Have you ever been labeled as overly sensitive? Do you absorb the emotions of others? There is a good chance you're an emotional empath. Empaths are highly sensitive, finely tuned instruments when it comes to emotions. They feel everything, sometimes to an extreme, and are less apt to intellectualize feelings. Their sensitivity is the filter through which they experience life. Empaths are naturally giving, spiritually attuned and good listeners. If you want heart, empaths have got it. Through thick and thin, they're there for you -- world-class nurturers.
As a psychiatrist, many empaths come to me overwhelmed by the world. Their trademark is that they know where you're coming from. Some can do this without taking on people's feelings. However, for better or worse, others, like myself and many of my patients, can become angst-sucking sponges. This often overrides the sublime capacity to absorb positive emotions and all that is beautiful. If empaths are around peace and love, their bodies assimilate these and flourish. Negativity, though, often feels assaultive and exhausting. Thus, they're particularly easy marks for emotional vampires, whose fear or rage can ravage empaths. As a subconscious defense, they may gain weight as a buffer. When thin, they're more vulnerable to negativity, a missing cause of overeating. Plus, an empath's sensitivity can be overwhelming in romantic relationships; many stay single since they haven't learned to negotiate their special cohabitation needs with a partner.
When empaths absorb the impact of stressful emotions, it can trigger panic attacks, depression, food, sex and drug binges, and a plethora of physical symptoms that defy traditional medical diagnosis from fatigue to agoraphobia. Since I'm an empath, I want to help all my empath patients cultivate this capacity and be comfortable with it.
Empathy doesn't have to make you feel overloaded too much all the time. Now that I can center myself and refrain from shouldering stress, empathy continues to make me freer, igniting my compassion, vitality and sense of the miraculous.
To determine whether you're an emotional empath, take the following quiz from my book, "Emotional Freedom," which explores empathy in great detail.
QUIZ: AM I AN EMPATH?
Ask yourself:
If you answer "yes" to one to three of these questions, you're at least part empath. Responding "yes" to more than three indicates that you've found your emotional type.
Recognizing that you're an empath is the first step in taking charge of your emotions instead of constantly drowning in them. Staying on top of empathy will improve your self-care and relationships.
Emotional Action Step: How to Find Balance
Practice these strategies to center yourself.
1. Allow quiet time to emotionally decompress. Get in the habit of taking calming mini-breaks throughout the day. Breathe in some fresh air. Stretch. Take a short walk around the office. These interludes will reduce the excessive stimulation of going nonstop.
2. Practice guerrilla meditation. To counter emotional overload, act fast and meditate for a few minutes. This centers your energy so you don't take it on from others.
3. Define and honor your empathic needs. Safeguard your sensitivities. Here's how.
Over time, I suggest adding to this list to keep yourself covered. You don't have to reinvent the wheel each time you're on emotional overload. With pragmatic strategies to cope, empaths can have quicker retorts, feel safer, and their talents can blossom.
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I've found 9 attributes I call the Nine Gifts of Awakening that tend to increase as we mature spiritually. Number one is a general sensitivity to environment, mood, and other people. Many of my clients have personal spaces about the size of a house!
Yes, you definitely need some coping mechanisms like the wonderful suggestions above, so you can move through a typical modern day without being overwhelmed. (My favorite suggestion is to more deeply familiarize yourself with your own energy patterns and then BE them, so the energy of others doesn't overwhelm you as much.)
Overall, however, I see this sensitivity as a huge gift or blessing! It helps you feel your own emotions so you can live an increasingly authentic life. It can be used to more deeply help others live better lives. And sensitivity can help you tap into your inner guidance to accelerate along your spiritual path and do what you came to this planet to do.
And always i am aware of how courageous i am to keep failing, to keep getting up again and try again to find balance, to regain my power, when others negativity has wiped me out completely. More often lately, when in balance i am also 'One' with everyone i meet in the street. And being acknowledged by complete strangers. Not a forced, hocus pocus, we are all one, halleluja, but an observation of true oneness.
There have been times i turned on the light in someones depressed eyes, there have been many times i wanted to leave this life. But always i trusted there is a divine reason for my birth, my existence, for the spiritual realm to develop this quality among the human race.
For those who can see themselves in your profile, I'm sure they can be helped immediately by simply being aware of their condition and can take steps to recreate themselves.
Write on!
Tom Justin
"Your Inner Wizard"
thank you for your suggestions on how to handle being empathic. over the past few years i have begun to consider what it is I need, and i'm getting better at being still and listening to my intuition. it's helped tremendously as i work towards getting myself into balance. namaste.
What I haven't found anyone to address the issue is of infirmed people, sometimes, by the time I get home, I am completely drained of energy and my hands get very cold and I pass out.
I barely could keep awake up to 3 days @ a time. I find that if I don't sleep what seems like 4Ever, I then get very sick, so I don't fight the system and just merely go with the flow. Just like with many of you, I have informed others of what is to become, maybe sometimes months, even years before they come to fruition.
So anyway, how do I protect myself from infirmed individuals who drain my energies right then and there on the spot? Just mere handshake or peck on the cheek or hugging a relative really are energy drainers (not necessarily emotional vampires). Many say I have an amazing gift, I say I have been living a nightmare of a curse.
Not that I don't love these individuals, I do and have come to be very fond of them and respect them. Just that I decided to completely shut myself off from the world because otherwise, I'd sleep forever. They don't realize they do this to me. They feel better, many say so. But I am drained.
You've brought up a great point though. Most books for empaths do not address how to deal with a situation where you must have regular contact with people who are very mentally or physically ill. Sometimes these people are family members who are loved, and it's not feasible to distance. It is a challenging situation no doubt. Good luck to you!
www.reikisight.com
Good luck!
Anxieties can compel us to back down or flee from exactly what we need to address. When you chronically avoid conflict or exit situations altogether because you are overly sensitive, your defenses take the line of least resistance - and the line of most resistance. The momentary empowerment that comes from defensive self-comforting is what's preventing you from developing the clear-headedness and discernment needed to overcome challenges. Learning how to let things roll off your back might be a more positive change than always trying to avoiding negativity.
My nephew has Asperger syndrome. He makes an effort to overcome this affliction by training himself in social skills. Although this is by no means a cure, by challenging himself to learn he's able to have more effective interpersonal interactions and function better in society. My point is, if being an Empath is something that affects your quality of life, then challenge yourself to overcome it. I doubt there can ever be freedom from emotions, but I do think there are methods to help intelligently filter emotions.
Best wishes.
http://winningtheobesitybattle.wordpress.com
But where is the list about the characteristics of people who construct lists that take good human responses and make them out to be less than desirable so that said list-makers have a life-long career by making the human race out to be thoroughly nuts?
Anyone who thinks my leaving any and all events when I darn well please is a problem has a much bigger problem than my leaving events when I darn well please.I don't know exactly what that is, but it's big.
Perhaps the reason people get drained by being around groups of people is because professionals have made them all out to be loons when they are perfectly normal people. Who can relax when everyone around you is nuts according to the nuts who tell us all that we are nuts?
"Togetherness" is probably medical mumbo-jumbo code for "I demand you fulfill MY emotional needs" or else!
composed of mostly sociopaths.
Unfortunately, I can see the latter being much more likely to happen.
Self containment is a great way to build the foundation for being empathic, but to what you choose to be empathic to.