Empathy is the capacity to put yourself in another person’s shoes.
More poetically, Empathy is “seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the “heart” of another”. Empathy helps us to care for our friends, children, family, & even strangers, characters in novels & in movies.
I think the beauty of empathy is that you can nurture it, exercise it, and grow it like a muscle. Below is a lovely animation and explanation of how to practice empathy by Brené Brown.
Best wishes.