Consider two people who are empathising. Research shows that their physiology is synchronized; their heart rates match, even their sweat rate becomes the same as well.

This suggests that to empathise with someone, you need to calm yourself down in order to listen to subtle signals coming from the other side e.g. if you are angry you can create little empathy. You may have difficulty adjusting your physiology to the other person unless you calm yourself down.

Research suggests that we actually respond neurologically to an expression of a face. In other words, a large part of empathic communication is actually biological. The core part of managing relationships with others is the ability to shape their emotions. Within emotional intelligence, you can achieve this with empathy, social-awareness and relationship management competencies.