A third characteristic of effective evangelists is empathy. Empathy may be described as the ability to communicate understanding and appreciation of how others feel. When we empathise, we vicariously experience the emotions of others. We can’t experience how they feel directly. To do that, we would have to enter their body! But we can imaginatively "put ourselves in someone else's shoes." Our own life experience can help us empathise, because we may have faced similar things, but even if we haven’t had much experience of life, it really doesn’t matter too much because we can use our imagination. Most of us have seen movies and read books, which means that we have a range of vicarious experiences beyond our own personal life events. As a training exercise to increase your empathy, practice imaginatively putting yourself in the position of each person you talk to today, especially when they share challenges, concerns, or needs.