Do you have the ability to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and imagine how they are feeling? Do you usually get too involved in other people’s situations trying to solve their problems? Empathy is that ability that allows us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and understand what emotions they may be experiencing. Being empathetic helps us connect better with the people around us. However, can being too empathetic cause problems? According to experts, the answer is yes since it causes “what should be a virtue to become a burden,” they warn from Psicología Madrid. So how do we find the balance between connecting with others and caring for ourselves? Although empathy is an admirable quality, in excess it can lead us to make unobjective decisions with negative consequences on our mental health.
When we get carried away by the emotions of others and become overly empathetic, we must be careful not to lose perspective. If we lose perspective we will stop seeing things clearly and make decisions that, although they may seem empathetic in the moment, in the long term can be harmful both for us, with negative consequences for our physical and mental health, and for others.
