How to Show Empathy Without Enabling Negative Behavior

Navigating the Gray Area Between Understanding and Excusing.

Empathy is a strong feeling that helps people connect with each other and understand how they feel and what they've been through. However, it is often confused with making excuses for bad behavior, which is not genuine empathy. When you exhibit empathy towards someone, you take their emotions into consideration. When you excuse bad behavior, you either overlook or rationalize it.

True empathy involves understanding and experiencing someone else's emotions without judgment. It means trying to see things from someone else's point of view and listening to what they have to say without dismissing or invalidating their feelings. To show empathy, you have to do things like