Stop Being a Sponge

Empathy is a good thing. Probably the best thing you can offer anyone. To understand someone's pain without rushing to fix it is therapeutic. It is the closest you can come to giving someone the catharsis they need. Every self-help book and video preaches the same gospel. Social media is flooded with this one word: empathy. Most of the time, I advocate for empathy. But there are cases where it becomes a curse. Too much empathy and kindness can turn you into a sponge. That's fine occasionally. But what happens when the sponge overflows? When it has absorbed so much that it starts to leak? You cannot hold everything. You cannot afford to care about everybody. You might not know this, but you have limited emotional capacity. Besides, if you start offering empathy to everyone, you will realise that most people are not suffering because of external factors. They are suffering through envy. They want what others have. The desires of two people are in conflict with each other. Someone's…