Page 115 - SILFlip

Sometimes empathy is described as being able to “walk in someone else’s shoes.” Empathy differs from “sympathy” in that sympathy is more of an act of experiencing someone else’s emotion (usually a negative emotion) by taking on the same emotional state yourself.
“(crying) I am so sad that you are sad that your hamster died. I know how much ‘Teddy Roosevelt’ meant to you and it breaks my heart too.”
When I think about empathy and sympathy I hind it hard to imagine that often you can’t have have one without tat least some of the other. This means that there might be a third word that encompasses the process of interacting with people when they are upset and feeling their sadness as well as understanding what they are going through and why. If there is, I don’t know it. (Maybe sempathy?)
In the beginning of a relationship there is almost never a shortage of empathy or sympathy. When people are connecting on a deep level they want to experience what the other person is experiencing, and when relationships start off a lot of what they are experiencing is joy. At the beginning of a relationship people are more sensitive to their partners, more sensitive to their emotions and more willing to show that they understand what the other person is thinking and feeling. At the beginning of a relationship there is also a lot more presumption that the other person is trying to be empathetic even if they do not see that much evidence of it. That’s because in the beginning that is what people wish for.
Staying in Love: Secret Recipes For Making Love Last 115