5 Characteristics Of An Exceptionally Empathetic Person
Compassion is one of the most useful social skills available. Empathetic people are able to act naturally in very different interpersonal situations. In fact, people are happy to seek out compassionate people, as things often go much easier with them.
Getting to know the characteristics of exceptionally empathetic people can be very helpful, whether it’s trying to be more compassionate with other people yourself or looking for empathetic people around you and your circle of friends. Get to know how particularly compassionate people work, and decide who you want to be and with whom you want to spend your time.
What are exceptionally empathetic people like?
Compassionate and exceptionally empathetic people are not the same thing. The latter is, of course, less common and many great leaders are exceptionally compassionate, but such people are also at greater risk for personal emotional life.
1 – Particularly empathetic people challenge prejudices
We all have assumptions and preconceptions about other people, and we often tend to stigmatize people according to these without valuing people’s individuality. Exceptionally empathetic people challenge their own preconceived notions and prejudices. Rather than focusing on the differences between people, they tend to find unifying factors.
2 – They are curious about other people
Exceptionally empathetic people are insatiable curious about other people. They naturally talk to strangers on the bus, in the dentist’s waiting room, and in any other situation.
Curiosity also breeds compassion for people who are inside the person’s actual social circle. Thanks to this, compassionate people are able to find different worldviews and develop their own based on them.
Curiosity is good. Martin Seligman believes that curiosity is key to improving satisfaction with one’s life. According to him, it is also an effective cure for chronic loneliness, which in turn affects a huge number of people.
Demonstrating curiosity requires more than a brief discussion about the weather. It’s basically about trying to understand another person’s inner world. Challenge yourself by trying to tune in to a conversation with someone you know every week. All you need is courage.
3 – They settle into other people’s shoes
Exceptionally empathetic people exercise so-called experiential empathy. It involves settling into the position of another person, in an effort to understand and experience things in the same way as another person.
4 – They also listen and open themselves
Empathetic conversators master the noble skill of listening and also know how to open up to others themselves. Exceptionally compassionate people take this even further.
They listen, paying all their attention to the speaker and making every effort to understand the other person’s state of mind and emotional needs. However, just listening is not enough, they take communication even further. They remove their own masks and reveal their own feelings to others, which in turn is essential to create a strong mutual emotional bond.
5 – They encourage action and social change
In general, people assume that compassion is mainly realized only at the individual level, but exceptionally empathetic people understand that compassion can also affect entire groups of people and through that it is possible to encourage people to make fundamental social changes.
We are able to grow and develop our own capacity for empathy throughout our lives, and we are able to use these skills to make social changes in our society. Sociologists have also found ways to turn our empathy into an attitude and a permanent part of our daily lives. Through this, in turn, we are able to improve the lives of all the people around us.
