9 Ways to Protect Yourself if You’re an Empath and You Feel Everything
An empath is someone who is highly aware of the emotions of those around them, to the point of feeling those emotions themselves. Being an empath comes with quite a few benefits. One of the biggest is that you can be far more in-tune with your emotions and the emotions of others. The downside, however, is that you also have to contend with the burden of absorbing these feelings so easily.
While just about everyone has some empathic qualities, true empaths feel to the point of having the quality of the day largely influenced by how those around them are feeling. As an empath, your great day could be quickly interrupted by someone around you experiencing a negative emotion, even if they’re not particularly close to you.
If you are an empath, you absolutely must be aware of how to get through life without letting these tendencies get the drain the life out of you.
These are 9 ways to protect yourself if you’re an empath and you feel everything.
1. Recognize that most of the negative energies you feel are probably not yours.
If you’re feeling negative feelings but can’t pinpoint exactly where they originated from, that’s probably not your energy. If you’re feeling negative feelings but everything is truly fine in your day, that’s probably not your energy.
As an empath it is so easy for you to inadvertently absorb someone else’s negative energy.
Awareness of negative energy is a must. You have to identify when you’ve unwittingly soaked up someone else’s bad feelings.
2. Set strict boundaries for the people and activities in your life.
As an empath, you must protect your energy. Because you easily absorb other people’s “stuff,” you use up way more emotional energy than the average person. If you are not carefully setting up boundaries for the people and activities in your life, you risk becoming drained and not being able to care for yourself.
In order to protect your energies, you need to establish boundaries. You can limit interactions with certain people who you know are energy drainers. Be strategic about your interactions with them. You can even limit interactions with people in general since you may find yourself absorbing the energy of others just from being in the same location as them.
Likewise, make sure your schedule is not overloaded and be mindful of what you are doing day-to-day.
For example, simply watching the tv or going to a crowded restaurant can be hugely burdensome to an empath.
Set up strict boundaries for yourself in order to find more freedom for yourself. Be mindful of what you expose yourself to and eliminate or better manage what that burdens you.
3. Make sure you spend time alone to rest and recharge.
You absolutely must make time for yourself. As an empath you are exhausted most of the time without even breaking a sweat. All the emotions you encounter as an empath take their toll on you.
How much time you need to recharge should be solely based what you think you need. Oftentimes as an empath, you may feel the need to do what you feel the world needs from you. This may mean that you overextend yourself and don’t give yourself enough time to recharge. View this is your permission to take the time you think you need.
4. Visualize yourself in a protective bubble or shield.
Your deep sense of empathy can cause stress based on how easily the energies of others seem to latch onto you. It can be difficult to keep your distance, but there are strategies. One of the best is by giving yourself an invisible energetic shield.
Simply imagine a source of protection that keeps you from being impacted by others’ energy. You can be as imaginative as you wish with what you picture, from a protective bubble to a force field surrounding you.
5. Wash away the energy that doesn’t belong to you.
To protect yourself as an empath, you should take a shower. You should literally take a shower, but also energetically.
Physically showering can be a life-saver for you. You can literally feel the energy of the world being washed away just from something as simple as a letting clean water run over you.
Likewise, you should mentally wash away energy that doesn’t belong to you through visualization. As often as needed, visualize a big surge of cleansing and protective energy coming down from the sky and washing over you carrying away all the crap that isn’t yours.
6. Journal.
It’s simple. But it helps. Big time. Putting your thoughts into written words on a paper take the energy out of your being and releases it to another location; the paper.
Get rid of that negative energy by writing.
7. Keep yourself healthy.
Drink your water. Get your sleep. Move your body. Manage your stress. Eat your nutrient dense food. These are essential habits for an empath.
Keeping up with your health makes you feel strong both physically and emotionally. It protects you from absorbing so much negative stuff from other people.
8. Remember, it’s not your job to fix people.
Empaths can put a tremendous burden on themselves to fight for others. If someone they care about has any kind of a problem, an empath will feel like it’s their duty to solve it for them. In theory, this is a nice sentiment, but in practice, it just doesn’t work.
While generosity and offering advice are great, you can’t help everyone. You need to understand the limits of your empath abilities. As much it might hurt to realize that most things are out of your control, understanding this can keep you from ruining your life in your obsession to make things better for everyone.
9. Practice deep breathing, meditation and other calming practices.
Mindfulness practices are also life-savers for you as an empath. These techniques may seem like nonsense but they are proven to be helpful in calming down your nervous system, helping you to think more clearly and managing your energy.
These practicies include deep breathing, meditation, yoga, walking, playing calming music in the background, visualization, baths, sound therapy, self-hypnosis audios, gratitude practices, eating slowly and even chanting.
Being an empath is like being a superhero. If you’ve ever seen any superhero movie, you know how overwhelming powers can be for those gifted with them. Eventually though, all superheros learn to harness their abilities for the good of themselves and the world around them.