Empathy

" Instead of putting others in their place,

put yourself in their place."

Let's start with a story of what happened yesterday...

So, my friend and I were walking from school to Braddell MRT (from point Y to Z). While crossing the road at point X, a man suddenly approached us (IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRAFFIC CROSSING) and asked, "Do you know where is SPH?". We really didn't know, so we said we didn't know. Okay, so my friend and I kept on walking towards point Z.

All of a sudden my friend reacted, "Lookkkk!!! Looookkk!!". At first, I didn't understand why she was so frantic and so I kept asking, "what??" (i think it was due to the tiredness, my brain and eyes weren't fully awake) and she kept pointing to the signboard. AND GUESS WHAT??? That signboard stated "SPH" with an arrow to the right. Okay, so my friend and I tried to stay positive, maybe he could have walked one whole round. BUT...

When we went to the MRT there was this huge map of the whole Braddell (like the picture above) and we saw that SPH was the opposite direction of the direction that man was walking towards just now.

My heart stopped. How would he manage if he kept walking away and further away from the destination he wanted to go?? And in my heart, I kept saying, "I hope he finds his way. I hope he finds his way." I felt bad that I couldn't help him AT ALL. Ya Rabb. That feeling of wanting to go back to find him and tell him he was going in the wrong direction but all I could do was to just pray he gets to his destination safely and easily.

What happened yesterday made me reflect that I still had empathy in me. Even though whatever happened was beyond my limit and I shouldn't have felt guilty or bad, I still did feel it because I was so worried about this guy.

Just like this Ramadhan.

I am blessed that the non-Muslims around me have empathy in them. They try to be more sensitive when talking about food even though they know we aren't that petty, it was more of a sign of respect towards one's religion.

When I was sick last week, a non-Muslim friend actually told me to drink plenty of water but she ended that sentence with "...if you are not fasting." I don't know about others but I feel appreciative of their sensitivity. Imagine if they did not have this empathy attitude, they would have blamed all this whole fasting as a cause of me being sick. And I'm glad it didn't happen. Well, not at least in front of me.

Before I knew what EMPATHY means,...

Before I knew this word, EMPATHY, I felt that the word SYMPATHY is the most powerful gesture. However, now, I really feel having EMPATHY is the most powerful trait in the world. It's about putting yourself in someone's situation and understanding them without having to go through that situation yourself. With that, you tend to act upon it because you feel that no one deserves to be in such situations because YOU HAVE BEEN THROUGH IT or YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO BE IN THAT SITUATION. However, sympathy is just a feeling of pity and sorrow but you don't share that feeling. One simple example is that when we see those who are in need - don't have money to eat proper meals, having to go through a difficult phase in life and so on... Having sympathy just means having that feeling, "oh so poor thing..." and just walking away, "Okay next! Moving on..." but having empathy is more than that. "I feel you." is the most common sentence nowadays to show empathy. "I feel you and I know how hard it is. When I was in that situation, I needed help. So let me help you."

If you manage to do it, you are just an amazing person because many of us humans are just so selfish for ourselves. We have this mindset of, "I'm not going through that phase of life or that trial in life, why should I even care for them? Or even help them? Why should I even bother to be sensitive? I didn't go through it so I just act like I don't really get you. I don't get them. I don't get you."

And to be honest, this world needs more of this trait of empathy. We need to train ourselves to have this value in us, no matter where we are, no matter where we stand in this society. Know that every one we meet in the streets or even at the supermarket have their own different version of trials and stories of their life. So take time to have empathy if we see someone having it difficult.

I pray that all of us will sooner or later be people with full of empathy. No matter how bad situations get, we try to put ourselves in someone's position and act upon it. I pray all of us will be blessed with the strength to help even though we don't understand what others are going through. ♥

thepinkrosette