Photo by Tord Sollie. Copyright free. Unsplash.com

As humans, we are hardwired to respond more strongly to bad things than to good ones. It’s no surprise that we feel challenged to connect when another person confides that he or she is suffering emotionally in the wake of a devastating event. Relatively few of us handle these moments with true grace all of the time, even if we feel sympathetic to the person’s plight. Our discomfort sometimes yields to confusion: What should we say? Should we just murmur “so sorry” and leave it at that? Or should we play cheerleader and try to pep the person up?

What exactly is the right thing to do? A true empath knows the answer.

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