Is being an empath a burden for you? Is being highly sensitive creating a lot of problems in your life? Although most empaths find it difficult to live with an overdose of empathy and want to control their heightened sensitivities, you need to realize your worth as an empath. Your unique traits make you rare and set you apart in this world filled with chaotic, insensitive minds. Once you realize how important you are and start accepting your true nature, you will experience the many benefits of being an empath.
“Highly sensitive people are too often perceived as weaklings or damaged goods. To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness, it is the trademark of the truly alive and compassionate.” – Anthon St. Maarten
Being an empath can be difficult in an uncaring world. But you’re not alone. This is why, it is crucial that instead of fighting your heightened awareness, you accept them as a part of your being. This will enable you to overcome that negative inner voice which falsely makes you believe that there’s something wrong with you. That you are at a disadvantage. When in reality it’s the complete opposite. Although being a highly sensitive individual can be seriously challenging, it is your strongest ability that helps you change people’s lives and the world around you.
What is an empath?
“Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.” – Daniel H. Pink
Empaths are highly sensitive people who can easily understand the energy and emotions of others. These individuals can deeply feel the emotions of other people and may even absorb their energy, feelings, stress, and pain. People with high levels of empathy are usually very intuitive and are skilled at reading people, circumstances, and situations more than others. As they have a deep insight into the human psyche, empaths are renowned as natural healers.
Most empaths possess the following personality traits:
- High awareness
- High sensitivity
- Intuitiveness
- Commitment
- Introversion
- Giving
- Self-sufficiency
- Feel overwhelmed easily
- Exceptional listener
8 Benefits of being an empath
“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.” – Roger Ebert
Empathy can offer a lot of benefits to an empathic person. When you start shifting your focus from the difficulties of being highly sensitive and invest in your own self-discovery, you will find out all the wonderful gifts you can get by being an empath.
Here are 8 amazing gifts that you receive for being an empath:
1. You’re a human lie detector
You know if someone is lying to you and being dishonest. Being an empath enables you to smell lies from a mile away. Irrespective of whether you know the person or not, an alarm bell starts ringing inside you every time someone lies. You can even understand if someone is lying to manipulate you or simply telling a white lie trying not to hurt others. It’s a great life skill to have at your disposal. Although you don’t necessarily feel a need to confront the liar every time, your intuition helps you to protect yourself from their negative energy.
2. You can feel others’ emotions
It’s fairly easy for you to read others and understand what they are going through in life, psychologically and emotionally. This enables you to connect and relate with them better. Being an emotional individual, you have an innate ability to read subtle emotional cues and feel exactly how another person is feeling. You can understand what inner turmoil this person is experiencing and how it can affect them. This enables you to help others when they need it the most. You are a master at understanding nonverbal communication as well as indicators of emotional and physical needs of others.
3. You’re highly creative
Empaths are naturally creative. Empathy allows you to be unusually creative in life, situations, experiences, possibilities as well as in art. Not only you perceive differently from others, but you also have your own unique vision and ideas which you need to share with the world through your creativity. This is who you are and creativity allows you to express your emotions, thoughts and yourself. Your creativity is a process of expression and self-discovery which also touches and inspires others around you. Moreover, creativity hones your natural essence as an empath and makes you feel happier in life.
4. You’re a natural healer
“Empathy is a powerful behavior of nurturing. When it is given properly, the receiver can feel that the giver really cares about them and that what they are going through is not trivial.” – William E. Krill
All empaths are natural healers. You can often become a channel and gift healing energy and light to those who need it the most. You can channel the flow of energy through your touch, your words and your actions. You feel others’ emotions as if you are feeling your own emotions. Perhaps this is why many empaths around the world become energy healing experts due to their intuition which drives them to help and heal others as well as themselves.
5. You feel low around negative people
When you find yourself stuck in situations that emit a negative vibe or when you are around bad people, your energy levels can drop instantly. As your energy level drops drastically, you desperately try to remove yourself from those situations and people to protect your energy. On the other hand, when you are with the right people and in the right situations, you can feel an unprecedented high that can make you feel positive and good for a long time. Being highly sensitive, you can feel the lowest of lows and the highest of highs. It empowers you to live life with an unparalleled enthusiasm for life which makes you a caring, compassionate, understanding and kind person.
6. You enjoy the little things
Having heightened sensitivities, you are able to enjoy the little things in life. Unlike most people, you don’t need grand gestures or experiences to feel happiness. You know how to live in the moment and the small things in your daily can effectively boost the levels of your happiness hormone…serotonin. You are happily taking a walk by yourself outside through a quiet old lane or out in nature. You enjoy the smell of pleasant things like flowers and food and thus you enjoy these simple pleasures more than others and with a higher intensity.
7. You can sense danger
Your heightened awareness enables you to sense potential risks, threats, and dangers before anyone else. As you are very intuitive, you can sense even the faintest cues and know when to be cautious of a situation or a person. By honing your intuitive skills, you will be able to sense disease and death in others, humans, and animals, enabling you to save lives.
8. You are happy alone
Most people who have little empathy or lack it completely, are usually not comfortable with their own selves. Hence, they feel highly uncomfortable when they are alone and constantly seek the company of others. Empaths, on the other hand, crave their alone time and enjoy their own company a lot. You need to spend time with yourself to get in tune with your thoughts and emotions, balance yourself, detox and de-stress. This allows you to re-energize and recuperate as you are highly self-aware.
Being an empath is a gift
Sensitive people care when the world doesn’t because we understand waiting to be rescued and no one shows up. We have rescued ourselves, so many times that we have become self-taught in the art of compassion for those forgotten.” – Shannon L. Alder
If you believe being overly sensitive is a burden, then it’s high time to change your beliefs. Being an empath is a great gift that you should cherish. It’s not a curse despite what others may make you think. You need to understand that we create what we think and what we create is a part of ourselves. Remember these benefits of your heightened awareness that you enjoy over others. In fact, there are many more great benefits of being an empath that you will uncover as you keep discovering yourself further.
With only 15-20% of the global population being highly sensitive, you are among the rare few who have the ability to view the world around you with your intuition and emotion instead of just logic. Focus on what being empathic can offer you, instead of how it can challenge you. Life is a challenge for each one of us. However, only a lucky few can enjoy the benefits of being an empath.
You have the gift of healing others. What better gift can there be?
So start by healing yourself and accepting your true nature.
You will see how beautiful you truly are.
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