I think empathy is weakness

[Onecirrus]

Does anyone else feel like a tinge of self hate when you feel sorry for someone or something? I just wish the feeling would go away, I don't want to be selfless and caring. I think I already lack quite a bit of it from what I hear from family but it still comes up from time to time. I just think it is weakness and that is something this universe punishes mercilessly. I feel like since the pandemic I've degraded down the spiral, I resonate much more with red than any other stage. Thoughts?

[Heart of Space]

It's good you're being honest about yourself.  Empathy is a beautiful thing.  It sounds like you've been seriously hurt in the past.  I hope you can heal whatever is making you feel that way about yourself and others.  

[Seraphim]

I think it's boring to feel selfishness/hate/apathy. The energy of goodness/kindness/love is so blissful and fun. My best memories are from being in that state and meeting people, the energy is magnetic, others can resonate with my aura and enter like a euphoric trance, we begin to speak without ego and inhibitions, lots of laughter and joy.

[Forestluv]

2 hours ago, Onecirrus said:

Does anyone else feel like a tinge of self hate when you feel sorry for someone or something?

Feeling sorry for someone is sympathy, not empathy. They are different domains.

Empathic understanding/knowing is a super power, not a weakness. 

Imagine being able to read someone’s mind. That is a super power, similar to empathy.

[Loving Radiance]

In addition to Forestluv's comment above, sympathy also can take the form of feeling other people's emotions because you already felt something similar of this emotional depth.

From what I picked up is that empathy is feeling emotions in you that you never experienced before because you "absorb" emotions from others and feel how deep the feeling state of that emotion is.

Btw, why should you feel hate when you feel sorry? Feel how that comes up.

[Rilles]

You might have unsolved trauma or maybe you have sociopathic brain chemistry, you should probably look into both.

[Moksha]

Sympathy is feeling compassion for someone else who is having a hard time.

Empathy is beyond sympathy; it is is actually feeling what the other person is feeling. Fear, anxiety, depression, whatever....those same feelings arise within you, because you see the world through the other person's eyes. Often, it is easier to feel empathy when you have experienced a similar challenge in your own life.

Both sympathy and empathy can motivate kindness toward others. Given the choice, I would rather feel empathy, because by experiencing that specific emotion, and by not identifying with it, I am able to model presence. Helping others realize that they are not the emotion, and that they are the Awareness within which the emotion arises, is a greater gift than simply feeling sorry for them.

Beyond whatever others may be feeling, you can realize this same space, and Self-awareness, when emotions arise within yourself, such as a "tinge of self hate" when feeling sorry for someone  The self hate is just another ego cloud passing across the sky of You.

[ivankiss]

Fear of feeling