This week has been so stressful so far and it's only the beginning.

Little do I realize, that life is stressful for everyone. My life is not any harder than the person sitting next to me. Sometimes, we can lose track and think that we have it worse than other people. But in reality, that is not the case.

I didn't realize this until I was sitting at my sorority house the other night and we did a dialogue on sympathy versus empathy. I learned that sympathy is the feeling of compassion or pity for someone who has something hard going on while empathy is actually stepping into that person's shoes and trying to understand their issues.

When we see someone struggling, we often don't show compassion for them because we all have our own problems to deal with. But, that isn't the right mind set.

In these situations, it is important to step back and put yourself in their position. You should listen to what the person is saying and try to understand. Most of the time people just want to know that there is someone that cares and will be there for them.

The hardest part of empathizing with someone, is probably staying away from judgment. Sometimes we think we know what's best for someone and think we can come up with a better solution to the problem or situation that they are in.

We often sympathize others, but rarely do we empathize for someone.

If people would show empathy instead of sympathy, relationships would improve a lot.

Sympathy is easier than empathy because empathy requires you to open up and be vulnerable. Empathy can be thought of as showing care and love.

When it comes to sympathy, you don't have to show emotion, you just have to show compassion towards someone. Sympathy can make two people detached from one another.

I think it is important for people to know the difference between sympathy and empathy, and practice showing empathy to one another instead of sympathy.