Maybe it is just the human service major in me, but I think we all need a little lesson on empathy. Hopefully, everyone knows what empathy means, but if not, empathy is the ability to step inside someone else’s shoes and see the world from their points of view, see their struggles and try to understand them, try to share the feelings of the other person.
Why do we need to be reminded of empathy? Because for some reason, everyone thinks that their challenges are worse than the next person, and it’s like a competition. In this world, everyone is out for themselves. Everyone only cares about themselves. The people that do care about others, do they truly care about them whole-heartedly, or do they expect to gain something out of caring for someone?
Empathy should be a basic human response. Think about putting yourself in someone else’s situation and see how you would make it better, what you would do differently, or maybe you couldn’t handle it at all. We should be respecting one another and our opinions/ lifestyles rather than beating each other down about them. Our opinions are what make us different from one another, and if we were all the same, how would we learn to make the world a better place? Some people value work over education, some value education over work, some value their family, some don’t value family as much as you might think they should. But we all come from different backgrounds, different walks of life, and who are we to be telling the next person that what they are doing is wrong? Or not right? We might be able to nicely say that we disagree with them and have a different opinion, which is okay, great, fine, but there is no reason for us as humans to be degrading of different walks of life. Rather, maybe we should try to make a difference for once. Instead of trying to make life a competition about who has more than the next person, or whose doing better in life, whatever that means, let’s just encourage one another to keep doing whatever it is that they do. Encourage one another to accomplish goals in life, whatever they may be. Being a decent human being is not that hard. But yet it is so hard to come by these days.
I pose this article because I think it is important to remind ourselves that we are not the only ones out there struggling to make it week to week. Whether it be mentally, physically, financially, environmentally, or any other struggle there may be, there is someone else who is struggling just as much or worse. Rather than making it a competition, we should be offering advice and help to those in need. We should be uplifting and encouraging. We should be trying to understand others and their opinions, but that doesn’t mean that we have to adopt those opinions. We would all be better people if we practiced empathy on a regular day to day basis.
Most of all, I think as humans we need to be thankful and embrace what we do have, rather than always wanting better or always wanting more. We need to learn to be happy with ourselves and our lives, and if you’re not happy, then make a change. But always know that empathy, doesn’t take much effort, and neither does being a decent human being.
