Motivational Monday: How empathy builds stronger relationships and lasting motivation

Empathy, which is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, plays a crucial role in building strong relationships and staying motivated.

On this week's Motivational Monday, News 9 was joined by ReMerge CEO, Erin Engelke, to share insights on how improving empathy can lead to deeper connections and greater personal and professional success.

Q: What is your definition of empathy?

A: "Empathy is seeking to understand the feelings of others at its very core. It's very different than sympathy. Sympathy is saying like, I'm sorry that you feel that way. Whereas empathy is, I want to feel your pain. Just a validation that all feelings matter and that whether or not you agree with someone you can still empathize with the way that they're feeling."

Q: Why is it important to be aware of our empathy toward others?

A: "At our core, we all want to be understood. We all want to be seen and validated for not only the things that we do but the ways that we feel. I think in society, we've gotten a little bit better at acknowledging people's feelings, but even sometimes that can be challenging when you have a difference of opinion with other people. It's more just difficult to wrap your head around understanding how other people feel, but it makes such a profound difference in relationships, both at home, within our community, even at work, just being able to sit with how other people are feeling"

Q: How can we improve our empathy?

A: "It also takes some diligence when it comes to being present in the moment. So if you're listening to someone and they're sharing how they're feeling, instead of rushing to judgment or rushing to think through like, how am I going to respond to them? What do I want to say? Or how do I want to defend even my perspectives? Just being able to sit and acknowledge and listen and say, 'I hear you.'"

Q: What are some day-to-day interactions where we can focus on empathy?

A: "Be mindful of how you're feeling in your own biases, not rushing to judgment immediately, and again being present I don't know if most people know this but communication is about so much more than the words that we say it only comprises about 7% of communication whereas body language and the tone of our voice comprises the majority so 55% of communications our body language. So if you're sitting with someone and you are not acknowledging them and they're talking to you, you're still communicating a message to them. You're not actually acknowledging how they feel or what they're thinking. So, it's being very present, eye contact, leaning in. It's sometimes very small nuances to the way that you present yourself. Kind of listen more, and talk less."