The term sympathy is a term that refers to those feelings and feelings of affinity with some people that represent meeting points at different levels or stages.
Affectionate tendency between people, which is spontaneous and reciprocal
It implies the affectionate and friendly inclination that someone has towards another / others and that is usually natural and mutual, that is, the other also feels it for us.
When two individuals feel good together, accompanied, that the other will be there when needed, or that he will be happy when things go well for us, we will talk about the presence of sympathy between the two.
We must also say that it is common to feel sympathy for someone even though they are not known in detail, or personally, and this is possible because through some means, for example a mass media, we feel comfortable and satisfied with the way in which thinks, acts or what he has done regarding a specific matter.
A person we see on TV who helps the poorest by providing them with food and shelter, will undoubtedly arouse sympathy in us even if we have never seen them in our lives. Such an altruistic action that she performs is enough to move us and make us admire her.
You can also feel sympathy for an ideology that supports a political group or a sports club.
Happy and positive attitude that a person expresses
When we talk about sympathy, we also refer to a happy and satisfied attitude towards life, for which a nice person or one who has sympathy is understood as a happy person who is always well disposed in dealing with others. The word sympathy comes from the Greek language sympatheia which means "to suffer or to feel together".
Sympathy is a characteristic of a person's personality that involves happy, polite and pleasant reactions to everyday life situations.
Thus, sympathy can be noticed when a person greets others, when he faces reality with grace and joy, etc. Sympathy should not necessarily be understood as a sense of humor since the person who has sympathy is not necessarily a person who is considered comical or funny, but rather has a pleasant and affable attitude in the circumstances in which they live. For many, sympathy is not a necessarily constant characteristic since life puts us in complex and difficult situations, and then sometimes it is normal to lose it.
Manifestation of compassion or concern for the other
Sympathy can also be understood as a way of showing compassion or concern for the other, especially when the other is going through painful or complicated situations. A sympathetic (or also empathic) attitude is an attitude that makes the person feel close to the other and that he can show his accompaniment precisely from that closeness in terms of sensations or feelings. Sympathy, in this sense, is not necessarily a happy attitude but rather a supportive and pleasant attitude of one person towards another who is suffering or who is facing complex and harsh vicissitudes.
The antipathy, the other side
The opposite of sympathy is antipathy, which is the feeling of repulsion or rejection that someone feels for another.
We must say that antipathy is always the consequence of a bad experience with something or someone. "I feel an absolute antipathy towards your cousin because, whenever she sees me, she does not say hello to me."
And there are also other uses of the concept that are not as widespread as those mentioned above but that we must also mention.
Other uses
On the one hand, it is used to name the relationship of physiological and pathological activity that some organs of the body have, which do not have a direct connection. For example, when some part of the body hurts or bothers us as a result of the injury in another area, which although it is not linked as we said, they do maintain that relationship.
And also the word is used as a synonym for support. "You have all my sympathy to run for office."
