Learning Challenge: Empathy

I watched the video Brene Brown on Empathy, and I loved what she had to say about it. She described empathy as someone who is in a hole saying it's dark and I'm alone, and you physically going into the hole and saying hey, I've been here and you're not alone. I love that.
She said the difference between empathy and sympathy is that empathy drives connection, and sympathy weakens it.
Sympathy is apologizing for something bad that happened to someone, but empathy is being able to understand how someone feels, knowing what it's like to feel they way they're feeling and being able to put yourself on that level to make a connection with them. I knew what empathy and sympathy were before this research, but I didn't realize how important knowing the difference is. It's definitely something I need to focus on in my every day life.

Empathy. Image Source: Buffer.