. They will happily help another person and might even understand the point of view of an individual. They don’t necessarily identify with what caused the problem in the first place. Even so, they still respond with empathy.

To understand more about yourself and your feelings, let’s take a look at the three different types of empathy. One isn’t better than another. They’re just different ways of responding to the same situation. Continue reading →

Stress is a killer. You might hear someone say, “The stress at my job is killing me!” They could be overstating the situation. In many cases though, stress can quite literally kill you.

Chronic stress is related to the six leading causes of death. It’s believed that more than 75% of all trips to the emergency room or a doctor are stress-related. So the next time a friend tells you stress is killing him, you might want to take that statement seriously.

Ask anyone you know and they’ll tell you of a stressful situation they experienced recently. This is an unfortunately common occurrence. You might have too much stress in your own life.

For a number of reasons, you can benefit from stressing less and relaxing more often. If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, just learn to empathize more. Continue reading →