You feel a particular affective state, this state feels similar to you and the 'target' of your empathy, but has different causes, it stems from you watching or imagining the target's affective state, you realise your affective state is a result of empathy.
Empathy is a feeling different from sympathy. When one is sympathetic, one implies pity but maintains distance from another person’s feelings.
Empathy is more a sense that one can truly understand or imagine the depth of another person’s feelings. It implies feeling with a person, rather than feeling sorry for a person.
People who have not gone through a specific situation need to be careful about trying to express empathy when they should be expressing sympathy.
Saying "I know just how you feel," is often taken the wrong way, especially if the recipient knows that you DON'T know at all how he or she feels. Sometimes it's better to stick to listening.
