Empaths can be referred to as highly sensitive individuals, easily affected by their environment and personal interactions. Your basis for living is based on feeling and perceiving as opposed to the mental process of logic and the search for facts. They rely on intuition for guidance, demonstrate compassion in personal interactions, and use emotional language to get their point across. People are drawn to their warm personality and sympathetic ear, which makes them excellent counselors and humanitarians. As wonderful as it sounds, many empaths and sensitives find themselves easily burnt out or suffer from anxiety, unfounded fears, and general confusion about who they are.
If you are reading this article, you may be wondering what is the difference between empathic and sensitive people. Are they one in the same? Everyone has varying degrees of sensitivity, from someone who can be as sensitive as a brick wall (no sensitivity) to someone who can feel the effects of a feather falling to the ground (very sensitive). When it comes to highly sensitive empathic people or HSPs, there are subtle differences. The main one is that empaths can experience the physical, emotional and mental pain of another. A sensitive can feel compassion without physically assuming it.
What empaths and HSPs have in common is their ability to connect with the world through sensory communication. They are sponges when it comes to receiving energy waste emitted by others or left in places. It’s not uncommon to walk into an empty room and feel uncomfortable or even physically ill. In fact, it is common for those who are highly sensitive to take on so much energetic waste that it causes anxiety, thoughts that are out of place, or feelings of overwhelm.
In the extreme, an empath may suddenly have a desire or longing that is uncharacteristic. Alcohol, sex, smoking, eating foods they wouldn’t normally consider. Fortunately, the experience can be quick, disengaging when the person leaves the trigger behind.
Empaths and HSPs attract those who instinctively know they will benefit from interacting with someone who is open to giving. It may be in the form of one individual unloading their emotional baggage, draining empathy of vitality while the other walks away positively transformed.
In more serious cases, an individual can pray for their generous nature. Draining vitality and instilling dominance that leaves the empath and HSP questioning their own motives, desires, and goals. Making them targets of unbalanced personal relationships.
The giving nature of the empath or HSP often lacks the conviction to leave the relationship, believing instead that they are there to help or heal the other person. Putting others before yourself is a familiar and often repetitive aspect of your life.
In relationships, they adapt their behavior and mood to avoid confrontation.
Empaths and HSPs innately choose to avoid living from a controlled ego state and therefore may have difficulty with conventional methods of academic learning. When in the company of someone who lives by logic and reason, they will inadvertently adapt to the individual’s mood and behavior rather than come ‘face to face’ in a battle of will. The goal is to avoid confrontation and have to focus on an intellectualized vision of life that would only bore and belittle what they hold dear, live life, experience love and connect with all that is.
Empaths and HSPs can enter into a personal relationship with someone who is logical in nature, making this a very good foundation for people to find balance in their individual personalities. However, if the empath or PAS has failed to understand her sensitivity, he will end up adapting to align with the other person’s needs, favoring her likes and dislikes while suppressing her own needs.
It may be out of fear of losing the relationship, “If I don’t assimilate, they won’t like me?” or instinctively basing your personality on another provides a sense of confidence often lacking in empaths. “If I behave like them, I’ll be fine.” Whatever the reason, the result is that the empaths lose their connection to themselves. Their authentic selves are overshadowed by the need to please others, and in doing so they base their own identity on an external source.
Adjusting to people in a forced environment like work can be a nightmare for an empath. The need to earn a living outweighs the need to care for yourself and manage your sensory capabilities. Many will find themselves going from job to job hoping for a different environment. Those who choose to stay in one position may appear calm, smiling, and pleasant when pushed, but lack real interaction. They will do the job, but at what cost to personal well-being?
Are you an empath?
It may sound crazy, but many people are very sensitive, empathetic, and don’t even know it. Traditionally, we call sensitives, clarisintients, a French word that means; Clear sensation (Conscious). These people know that they are sensitive by nature, but to what extent is where the problem exists.
Common traits are:
Overwhelmed by people or places
Easily adapt to the mood and tone of others.
Experiencing the physical, emotional, and mental pain of others.
Feeling confused by too many thoughts and feelings.
It attracts people who like to openly share their problems.
You feel the need to distance yourself from people and society.
If you identified with two or more of the above traits, consider yourself on the highest sensitivity scale. Over the past 15 years, I have seen an increase in sensitivity among those who often thought themselves too emotional, questioning whether they belonged to a world that favors the intellect over the heart. Leaving many with the question, what is my place in this world and who am I? This is all because no one has told you that you have a finely tuned sensory system that can receive subtle frequencies that the body translates through the physical senses.
The benefits of being an empathic or highly sensitive person
Inventors, entrepreneurs, explorers, humanitarians are all on the highest scale of sensitivity. With a positive self-awareness, they continue to use their creativity, connection with others to benefit the world.
Choosing to understand and develop sensitivity provides many benefits.
A deep connection with your authentic self
Clear and intuitive vision
The ability to go through the BS and see what really needs to be done
Satisfactory relationships because you know what the other person’s needs are
Open to create what you want
Elevate the restrictions that cause doubts
Set personal boundaries, avoiding unhealthy relationships.
How do I work with my sensitivity?
The recognition of sensitivity is the key to knowing that you are not going crazy; you are not unusual, it is you and sensitivity is your normality. Now, understanding what and how your sensitivity works is essential, so managing incoming data becomes easier than running away from social events or fearing shopping.
Awareness is the key
· Start by being aware of changes in feelings, thoughts, behavior, cravings. Take note of what is happening at that moment, where are you, who are you with?
Know when you need to spend time alone. Recharging the batteries is crucial.
· Limits are necessary. If someone is wearing you down, be polite and end the interaction.
Salt baths (sea salt) or time by the sea are wonderful, indeed a must for the sensitive. Salt contains negative ions that create positive results.
Nature is a filter that all sensitives need. Connect with the air, the earth, smell the flowers and feel rejuvenated.
· Do something fun! Laughter releases happy chemicals. When we laugh, we feel good.
Confusion is a sign that you are giving too much of yourself. Take a step back, go within, reflect in solitude, breathe, listen to soft music or meditate on a positive happy scene.
Integrate awareness into daily life to emit the intercepting energies of control of your mood, behavior, thoughts, and feelings. In a short time, you will receive confirmation of what is best for you regarding the path in life, options and opportunities.
