How To Avoid Empathy Burnout When You Are Surrounded By Other People’s Pain

14 January 2018

– It seems there could never be enough empathy and compassi n in our world, but we are starting to discover that our capacity for empathy – to share the emotions of others and take their perspective – can come with a bit of a sting if we’re not careful. If we get caught up on the misfortunes of others without understanding life’s processes, it can make us angry and unhappy. So where do we draw the line?

Fortunately, work on locating the root of empathy in the brain has also led to the discovery that with the right training, we might be able to tune how much we let others’ emotions affect us. This could allow us the best of both worlds — to care, without letting it consume us.

While culture might be socializing people into becoming more individualistic rather than empathic, research has uncovered the existence of “mirror neurons,” which react to emotions expressed by others and then reproduce them.