Empaths: How To Let Go of Other People’s Energy and Feel Like YOU Again
Have you been told all of your life that you’re too sensitive? Do you feel frustrated because if you knew how to be less sensitive, you surely would be?! … it’s possible you may be an Empath.
So… before I move on with the blog theme of Self-Care and the Chakras, I want to talk about Empaths – especially the kinds of empaths who feel other people’s feelings, thoughts, and/or physical sensations in their own body, namely:
Clairsentience – “clear feeling,” sometimes a “gut knowing,” and this can include feeling other people’s physical sensations in your body.
Claircognizance – “clear knowing,” which can include what other people are thinking. Just knowing and often not knowing how or why you know.
Clairempathy – “clear emotional understanding,” which can include the overall feeling tone people in a room, a business, a person, or a situation.
(I learned of clairempathy and some types of empathic abilities not listed at this free webinar. The 8 psychic senses: https://events.genndi.com/register/169105139238452730/ddf993f290 www.thespiritualactivator.com. I’m not advertising, but just wanted to share a great resource, and give credit where it is due).
Being an empath is a double-edged sword, meaning there are positives and negatives, depending on your perspective. You may feel overwhelmed by other people and life-in-general at times, and may have to work really hard not to feel bombarded by other people’s thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations (including pain). Being around groups of people can magnify those effects. BUT here’s the good news! You can tune-into positive and uplifting feelings easily also: like joy, peace, subtle energy, spiritual realms, and the world (and multiverse) beyond you. This, like any skill, just takes practice.
Feeling overwhelmed by other people’s feelings, thoughts, or sensations may feel like a curse.
BUT the positive flip side is: empaths can tap into positive emotions, sensations, and information easily too!
Feeling or thinking other people’s thoughts, feelings, or physical sensations can be extremely disorienting and ungrounding – because you don’t always know that they are other people’s. Can you identify with this? Suddenly you can be struck by a thought, feeling, physical sensation or pain – and wonder, “where did that come from?” Sometimes a sensation hits you in an instant, and you may think, weird… I was feeling happy just a moment ago, and now I feel like I want to cry… Or you may suddenly just hurt, and wonder why is my back hurting all-of-the-sudden? I was just sitting here! Or that feeling (thought or physical pain) may creep in over the course of time, until that sadness, headache, or obsessive thought takes over your life experience and you think that it’s “yours.” Whether these thoughts, feelings, or sensations hit you suddenly or creep in over time, it can be very confusing, because often people don’t realize they are picking them up from someone else, and that it is possible to just release it and get back to feeling like themselves again.
Why do empaths do this? Here’s my theory. We’re trying to make sense of the disorienting emotion or sensation, so we relate the feeling to something going on with our lives.
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Well I guess I was gardening yesterday, that is why my back suddenly hurts now.
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There have been some big changes at work, so that must be why I feel so insecure. Oh no. Maybe I’m going to lose my job!
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My partner has been really quiet lately… it must be something I did and that is why I’m feeling insecure.
Most of the time this shift of emotion onto our own life experiences is pretty unconscious. But this is borrowing trouble, trying to make sense of the weird emotion or sensation we are feeling that DID NOT COME FROM YOU!
The topic of being an empath is more widely discussed today than it used to be, but you may have spent years feeling a little crazy at times, wondering why other people’s emotions, thoughts and physical pain can effect you so much. Or you may wonder why you feel extra-sensitive and aversive to dramatic people, crowds, or emotionally charged, uncomfortable situations.
I have many examples of this experience in my own life, but here’s a recent one. I spent several days with someone close to me who has dementia and who was feeling extremely sad, agitated, and scared. While I did my best to exhibit love, patience, slow down my thoughts, words and actions to create a more comforting space for her, when I left, I felt sadness, desperation, agitation, vulnerability and fear. I absorbed those emotions into my own body and experience. Unconsciously, I started making up thoughts about why I was feeling this way. What if I lose my job? What will I do? I don’t feel like I have the energy to face the world today. Maybe I don’t have anything to offer people… and down the descending spiral of emotions I went. Even though I think about this often, it still took me a little bit to realize those feelings weren’t mine – and that I didn’t have to make them mine.
So… How do you disconnect from other people’s experiences and making them your own??? Here are 10 things that can help!
(Please share your in the comments with anything that has helped you!)
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Sometimes grounding activities can really help. Here’s a link to some grounding ideas: Self-Care for the First Chakra.
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Sometimes that just doesn’t cut it though… and doing something that helps you to feel like yourself again can help you disconnect from other people’s feelings.
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Do something you love to return to your own center. Ask yourself – What am I passionate about? INTERRUPT the feeling by connecting to something you love. If you don’t have much energy, look at a picture of yourself or think of a memory when you were doing something you felt good about and remember that feeling.
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Read a book or watch a show that you enjoy that helps you feel good about life and is something that personally interests you.
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Here is a link to my post about Self-Care for the Third Chakra, also has some helpful tips.
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Take a media break – you may be affected by other people’s posts, the news, even fictional stories you watch, hear or are reading.
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Tune into something uplifting: be in nature, listen to music, read a book or watch television or a movie that has a main character that feels the way you want to feel. You can listen to a guided meditation, let someone guide you in yoga or other practice that is uplifting for you. Find someone to tune into that has the vibe that you’d like to emulate and soon you’ll find that you are tuned into that “station.”
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Connect with a friend who knows you well and helps you to feel uplifted and reminded of you of who you really are.
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Exercise and sweat it out!
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Let yourself feel the emotion and get it out of your system. Sometimes a good cry, yelling at someone in the car and saying something you can’t really say, singing out loud with a song that captures the emotion you’re feeling can be really helpful to transmute the energy. My Mom and I used to go to a dead tree, and wack it with sticks. Screaming into a pillow, having a pillow fight or even “beating up” a couch with a pillow can be cathartic.
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Guided visualization: Imagine yourself wrapping up the pain, the emotion, the thought or belief into a package. Tie it up or put it in a container. Give it over to a higher power and ask for it to be taken from you and returned to sender or where it can go for the highest good of all. Then breathe in Divine Light and Love and feel it fill in that space.
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Cut energetic cords, which are energetic ties to other people, if you know how to do this. Ask for help and imagine Archangel Michael or another divine being you connect with wielding a magical sword around your body, breaking energetic ties, and filling in the spaces so they can no longer connect to you. See if you can feel those being cut and ask the energy to be recycled for the highest good of all or be “returned to sender.”
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Sing a happy song (out loud or in your head). Whether it’s a spiritual chant, religious hymn, a jingle, a bee-bop song, children’s song, or something really silly or uplifting. You could make a playlist for these times, or find one already made, such as “Silly Songs” or “Good Vibes” playlists on Spotify.
If you’re ready to make a big leap in changing this pattern in your life, I can help!
In an Akashic Record Consultation and Healing session (done over Zoom) we can:
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Identify who’s emotions, beliefs, or pain you’re feeling and what you can do about it.
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Identify the belief, energy leak, or root issue that allows this person or type of people to trigger you.
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Get back into the upward spiral of energy to feel positive and like yourself again.
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Identify what activities and situations drain your energy and what fills it so you can manage your energy better on a day to day basis.
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Release energetic cords, heal energy leaks, and create new energetic armor.
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Find strategies that can help you manage and protect your core energy.
Go to my homepage to read more: www.lightfilledlife.com
Please comment if you’d like to share other helpful tips for disengaging from other people’s energy as an empath. Thanks for reading 🙂