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Hey, it's Sam. Welcome back to Radio Headspace and to Thursday.
Over the last few months, I've been working on my thesis for my second Masters in Emotion Science, and I've realized that compassion and empathy often get confused.
There's also some misunderstanding about what compassion fatigue actually is, and how we can preserve our well -being while showing compassion to those around us.
So today, let's break down these terms.
What is empathy exactly?
Empathy describes our ability to understand and experience the internal states of others.
To a certain extent, emotions are contagious, and experiencing empathy tends to make us more cooperative and act in ways that can help the people around us.
Researchers have split empathy into two distinct categories, cognitive and affective empathy.
Cognitive empathy is our ability to understand how someone is feeling, and affective empathy is the ability to feel what another person is feeling.
Empathy may help us open to compassion, but it doesn't guarantee that we'll have it.
In fact, affective empathy can lead us to absorb others' emotions without being able to tell the difference between our own feelings and someone else's feelings.
This can result in what researchers call empathic distress, which is a leading component of burnout, especially in caregivers and medical staff.
And that doesn't mean our compassion is being fatigued.
In fact, self -compassion is the very thing that can help us find resiliency in moments of empathic distress.
When we're able to set a boundary between our own feelings and those of others, we prevent the unwanted absorption of other people's emotions.
We also retain our ability to regulate our own emotions.
With empathy, we can absorb all kinds of feelings like pride, anger, joy, and fear without realizing we've done so.
With compassion, we have more choice.
There's a desire to help someone in the midst of suffering, and we choose to greet their suffering with kindness and acceptance.
Interestingly, researchers have pinpointed reasons why we may choose not to be compassionate, like when the well -being of a person's suffering seems too difficult to improve.
So what can we do to maintain this important boundary and still choose compassion?
When you feel yourself starting to absorb another's emotional state, you can put a hand on your heart and say something like, This is really hard to witness.
I'm here, and I can see how hard this is for you right now.
And remind yourself that you're not alone, that many other people around the world confront scenarios like this every day, and that it's part of a human life lived with others.
Then see if you can offer yourself some words of kindness.
I like to think of the words coming from the most loving part of myself.
I like to say, I see your pain, and I'll be here with you for as long as you need.
I see how hard this is, and I see how much you want to feel ease and a sense of relief right now.
This self -compassionate moment will allow you to extend compassion to the person that you're with.
And if you're a caregiver, I also have a meditation called Self -Compassion for Caregivers in the Headspace app, if you want to check it out.
Until next time, thanks for listening, and I'll see you back here soon.
Thanks for watching!
