People want to be heard and well understood—your partner, your children, and your circle of influence are not exclusive. A hint of lack of empathy or a show of indifference can put anyone off and disrupt the romantic process that should ensue between you and your marital partner.
Emphatic people are usually confident in relationships. This is because they easily earn the loyalty of the people they are involved with. Empathy is therefore the process of listening to people from the perspective of understanding their concerns and emotions. However, it takes undivided attention and sensitivity to be emphatic. Nevertheless, being emphatic is not the same as throwing away your values and belief system for others to be comfortable with you; it rather means being able to understand the emotions behind why people act the way they do so as to be better informed in relating with them.
