One may never have the same experiential understanding that another has in order to ‘know�?how they feel.  Experience is the best vehicle of understanding.  One can attempt to imagine, place oneself in another’s shoes for a mental realisation, to try and sensate how they must feel, to try and visualize their fears and to try and re-create in oneself the sets of emotions that they have within.   Without having had the actual situational experience oneself this is something that would be hard to attain.  Even if one has had the very same circumstances and emotions within oneself in the past, time is often a healer, therefore one may remember how it felt at the time, however the actual level of anxiety, worry, etc that was connected to that experience may have lessened with the passage of time.  Also each and every person reacts differently, has different tolerance levels, different pain levels, different anxiety and panic levels, different fear levels.  So two people at the same time can experience the exact same thing and the emotions and sensations would be felt differently.   But, at least the shared experience would give an insight to understanding.  Even if one has healed over a period of time from a traumatic experience one can say to another ‘I may not know how you feel, but I understand�?SPAN>   So, one is then applying a level of understanding based on a past experience without actually feeling how the other feels at that moment in time.  A person who lives in a part of the world that is not dogged by starvation, wars, disease, may not have any comprehension to what someone who does, is suffering.    One can feel compassion, outrage, probably blessed that they are not in this unfortunate situation.  The same applies within the personal and domestic scenes, the lives that some people are subjected to may seem so far removed to another who is not on the receiving end of abuse etc.  Therefore personal experiences lay the ground for what one can identify with.  One of the greatest attributes of understanding is Empathic Awareness, it gives one the capacity to react and sense on an emotional level, those experiences that are outside of ones self.  One may not be consciously aware of individual circumstances and situations, the root cause, for one is connecting to the emotions of another, the resulting feelings.  The empathy allows the receiver to be aware of another’s pain, to understand on that level how they are feeling.  The receiver maybe detached from the situation, may not have experienced the same, however can link into the energy of distress.  This can be overwhelming at times for the Empathic receiver, picking up the raw emotions of others, however once recognized for what it is it can be used to help and assist.  Just ‘knowing�?that a friend or family member needs help, maybe not knowing the reason why, but just knowing that they do, this can also apply with strangers who come into the proximity of an empathic receiver.  This can often account for emotional swings in people, it is not so much their own emotional turbulence, they are ‘picking up�?other peoples, but once realised then the receiver can adjust and learn to know which is Self and which are received.  All levels of understanding aids and benefits others in one way or another and although you may feel that people do not understand you and what you maybe going through in turn you may not fully understand their predicament, however to be there, to have concern, to just simply understand that this person needs help, even though you may not fully understand, is in itself a level of compassionate understanding.

Received by Topaz from Gideon