Are you someone who feels drained by negative events? Do you feel emotionally overwhelmed and feel the need to be on your own when everything feels too much? Do you find it easy to understand, even read other people, and feel strange to know them more than you think you should?
Being an empath can open you up to a lot of insights about others, including their emotions and energies. It can make you feel extra sensitive to your environment in general. Because of this, being an empath can also feel like a curse if you do not understand why your nature is what it is.
Being an empath can enable a person to feel deeply, even to the point of absorbing people’s emotions and even physical symptoms due to their highly sensitive nature.
However, an empath is more than just a highly sensitive person. Even though most empaths are also very sensitive, they take a highly sensitive person’s experience much further by their ability to absorb people’s emotions, unconsciously and usually unwantedly.
Entering into a room full of heated energy can be enough to wear an empath down. Conversing with someone for hours can drain them easily. If empaths don’t understand this about themselves, they could end up deeply affected emotionally, while some could even feel physically ill.
For this very reason, empaths need to understand their nature and learn to cope with it to be able to thrive.
Here are valuable coping skills that empaths must learn:
Understanding Sources of Positive Energy and Energy Drainers
There are certain places, events, and people that instantly trigger positive energy in empaths. The downside is, there are also plenty of energy drainers. Learning to recognize these things will be immensely helpful. Seek more of the things that energize you and try to avoid situations that always drain and overwhelm you. The more you can strategize ways around things you can’t completely avoid or control, the better.
Staying Centered
Being centered is about having a reference point to return to and staying anchored in that state of presence when life gets out of hand. It is maintaining balance and keeping calm amidst everything going on around us. This is essential to an empath, as situations that may appear chaotic to them may be perceived as bland and regular by others.
Keeping a balance between making a fuss about physical realities that make life so chaotic, while also not being too detached from reality with your head above the clouds, enables empaths to discern situations better without being too caught up emotionally. This helps them to still maintain their empathic advantage to respond to circumstances in the most appropriate way.
One of the most important lessons empaths need to learn is setting healthy boundaries. Sometimes, this means setting energy boundaries to protect themselves from over-stimulation.
For empaths within highly competitive work environments, keeping a dedicated space that you can retreat to is helpful. Having some plants in plain sight or photos of your loved ones or pets can help establish this barrier. When going out, carry noise-canceling earphones to minimize sound or noise from a busy and chaotic environment. In some cases, using protective crystals can also help preserve positive energy.
Self-Care Practices
For empaths, having dedicated me-time is necessary as it can be a great way to recharge. Self-care keeps empaths in balance and strong from the inside. An empath needs to take care of their internal needs to be able to thrive in their external environment. Maintaining boundaries can be difficult if you are not taking care of yourself, not sleeping enough, or eating well.
Countering Limiting Beliefs
A lot of empaths develop limiting beliefs about themselves early in life. They may not necessarily understand their uniqueness early on and don’t feel a strong sense of belonging in groups. For empaths to become effective at what they do best (helping others), they need to be able to help themselves first. Often, this starts with challenging their limiting thoughts and learning to believe in their abilities more.
Determination to Take Action
Many empaths live inside their heads. They always seem to be always mulling things over and can be deep thinkers, if not overthinkers. In turn, they become so deeply affected by the sheer energy of their thoughts that taking action can be delayed.
But an empath with a mission and a determination to take action is also unstoppable. This is what empaths need to turn their empathic abilities into something tangible. Empowered empaths can be influential and have the ability to move the world into order, if only they take more action.
