TOO KIND; BETTER WATCH YOUR OWN BACK

Empathy. Does this word sound familiar to you? Maybe and maybe not depending on the kind of knowledge that you allow within your aura. Cambridge University dictionary defines empathy as “The ability to understand and share another person’s feelings.” Well, with that definition we can now dig deep into this article.

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you so yearn to help another person or you feel the happiness, sadness, pain of another as if it were your own?

You may be asking yourself if it’s normal to be in such a position or better yet whether that type of people exists in this world whereas it’s naturally human nature to put ourselves and our needs first. And as surprising as it may sound, empaths do exist among us.

Empaths are the type of people who go out of their way to help another person who may or may not be in need. They have the urge that drives them into helping out whenever they can, or if they are not in a position to help they will find an alternative way of chipping in. One thing for sure is that they won’t let you go through a certain phase alone especially that which requires assistance be it mentally, physically or even financially.

Mash is a friend of mine who is empathetic by nature, one day a mutual friend of ours reached out to her and asked to be lent two thousand shillings and Mash had a thousand only to spare. To my surprise Mash went ahead and “fulizad” so as to be able to lend her friend the two thousand shillings. Mash’s story is a typical example of so many other people who have found themselves in the same scenario and responded in the same way.

Often times empaths are mostly taken for granted because they do not know where to draw the boundaries and thus there is an opportunity for the selfish individuals to suck from every bit of kindness expressed to them. But do we bring ourselves to think of the consequences of taking other people’s kindness for granted or the consequences of showing too much kindness? Misusing people’s kindness is not something to take pride in because it is common sense that people will not be coming to your aid whenever you ask them too.

Being too kind also and not knowing when to say ‘NO’ can be bad for the soul as I like to put it because one is likely to feel drained. In the same way too much alcohol, too much cigarettes and the likes is likely to deteriorate ones health, though I cannot say the same for Marijuana, so does being too kind, it can be mentally exhausting.

In the words of Maya Angelou “For you to pour into another person’s cup, your own cup must be full first.” That phrase summarizes the content and intention of this article, that however empathetic we are, we must know when to say NO without feeling bad or giving explanations as to why we cannot assist at any given time.