Empathy is a genuine gift of love. It takes courage to be in empathy with someone as they are going down into a challenge state. It’s very human to go into challenge state and empathy is not ever easy. It doesn’t deny the pain is there.
When we try to fix someone’s pain, we may think we are trying to save them time. What is often happening is we are feeling, ‘I’m not prepared, I’m too vulnerable because all my own fears are exposed in this situation.”
It’s a unique gift to have the courage to just be with someone and say ‘you’re not alone, you are loved, you are okay, you’re enough” and be at peace with the world as it is in that moment.