Empathy: To Feel

Today while working on a blog and looking for a synonym for the word empathy, I realized that my thesaurus could not give me one; it did not have a replacement word for empathy.

I always had an idea of what empathy means, yet, it is one of those words that I have never been able to really understand or to use it correctly in the right context.

So, today we are getting a grip on it:
The dictionary defines empathy as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.
 
Easy:
Empathy is compassion and caring which is the display of kindness and concern for others.
 
Partly right but it is more than that:
Empathy is not just to care or to sympathize with someone, it is to understand and feel another’s emotional state.
 
To feel is the key:
To feel empathy is to feel along, it is to be able to identify with someone because you've been there.
To be compassionate is when you haven't been there; it means that you don’t necessarily feel their feelings.
 
Now, I think that I got it:
Empathy is to bring you back into an experience through another person. To understand, to feel and not just to show compassion; not just to express a sentiment.