How to Survive When You Feel Too Much
Being an empath or a highly sensitive individual can be really hard; you may often feel drained or invaded by the energy and feelings of those surrounding you. This condition affects many people; in fact, around 15%-20% of the earth’s population is highly sensitive and another 2-3% is considered empathetic. It’s important to find mechanisms to help you cope and deal with situations that harm your inner universe.
Types of Empathy and Their Characteristics
It’s important to set personal boundaries to increase our self-worth and self-preservation. It’s not necessary to immediately answer requests for help, and it’s ok to say no.
Know Your Limits
You cannot save everyone; the sooner you realize this, the better. Other people have their own paths to walk and their own stories to tell, as well as their own lessons to learn. You cannot shoulder other people’s burdens as well as your own, and you need to let other people learn to fend for themselves.
Find out where your sweet spot is, that special zone where you’re not doing too much for others or too little but everything is at the optimal level.
Encourage and support those who are going through difficult emotions, rather than trying to alleviate their pain, and they will grow and thank you for it.
Increase Your Emotional Intelligence
Feeling everything doesn’t mean recognizing specific feelings; it can be hard to identify what is causing a specific emotional situation and why and it can also be hard to control what you’re feeling. By increasing your emotional intelligence, however, you can learn to identify those feelings and eventually cope with them and build a balanced life.
Be mindful about your feelings and try to recognize them and distinguish between yours and those of others. Learn to regulate your own feelings and evaluate them. For example, by noticing how you feel after spending time with others, you will soon identify those people who are health hazards for you. Try specifically tailored yoga sequences to stimulate the capacity for internal reflection.
Create a Support Network
Surround yourself with positive people, who can restore your positive energy. The more good energy we receive, the more we can give back.
Relationships with empaths leave you feeling energized and fulfilled; empaths don’t have an agenda and the more you’re around each other, the stronger and more positive you will feel.
Take Care of Yourself!
Once again, it’s not selfish to take care of yourself! In order to help other people, you need to be at your best. You need to be strong and nurture yourself, and surround yourself with people who allow you to do so. Only by doing that will you experience growth and positive change, and finally be able to live your life as an empath in a balanced and healthy way.
From: Jackie Edwards [mailto:jackie@ursamail.com]