The Journey to Empathy

British mediator Martin Golder explains the difference between empathy and sympathy in an article at Mediate.com. He says that empathy can be learned in five stages:

The first stage is to think of yourself in a kind and loving way, this is then extended to a person that you like in the second stage. The third stage is to think of a neutral person and the fourth and perhaps most difficult stage is to project loving kindness (peace and good will) to an enemy or difficult person. The final stage is to expand the projection of good will to all.

(Mediate.com.)