Dear steph:

I read that emotions are “energy in motion”. Emotions are energy as you can not touch love, you cannot hold it in your hands, you can only feel it. Love, anger, emotions are expressed by people in their facial expressions (frowning, smiling, looking in one’s eyes or away, etc.), body language (arms crossed, shoulders/back posture, etc.), in words, gestures and actions.

I don’t believe that a person can accurately feel what another person feels without facial expressions and/or body language, words, gestures, and/or actions.

What I learned regarding people that feel strong empathy for others is that it is sometimes a response to living with a very distant parent. The more distant the parent, the more reaching out to the parent the child does. In other words, the more un-empathetic the parent, the more empathetic the child.

It is like the child needs a certain amount of empathy/ love from the parent, let’s say that amount is 100. If the parent gives the child 40, the child fills in 60; if the child gets 5%, the child fills in the remaining 95%, and that is a whole lot of empathy.

anita