Aidan Alexander

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲. Have you noticed either empathy exhausting you or compassion energizing you when trying to help others? 🤔

Compassion lets us:
• Care sustainably about many people
• Treat everyone's suffering as equally important
• Prioritise our efforts on where we can have the biggest impact

This isn't just a philosophical distinction. It has huge implications for helping others:

Empathy makes us:
• Feel overwhelmed by the scale of suffering
• Focus on what's most emotionally resonant, instead of what's most pressing
• Help those most like ourselves, with whom it's easiest to empathize

When we feel compassion, we care deeply about others' wellbeing without taking on their emotional burden. It's motivating and we stay clear-headed enough to actually make their lives better.. 🧵

When we empathize, we literally feel others' pain — their anxiety becomes our anxiety, their sadness our sadness. It's exhausting. Often, we burn out and end up disengaging from the suffering we wanted to help with... 🧵

🧠 𝐒𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧. And the consequences couldn't be more different.. 🧵