ABOUT EMPATHY AND VEGANISM AND HOW TO DEVELOP IT
Empathy is something that makes us human (kind, compassionate, showing benevolence towards others) and is so essential to living a fulfilled life, of fighting pain and suffering but also appreciating joy, love, appreciation, and sharing a deep connection with non-human as well as human animals. It's a must-learn skill that brings more ease to your life and relationships!
Empathy helps to connect in a helping and/or healing capacity.
When the empathy piece is missing, we become more disconnected and apathetic towards us, our surroundings and others (human and non-human animals).
When we look at human animals’s actions towards non-human animals, you start asking yourself “When did we start ignoring empathy, or did we ever learn it?”.
"Empathy" is described as:
"The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner"
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Empathy is, what makes us feel, reflect, and decide right from wrong. Without empathy, we would just be co-existing without any emotional reactions ever and without caring at all, but for ourselves and our benefits always. Empathy lets us know when we are behaving badly and become aware of the pain we’re causing.
WHAT IS EMPATHY? ARE WE BORN WITH IT?
We're born with the capacity for empathy, but empathy is learned behavior. It's an emotional process, which involves identifying with what someone is feeling and, additionally, actually feeling those feelings yourself. On the contrary to sympathy, which means feeling FOR someone; empathy involves feeling WITH them.
WHAT IS SYMPATHY?
Nowadays, sympathy is largely used to convey commiseration, pity, or feelings of sorrow for someone else who is experiencing misfortune. This sense is often seen in the category of greeting cards labeled “sympathy” that specialize in messages of support and sorrow for others in a time of need. You feel bad for them, but you don’t know what it is like to be in their position.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EMPATHY AND COMPASSION
Empathy is feeling WITH someone and having the will to help. Compassion is the broader word and refers to both an understanding of another’s pain and the desire to somehow mitigate that pain. Compassion is used to refer broadly to a sympathetic understanding.
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL FOR EMPATHY?
The more connected you are to your own emotions the greater your ability is to feel empathy.
Empathy is an innate capacity that needs to be developed. The more connected you are to your own emotions (emotional intelligence "EQ"), meaning recognizing and expressing your feelings, the greater your ability to feel for others and especially with others. Your emotions inform your thinking and your empathetic thinking regulates your actions and aligns your actions to your morals.
Healthy self-esteem and a strong personality are essential for developing empathy, so if you feel good about yourself, it will also help you recognize and respond effectively to the feelings of others. Egoism blocks your potential of feeling sympathy and empathy with others.
Therefore empathy varies from person to person due to personal growth and may also be influenced strongly by cultural and social norms and factors, such as a sympathetic and empathetic environment and/or upbringing. Those play a huge part if empathy is fostered or suppressed.
Lacking empathy, people act solely out of self-interest, without regard for the well-being or feelings of others, because they are not yet aware of how it must be in someone else's position. The full absence of empathy fosters antisocial behavior, apathy, egoism as far as coldblooded murder, and genocide.
MIRROR NEURONS – WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN IN THE BRAIN?
Mirror neurons are brain cells (controlling brain functions) that fire both when you do something and when you watch someone else do the same thing. In other words: They let you make the connection.
The neuron is the basic working unit of the brain, a specialized cell designed to transmit information to other nerve cells, muscle, or gland cells.
Therefore neurons are thought to be responsible for our ability to feel compassion (and empathy) and to understand the intentions and states of mind of others, thus making the connection that what is being done to non-human animals is cruel, unacceptable, unethical, inhumane and unjust and must be stopped (starting with yourself).
THE MAIN THREE TYPES OF EMPATHY
Just like not all types of happiness feel the same, not all types of empathy feel the same. Therefore they are divided into the following:
COGNITIVE (falls into the category of sympathy)
Cognitive empathy is taking another person’s perspective and imagining what it’s like to be in someone else’s position to get a better understanding of their feelings.
EMOTIONAL
Emotional empathy (also known as affective empathy) is sharing an emotional experience with someone, feeling distressed in response to someone’s pain and feeling the willingness to help someone.
Emotional empathy is deeply rooted in the human’s mirror neurons. All animals have neurons that fire in a certain way when they see another animal acting, making them relate to that action in their own body and brain. Emotional empathy does exactly that with the feelings someone experiences in reaction to a situation.
COMPASSIONATE
Compassionate empathy creates a strong balance and connection between the feelings of the heart and the thoughts of the brain. They are not opposites but are connected in a complicated way. Compassionate empathy honors this natural connection by taking into account both the senses that are felt and the intellectual situation of another sentient being followed by an action.
Compassionate empathy is the type of empathy that we’re usually striving for!
With compassionate empathy, we not only understand a person’s predicament and feel with them but are spontaneously moved to help, if needed.
- Daniel Goldman
THE DIFFERENCE OF BEING EMPATHETIC AND BEING AN EMPATH
The gift of feeling empathy is that you care and feel deeply for others and want to help.
