What is an Empath? An Empath is, in short, a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) with Extra Sensory Perception (ESP).
They are extra sensitive to their environment but they’re also sensitive to the energetic frequencies of the people around them. This means that they have a heightened ability to understand, which is both a blessing and a lesson in terms of building character and enhancing relationships.
The way they do this is through their supernatural ability to empathize with the world around them, physically and intuitively. They are natural-born healers, great communicators, expert listeners, and even highly skilled lie detectors.
Unfortunately for the Empath, having ESP means that very few people understand the Empath’s needs and the impact that this ability has on their everyday lives.
If you’re reading this, then the chances are you already know what an Empath is and are looking for some support to help you manage this gift.
Dysfunctioning Empath
A dysfunctioning Empath is often running on depleted energy which in turn can make life chaotic.
The physical signs of a dysfunctioning Empath tend to be:
1. Weight issues
Being over-weight is a symptom of needing to feel more grounded and being under-weight is a symptom of feeling a lack of control.
2. Sensitive skin
Your hair, skin and nails are the first parts of your body to be sacrificed when your body is malfunctioning on some level. This doesn’t necessarily indicate anything too serious, but your body sees your hair and nails as the first things to shed when it’s in need of resources and your skin is like a damage reporting system.
3. Constant fatigue
Sleep is a great way to recharge but for the Empath, it can be a source of distress which leads to sleep dysfunction.
Subconscious messages can take place at this time and so even if you managed to nab those elusive 8 hours, you will not feel like you’ve fully switched off. This, in turn, generates anxiety about bedtime and so the cycle inevitably continues.
4. Depression and Anxiety
Depression and anxiety have physical and energetic symptoms and so please make sure you seek medical help in the first instance. Depression and anxiety tend to go hand in hand.
An Empath is more prone to depression and anxiety because not only are they dealing with their own emotions, but they’re also dealing with the influx of other people’s feelings around them too. 24/7.
Suffering from depression and anxiety does not mean that you are weak. Far from it. It means you’ve been strong for so long that now you need some time to rest.
5. Addiction
Addiction of any kind is often a maladjusted self-preservation method. It provides either comfort or escapism when dealing with reality and we may even feel that our addiction helps to release us from social restrictions so we can be our ‘true selves.’
Chemical stimulants or sedatives change your brain wave frequencies which means you are less likely to harness the full potential of your own mind.
6. People-pleasing vs attracting toxic people and narcissists
People pleasing comes from your desire to help others but this can also leave you open to abuse. People-pleasing may be a maladjusted response to people constantly taking advantage of your kind and generous nature. The bottom line is that you have forgotten the sacred Masonic word of power aka, “No.”
Toxic people, energy vampires, and narcissists all benefit from your lack of boundaries. Accept that you cannot change them as they are not willing to change. They see no problem with their actions and you being useful to them is no different than them using a disposable fork to eat with. It simply serves their self-centered interests and yes, they view you as disposable.
We attract them so readily because Empaths recognize their pain and toxic people, in turn, recognize a potential victim. If we’re born givers, then these people are born takers and will deplete you of all your resources.
These imbalances will result in avoidable wear and tear on your body, mind, and spirit.
Some Empaths can unknowingly become energy vampires themselves over time as a survival technique. When your energy levels become chronically low, you can sometimes start to ‘feed’ from the energy of those around you without even realizing it.
So how do you confront this in order to combat the problem(s)? Energetically and physically.
How to reset and restore
Your superpower is that you’re able to help people heal, re-write their right path, and even un-do past damages in their lives. If you take greater care of yourself daily, then you can use your unique gift(s) to do all of that for yourself and more!
Here are some suggestions to help you tackle the above…
1. Weight issues
- Eat whole foods.
- More sunshine.
- Drink more water
Give yourself the psychological reward of knowing you’re giving yourself a fighting chance.
2. Sensitive skin
- Knowledge is power so find dermatologists either in your local area or online that can recommend a skincare routine for you. Trial their suggestions until you find the products/ routine that works best for you.
- There are 1440 minutes in a day. Use 10 of them to build yourself a caring skin-focused routine. Having a few minutes each day to really focus on your well-being can be extremely beneficial to your mindset.
3. Constant fatigue
Regain control. This goes for your mind, your environment, and your data input at bedtime.
- Understand your dreams. This can help to release the feelings associated with them and help you take back your personal power so you can focus your energy on more important things. Adopting this approach habitually can then help you to change your subconscious mind to regard sleep as a great time to heal.
