Empathy: The Power of Understanding

May 19, 2024Karen Thatcher

There is this thing about “understanding” that speaks right into someone’s situation and says “I see you and I hear you”. And doesn’t everyone want to be seen and heard? Is that not the single universal feeling that burns inside every human being’s core desire? In one way or another, we all just want to be seen, to be heard, and to be truly understood.

The dictionary definition of understanding is “sympathetic awareness”. To me, this speaks of not JUST listening but listening with an intent to gain a deep connection to another person’s experience.

It is actively making an attempt to sit in the situation with someone until you feel it for yourself. But understanding isn’t always free. Truly understanding someone can come at a cost. That cost is that you just might feel a bit of their hurt with them, on their behalf.

Empathy: Looks Can Be Deceptive

March 23, 2024Karen Thatcher

With social media now being so entirely part of everyday life, it makes it even harder for people with invisible illnesses, to show up guilt-free. The thing about social media is, it’s not real. What’s going on in someone’s life vs what you actually see is vastly different. And so it should be. We have forgotten the art of thoughtfully and privately sharing the most challenging and vulnerable parts of ourselves with the people who have earned the right to hear our full story. Social media isn’t the place for it. And so what has developed is an inauthentic ‘authenticity’ that crafts an alternate reality of our lives. That is not necessarily a bad thing. We all need an escape from the mundane, and sharing the good stuff for everyone to enjoy with us, is an excellent thing. But we have to remember that we cannot judge what’s really going on in someone’s life from a single photo that they post on social media, alone.