Have you ever been watching a film where the hero or heroine is in some form of danger?
Have you noticed how tense you feel?
Your heart starts to race; you may even begin to hold your breath.
All this is because you're feeling empathy.
But what exactly is empathy, and how is it even possible to feel what someone else is experiencing?
Empathy is the ability to share feelings with others.
So you are like resonating with the feeling another has and it can be pain, so you share the pain of another if someone is suffering.
But it can also be joy, you also have empathic joy, so there you share the joy of someone else, right?
So when we think about empathy and what happens in our brain, it's probably firstly important to say that empathy is not really in one place in our brain.
You know, different brain regions are involved to a greater or lesser degree depending on whether we are sharing the person's experience; whether we're thinking about that experience; or maybe you know, the wider related behaviors about deciding whether to help or how to engage.
