Being an empath is a boon as well as a bane at times. Being an empath means you will need to balance and manage your feelings by soaking up other people’s emotions, which then makes you feel confused regarding which emotions are yours and which ones aren’t.
Empathy is basically an ability to understand, feel, and experience someone else’s emotions as your own. You basically put yourself in someone else’s shoes and try to feel what they feel to understand and support them better.
All empaths are intuitive but most empaths turn out to be untrained when it comes to using their intuition in the right way. As a result of which, it becomes difficult for them to know their boundaries and make their psychic powers work for them effectively. If you keep on absorbing others’ emotions, you will end up feeling psychologically and emotionally drained.
That’s why it’s vital that you learn how to demarcate between your emotions, and someone else’s.
Here Are 8 Ways You Can Understand Which Emotions Are Yours And Which Ones Aren’t
1. Be your most conscious self.
Empaths know how to naturally tune into people, but the best way to do it is in a conscious manner. When you find yourself absorbing other people’s emotions, try to recognize how you are doing it, accept it, and then do it.
Next, you need to name how and what you are experiencing inside yourself, and make sure that you don’t doubt it. This is a crucial part of understanding and learning where your boundaries lie. Name what you are experiencing, and don’t second-guess it. This is a part of learning where your boundaries are.
Life coach, Marcia Collins says that one of the best techniques to be conscious about this is naming every emotion you feel out loud the moment you start picking them up. According to her, emotion is simply energy in motion, and that’s exactly how she chooses to feel it. She understands emotion as simply being “energy in motion,” and chooses to experience it as such.
2. Know your own authentic feelings.
One of the best ways to differentiate between your feelings and someone else’s is by knowing for sure how and what you are feeling. You need to frequently dive into yourself and ask how you are feeling.
Meditation and journaling can also help you know about your true feelings. These things will also help you nourish your energy field and get a better sense of yourself. The moment you understand your authentic self, you will be able to handle your and others’ emotions better.
Related: 10 Strategies To Protect Your Energy As An Empath
3. Learn to ground yourself.
Grounding is one of the best ways to know your emotions and get a better handle on them. If you want to ground yourself, you can learn energy skills so you can be more present in your body and in your own experience.
Another thing you can do is to try and breathe in places in your body where you feel anxious, tense, or scared. This will help you ground yourself further and know what your true feelings are. Spending some much-needed time in nature can also help you get in touch with yourself, as being outside in fresh air will help you clear your mind. Being amidst animals and plants will always work well for you emotionally.
4. Set and strengthen your boundaries.
Setting strong boundaries will help you realize which emotions are yours and which ones aren’t, on an interpersonal and energetic level. Learn to say no when your emotions get too overwhelming, respect your own feelings and needs, and most importantly learn energy protecting techniques.
Learn to accept that other people can survive without your help at times, and you don’t need to take responsibility for everyone’s feelings and emotions. You don’t have to rescue them always, they are perfectly capable of saving themselves from the deep, dark depths of their well of tough emotions.
5. Get rid of unwanted energy and emotions.
If something just won’t go away, chances are it’s not yours. Keep paying attention and keep asking questions. If you have picked up on something that isn’t yours, you can use energy techniques, take Epsom salts baths, or you can get help from an energy healer to help you clear it away.
Never take on emotions that are not yours, as this practice most of the times does more harm than good.
Related: 10 Strange Behaviors Of An Authentic Empath
6. Know your triggers.
The more you are aware of yourself and how you feel, the less you will feel overstimulated or worn down. You need to take good care of yourself and your soul and be more resilient. Being an empath is both a responsibility and a gift, and if you don’t look after yourself, you will end up feeling drained.
Know what triggers you, and work on avoiding them, or better still, work on yourself so that those triggers don’t set you off anymore. This might be a tough task and will not happen overnight, but you need to put in the work as this will serve you well in the long run.
7. Surround yourself with the right kind of people.
You are who you spend time with. Be very careful who you are surrounding yourself with, as this can have a direct impact on your psyche. If you have selfish and exploitative people around you, then you will constantly feel negative and disturbing. But when you have good, honest, and supportive people as your friends and family who will validate your experiences and take care of you, you will thrive.
Because you are an empath and are sensitive, you tend to get affected by people more than others. It’s worthwhile to be conscious about the people you choose to be with.
8. Practice, practice, and then practice some more.
The more you practice the easier this will become, as you build up your own experience and learn to rely on it. The more you focus on this, the more you will be able to demarcate and select when you want to connect with someone else. Just because you are an empath, that does not mean you are responsible for and everybody’s feelings. Some people deserve your empathy, whereas some people don’t.
So the more you practice, the better you will understand who you should engage with and with whom you shouldn’t at all. It’s solely up to you to decide how you want to share your empathetic nature.
Related: Top 10 Things That Weaken an Empath
Now that you know what you can do to strike a balance and not carry the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, always keep in mind that how you choose to share your gift is always up to YOU. YOU decide what you want to do with it and how you want to do it.
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