Empathy vs. Compassion

“Wisdom without compassion is ruthlessness and compassion without wisdom is folly.” Fred Kofman “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” Plato “By practicing compassion, we can become more resilient and improve our overall well-being. Bloom says, ‘careful reasoning mixed with a more distant compassion […] makes the world a better place.’” “The problem with empathy is the flip side that psychologists refer to as emotional empathy. That’s our yearning to not only understand other people but to feel their pain, too.” https://www.betterup.com/blog/compassion-vs-empathy We’ve discussed the difference between empathy and compassion on this board before, and I created a YouTube video on the topic. People who claim to be ”empaths” own a hard road, I believe. Feeling others’ pain” as a “thought” in our head rather than as a bodily sensation can help keep us from completely “sucking” up the other person’s physical problems/disease. Being empathetic is an attempt “to feel” the other person’s angst almost as much as if the originating event actually happened personally to us. Either compassion or empathy can lead to the same end we are trying to achieve - helping one another (Galatians 5:13, 1 Corinthians 10:24), but compassion is healthier because we aren’t carrying the actual emotional burden that gets our body into biochemical problems! This is worth reading. Tapping, I believe, can make us more compassionate than empathetic, keeping us healthier both physically and emotionally. And Jesus exuded compassion in His ministry by finding ways to help others without getting tied up in our human drama until the Father allowed Calvary. Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Is EFT Tapping in the Bible?

Sometimes I have people ask me, "Is EFT in the Bible?" Well, of course, it isn't, nor is our automobile (wonder what Jesus would have ridden in on Palm Sunday instead of His donkey???!!), or airplane or refrigerator and washing machine, and we still use those freely. What is IN the Bible is lots of humans with lots of negative emotions that caused all kinds of societal fallout, as it does today. We are human, we have emotional turmoil, but it doesn't HAVE to rule us. Once again, God has provided everything we need, including a path out of emotional pain. The EFT tapping tool sits waiting for us to grab it and use it! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Emotional Pain Sticks to US

It’s indeed a bit like treating the symptoms vs. treating the cause. The “symptoms” are our emotional angst and possibly physical issues. The underlying “cause” (disease) is our trauma, big stuff or lots of little stuff, hurtful memories, and disturbing events in our life. Those emotional “causes” stick around in our cells where our unconscious mind puts them, completely unknown to us. Our cells can be equated to a house attic, storage unit, old barn loft, etc. We stuff items in any or all of those places, forgetting about them, until sometime possible catastrophic happens and NOW we have to deal with the stored up junk. Emotionally it’s the same thing. Bad stuff happens, we “get over it” (time doesn’t heal all wounds, sorry, folks!), move on and THEN our body starts yelling and our emotions begin to flare, forcing us NOW to deal with the past - all those things we stuffed in our emotional attic, barn, and storage unit. Tapping BEFORE we accumulate all that junk keeps the “storage” unit of our unconscious mind clear, clean, and uncluttered! Tap, tap, tap! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series

Early Infant Attachment and EFT

DR. AIMIE APIGIAN “Whatever the degree of regulation we achieved through relationship in the first 6 months of life is the degree that we will be able to connect with others and want to connect with others. The degree to which regulation did not happen through regulation in relationship with our mother reflects the degree that our system had to rely on the freeze response for state control. Attachment is the degree of internal regulation (or dysregulation) that we experience in authentic and intimate relationships to ourselves, others and the world.” Here again EFT tapping is often quite helpful! Sherrie Rice Smith Certified EFT Practitioner EFTforChristians.com Author of EFT for Christians 5 Book Series