A big downside of being an empath is, that it can be highly exhausting. Empaths have an extremely sensitive, hyperreactive neurological system. They don’t have the same filters that other people do to block out stimulation. As a consequence, they absorb it into their bodies, both the positive and stressful energies around them.
BEING EMPATHETIC IN TODAYS WORLD
Nowadays, the majority of people do not have much empathy for non-human animals, they think they do, because they claim to “love animals”becaue that’s how we are raised without ever questioning our actions, when we get raised to only love and respect some animals (speciesism) predetermined by our society of who is worthy to live, to be loved and cared for and who is worth nothing and therefore murdered for a taste, traditions, habits and convenience.
♥ Read the most “Common Anti-Vegan Fallacies And Appeals” HERE.
Humans are brought up to believe that we are entitled to everything and that they are the center of attention, the greatest species of all times, an apex predator, and they learn to believe that they can just take whatever they want, including the lives of others for our benefits.
People do not see those who only suffer and are killed because they themselves are the indicator for it.
People show empathy in some situations though, like when an animal is injured at the side of the road and needs help, but when it comes to killing some species for a taste, people seem to forget their moral convictions to help those who are suffering and are also in need. People do not see those who only suffer and are killed because they themselves are the indicator for it.
People are manipulated by the norms and traditions of our society in a way that they find it difficult to understand the intentions, situations and states of mind, the suffering and pain and injustice inflicted on others for “food”. People believe that they have the right to take what they want (“might makes right” attitude), wrapped up in comfort and habits without regard for others, instead of becoming aware of their mental well-being in terms of feelings and mental wealth with which they expand their potential for empathy.
This makes it hard to co-exist as a vegan and animal activist (animal empaths) who pass on the message, that seems so brutally obvious, that all kinds deserve respect, love, care, peace, and justice.
♥ Read about “Why I Can’t Be (Emotionally) Close To Non-Vegans” HERE.
♥ Read about “The Importance Of Being Among Other Vegans” HERE.
A lot of people don’t take the time to understand the ethics of veganism, because it leads to taking time to truly reflect on oneself and their feelings. It's confronting someone to their own emotions, their morals, and their actions.
If people would take time to understand how hypocritical they are when it comes to their actions that are not consistent with their morals and ethical convictions, they would be confronted with the double standard they are having and the hypocrisy they are practicing. And, of course, that is not a pleasant realization.
It requires a great amount of will, a good amount of justice, and a tough and brave confession to self-criticism to be able to deal with the facts of how much harm is caused to others. In the next step, it takes the experienced emotional and moral obligation wanting to be a better version of ourselves, by not paying for someone else's murder anymore, but change something.
♥ Read about “Vegan Starter Kit (aka Vegan Kick In The Arse)” HERE.
♥ Read about “Understanding Your Vegan Family Members And Friends” HERE.
HOW CAN SOMEONE LEARN EMPATHY?
It takes different experiences, information, or situations for different people to get the mirror neurons fire at the same time to make the connection that they are supporting oppression and injustice towards others by practicing learned speciesist behavior and thinking.
Some need to see video footage from the animal industry, others make the connection when their beloved companion died. Some make the connection when they are (breast) feeding their child and suddenly make the connection with what happens in the dairy industry (babies are taken away from their mothers for their breast milk). Others can make the connection by someone telling them the ugly truth and making them aware of their double standards when it comes to their values and actions.
This shows that we need all different approaches and forms of animal activism to reach out to people.
♥ Watch my video on "How To Get Involved In Animal Rights Activism" HERE.
EPILOGUE
Don't be sorry, do something! Use your voice to speak up for others, who don't have a choice and who are not given the inherent right to life.
Those who have the privilege to know have the duty to act.
- Albert Einstein
If you are not yet following a vegan attitude to life and vegan way of living, please use your potential of empathy and develop skills and knowledge to self-reflect, critisize and acknowledge ethical wrong-doings. Create change starting with yourself, because it is the right thing to do. If we all challenge each other and our belief system due to the moral beliefs and obligations we hold as humans, we can make this world a better, safe and peaceful place for all kinds.
If we can choose so, why wouldn’t we do so?
~~~~~
Please note:
* when the term "human" is used, then human animals are meant by it, and the same applies to the term "animal", who are non-human animals.All definitions of words and/or stated facts are based on the correct terminology and are carefully research and the sources taken are linked here or directly in the blog post. This blog post is also stating a personal opinion and views on certain topics.
All shown illustrations and graphics are our own and are highly restricted to be copied and used freely, without any permission.
SOURCES
Psychology Today - 6 Things You Need To Know About Empathy
New York Times - Empathy Is Natural, But Nurturing It Helps
“The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People”, Judith Orloff, MD
Heartmanity - The Three Kinds Of Empahty
New Scientist - How The Brain Detects The Emotions Of Others
