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... 🧵