I am an empath and I believe in empathy.

Empathy is defined as the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions without having to go through the same experiences. It is often characterized as the ability to “put oneself in another’s shoes” and resonate another person’s emotions. When we watch a sad movie and cry along with the characters when someone dies, that’s empathy. When we see someone in pain and feel a response in our own gut, that’s empathy. It is a positive and core skill in building close relationships, maintaining friendships, and developing strong communities.

An empath is a highly sensitive and emotional individual who possesses the ability to step into someone else’s shoes consistently and frequently, nearly every second of the day. Empaths feel emotions in everything, sometimes to an extreme, and are usually less likely to intellectualize feelings. Empaths are often very creative, drawn to healing and helping, and are people who others are willing to offload their problems on.

I grew up with a lot of emotion and always wondered if there was something wrong with me because I felt things so deeply. I’ve never been able to handle a lot of violence or tragedy in television or movies, I’ve always tried to give as much as I could in relationships, and often found myself feeling others' emotions so much that I would take them on as my own, wanting to help in any way possible.

The older I get, the more I begin to accept my emotions and realize how lucky I am to be an empathetic person. Empathy is one of the most important qualities an individual or group can practice. Being empathetic is one of the simplest things you can do to avoid conflict and a world without empathy would be chaotic, uncivilized, and an ugly one. Empathy creates connections between people, bringing them together to help forge friendships and love. Without it, we would feel vulnerable, uncared for, and lonely.

“I believe that empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.” –Roger Ebert

I believe that empathy can create a better, more beautiful world. Connecting and caring about one another makes people feel good and makes the world become a much nicer place to live in. There are even organizations that have been built around the idea of generating more empathy in our world. They believe that if we can support the empathy in people, we can change the entire world to a better place.

So why should you practice empathy?

Empathy isn’t a skill that comes naturally to everybody, but it is a skill that can be developed through practice. By practicing empathy, you will be more likely to treat the people you care about the way they want to be treated because you will better understand their feelings and needs. You will learn how to motivate and predict the actions of others more effectively. You will find it easier to deal with another person’s negativity if you better understand where they’re coming from and why they may be acting the way they are. And most importantly, you will experience the world in a higher resolution because you are not only perceiving things from your personal perspective, but also the perspectives of those around you.

So, how do you start practicing empathy?

The most important part of being empathetic is intently paying attention to the people around you. Put down your cell phone, don’t check Twitter for the eighth time today, and just look around at people. Try to imagine who they might be, what they may be thinking or feeling, and what their current emotional state is. Try to just watch/observe, wonder, and truly care.

I understand that not everyone is naturally empathetic and it's often difficult for others to try putting themselves in another person's shoes, especially if that person has never and will likely never experience what the other is going through. But it's important that we try to understand and not let judgment, negativity, or anything else cloud our understanding and try simply asking ourselves: what would I be feeling if I was in their position? How would I feel if I was discriminated against because of my race, age, gender, religion, size, or sexual orientation? How would I feel if I was a teenager, pregnant with a child I wasn't ready to have? How would I feel if I was fleeing my home country to escape death and destruction? Putting ourselves in the shoes of others is one of the most important things we can do because we allow ourselves to see the world through a different perspective.

So, I ask you to become more aware of your empathy and continue to practice understanding and relating to the feelings of others. Empathy is contagious so the more we practice it, the more it will resonate in others. So pass it on!