You can't feel the other's feelings. Empathy is to feel very closely what it is the other is feeling and to care deeply. Accountability for empathy is in the genuineness and sincerity of the empathy. You being empathetic is not dependent on outcome. It is wonderful when a favorable outcome occurs. It may happen that you are deeply and sincerely empathetic and an unfavorable outcome occurs. The value of empathy is determined by its genuineness and sincerity, not by outcome. Technology can provide empathetic words while lacking sincerity and genuineness, which makes the words not empathy. I have been on the giving and receiving ends of empathy, and it's rewarding on both ends. I've seen empathy rebuild trust in the sense of assisting in proceeding with diminished trust, and then positive results result in further rebuilding of trust. What helps cultivate a practice of empathy is being sincere and genuine, without which there is no empathy.
On May 17, 2025 David Doane wrote :