What is Empathy? 

Yes, that silent presence is powerful. Just the act of hanging in there and being with a person is powerful.

Thank you, Chris.

A fine comment, thanks. Best wishes.

Thank you, Mauro.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Arii.

Thanks for sharing, TA Cook. I really appreciate your comments about my dad's music. He was, for many years, a professional musician as his full-time job. Thank you for sharing that moment with me.

Yes, everybody has various needs.

Thank you, Anthony. And, thank you for sharing your example.

Thank you, T Gan. I appreciate it. It's been months but it's still surprisingly difficult. Doing better overall, though. Baby steps.

Thank you. He was quite a bluesman and father.

Great to hear! Thank you for the positive feedback.

Thank you, Mandar. I appreciate it.

Wonderful, Brian.

Alex is such a great guy, absolutely, his dad was blessed to have him. :)

Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thanks for listening, James. I appreciate that. He was able to see a couple of albums worth of music posted to his channel before he passed away.

I appreciate that, David.

Thank you, Jolie.

Thank you, Winifred.

Great to see you here, Alex is an excellent content creator.

Hello from New York state (the part near the Great Lakes)

Thank you, Sara. I appreciate it and I'm glad it was helpful.

Thank you, Andres.

Thank you, Brenden. I appreciate it.

Thank you, James. I appreciate it. God bless you too.

Thank you, I will.

Good topic but I don't have any videos on that yet. I'll put it on the list.

I hope this video is helpful.

Being an empath I've had to stop trying to 'fix things' and take things on for others. Learning to 'label' and sympathise is sometimes more appropriate in more distant relationships.

@@kathconstance4684 Great description + add here. I agree about the point about learning to label.

I am more like the sponge. I feel it’s a calling for my life. It’s hard for me to walk away, more so because of my work. Can you please talk about guilt and fear of not being a sponge. Thank you.

Hi, Meechi. I think I almost understand your question. It sounds like you are coming to the topic from the standpoint of being a professional who helps people in need. I think at least part of what your teacher is saying is correct. I don't think it's a good idea (or practical idea) to attempt to connect with everybody. That would be exhausting and you'd likely burnout very quickly. One of the key things that counselors, social workers, etc. have to look out for is managing boundaries so that they don't get overwhelmed. Many people are drawn to human services and similar areas of work because they naturally care about people already. It really is a balance. If you find it easy to put yourself in other people's shoes and understand them, then you'll have to manage your emotional boundaries more. If you find it very difficult to put yourself in other's shoes (and don't, therefore, care for people appropriately), then you should develop your empathy more. I'm concerned that I'm not answering exactly what you asked but those are some additional thoughts that may contribute to the conversation you had with your teacher.

@@alexanderlyon oh OK yeah that makes sense thank you so much. I think I was kind of thrown off out what he was saying I didn’t understand it but now I understand it thank you for breaking it down for me. This is a good thing because I have his class today once I leave work and I’m really good at this human service field and I want to use my talent my gift to be there for others and I’m very good at being empathetic and being an empath and I feel like this is where my GIfe lies so I want this to be my passion I wanna take as far as I possibly can.

7:00 you have to put up boundaries, similarly to how you cannot move your goal posts when setting and achieving goals. You cannot change your boundaries and request empathy for them crossing the boundaries.

This is very helpful. Thank you so much

Makes sense.

if your perspective is limited to emotional rejection then I guess, but as humans we seek social and subsequent emotional connections with other humans. Being depraved from that can lead to the perception of the inability to connect, but it's just you.

Good point. Many communication skills can be weaponized with bad outcomes. It's why I also care about ethics in communication so much.

Condolences to you and your family on the passing of your father.