- Anxiety window. If you know that your mind is guaranteed to be racing before bedtime, use that time to sit down with your fears and really address them. Carl Jung calls this ‘shadow work’ but it can be a great way of dispelling the argument your mind is trying to present to you.
- Your bedroom is your sanctuary. Make it feel like a place that you genuinely link it with re-charging. Incorporate nice smells, soft lighting and positive imagery that represents peace/ comfort etc.
- Restrict stimulants before bed. This could either be caffeine, nicotine, your phone, the computer or even the tv. Try cutting these off 1 hour before bedtime and relaxing with orchestral music.
4. Depression and anxiety
- Prioritise rest and relaxation.
- Doing some ‘shadow work’ as this will point you in the right direction with regards to identifying what needs to change.
- Make a list of Anti-Fragile beliefs about yourself. This means a list of labels you would give to yourself that no one, not even your inner saboteur, can take away from you.
- Build a Crisis Management Plan. A Crisis Management Plan is where you create your own personal handbook for combating your depression and reminding yourself of your personal power to overcome anything you put your mind to.
- Motivation does not come before action like we all seem to think it does. It comes after it. So set yourself 5-minute goals to begin with and if you feel like doing more once you’ve started, keep going.
- The physical act of moving around (like exercise, dancing or even cleaning) is a great way to get your energy flowing again.
- Try positive psychological reinforcement by increasing your ability to respond to situations. Write your achievements down so you have a file of evidence to support that you’re moving in the right direction.
- Dopamine is the body’s anticipatory reward system and can be used to combat anxiety. Get positively anticipated for something instead, aka excited. By building positive activities into your daily routine you can trick the mind into seeing anticipation as something positive.
With the above in place, you will subconsciously come to believe in your exceptional capabilities.
5. Addiction
If you are struggling with an addiction, then please seek medical/ professional help in the first instance. There are useful services out there and online tools to build into your Crisis Management Plan and get you back to full strength.
- Reframe the thought. Addictions are not self-care. They are self-harm. Addictions will take a physical toll from your body until you’re forced to deal with the consequences. Be pro-active and enhance your ability to respond to the situation.
- Swap out negative coping strategies for positive ones. Hold yourself accountable for your weak points but do so with compassion. You deserve to heal just as much as anyone else.
- Your mind does not require chemical stimulants or sedatives in order to function at its best. The pineal gland and reward chemicals in the brain have been built into our biological design to help cultivate the right behaviours already.
- Ask yourself the following unanswered questions… “How great could I be if I changed? What could I achieve? Who would I become?”
Putting the work in to make the necessary changes means you will get to learn and understand the true extent of your personal power.
6. People pleasing, attracting toxic people and narcissists
- Set appropriate boundaries that are in line with your ethos and priorities.
- Keep a mood diary to help you identify any patterns in your energy levels as this will enable you to recognise which people around you are having a negative impact, i.e. are you always tired after speaking to a particular person? Does someone make you feel particularly uncomfortable?
- Grey rock method. Narcissists and energy vampires thrive on being able to extract energy from you and so the best way to get them to lose interest is to make yourself as interesting as a grey rock. What does this look like? Well, it basically means giving one-word answers and being boring as hell. Think of it like a conversational version of watching paint dry.
- Cut the cord of attachment. Legend has it that we are connected to people by a silver cord attached to our mind, body or heart. Imagine these cords between you and the negative influencer being cut with a large pair of scissors.
High functioning Empath
As an Empath, you are a powerhouse of energetic vibration and you have the gift to empower yourself and others, in that order! You perceive everything said and unsaid, seen and unseen, and can even feel what’s going on around you. Your intuition is second to none and you form bonds and lifelong connections with people purely based on your ability to care for them on a deeper level.
With practice and dedication to self-care, you can potentially increase your energetic focus to a much larger area of influence.
Emotions can be contagious. Don’t believe me? Have you ever noticed that when someone is having a bad day then a ripple effect starts taking place on the people around them? What about laughter being infectious? Then there’s yawning.
The most unspoken aspect of being an Empath is that you can influence and amplify the energy around you.
An amplifier in a hi-fi receives an input signal from a source and creates an enlarged replica. What this means is that you can take energy from the sources available (yourself, other people, the environment) and magnify that energetic frequency to radiate around the room.
You may not be able to change the entire world but you can certainly change how you interact with your specific part of it so be the change you wish to see and then go out there and be the positive force you were meant to be!
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