Being extra sensitive towards others’ emotions cannot harm you if you know how to protect yourself from absorbing those negative energies. People who are extra sensitive towards others’ emotions, who are known as empaths, can absorb and thus feel those emotions personally.
Empaths can very easily absorb and feel the moods of people around them. If these moods are positive, they feel elated even when the experiences have nothing to do with them. Similarly, if the atmospheric emotions are negative, it leaves empaths exhausted and emotionally drained. This is the reason why most empaths stay away from watching movies that are more violent and triggers their empathic energy.
Being empath is not wrong, but it can leave you exhausted if you’re not being careful enough in protecting your energies. Empaths need to be very cautious about all kind of energies that surround them. Being an empath can negatively impact your health because it directly targets your personal emotional well-being. That is why, you need to be aware of the ways that will prevent you from being emotionally drained every time you’re surrounded by negative emotions and moods.
How does it feel like to be an empath?
If you’re an empath, you can pick up on people’s feelings and emotions even when they might’ve not verbally expressed it. Empathy makes you understand others and connects with them in a deeper level. But empaths tend to empathize with others more than they should and tend to give a lot more which ultimately harms them personally. Since empaths generally have good intentions, they tend to understand others’ pain and misery. Because of which they put others’ need before their own and suffer a suffering which was never their own to begin with. In most cases, empaths tend to suffer others’ painful experiences and make their own life miserable.
Since empaths are natural healer and nurturer, they do not want others to feel the painful experiences of life. Because they know how much hurt the negative experiences of life can impart. It might as well break the person in front of them. Being empathic towards others, empaths do not want those negative energies like feelings of sadness and despair to touch anyone. This quality of empaths generally leads to problems like anxiety, nervousness and depression. It’s like carrying the burdens of others on their own back. This is why empaths are prone to mental and emotional illness more than the ordinary human beings.
To be very precise, every empath needs a defense mechanism that will safeguard them from absorbing negative energies from people around them that might cause their own unpleasant emotional break down. Down below are some effective ways for empaths to stop being an empath and protecting themselves from energy vampires, narcissists and emotionally unstable and depressed people.
1. No or limiting physical contact:
According to Sadhguru, the less you make contact with some other being, the more you can protect your energies. In fact, physical closeness can be very dangerous for empaths and highly sensitive people. Even if it’s as little as holding somebody’s hand, you’ll develop runanubandha. In India, instead of doing handshake, people do namaskar when they greet each other. & This is the reason why. Since ancient times, Indians are constantly conscious about not building life bondages. They keep it as minimal as it is necessary. As they are working on the journey towards liberation, they don’t want anything to hamper its way. Maximum of the time, energy is transmitted through touch or eyes. It’s important to limit physical interaction for empaths because they are prone to absorb other’s energies, despite positive or negative. Any kind of physical intimacy can pick up the memories of others as energies. These physical memories picked up from others can create physical confusion, thus creating a restlessness in your body.
If you’re feeling uncomfortable already, distance yourself from physical closeness. Avoid skin to skin touch as much as you can. Being an empath, when you hug your friend, you can easily pick up the stress and depressed feeling your friend is feeling. This is quite normal. So, limit the time you are hugging your friend. It must a very brief hug just to let them know that you are there for them no matter what. Instead of absorbing and feeling others’ distress, telling them verbally is much safe in matter of protecting your energy. Or, if it’s possible, just give them gifts instead of direct physical contact.
In another case, when you’re in a room with an energy vampire, they suck up energies from everyone present in the room with them. If you’re picking some bad vibes like that from anyone, distance yourself immediately. Remember, you’re not hating on anyone. You’re just protecting yourself. That’s why you should not let anyone drain you energetically when you’re in close proximity with them.
If possible, avoid crowded areas as much as you can. If you accidentally find yourself among crowd, give yourself time to adjust and try not to get overwhelmed. Try the method of visualization in this case. [We’ll learn about this method later on.]
2. Avoid wearing black:
Science has proven, colors are simply the breakdown of white light. An apple is red, because when light falls upon it, it absorbs all the other colored lights and reflects back the only the red colored light. So, in simple words, the color an object rejects, becomes its color.
The white color looks white, because it doesn’t hold back any color in the spectrum and reflects back all it is. So, when you’re stepping into some unknown zone, where you don’t know what is going to happen, you must wear white colored clothes. If you’re not aware of what’s happening around, what’s happening in whose mind, what’s someone’s thinking and what emotions they are carrying, then white gives you a certain protection. Because the color white reflects back everything.
On the other hand, black absorbs everything. If you want to absorb everything which is around your ambience, black is the suggested color to wear. If you wear black in a place of unknown and uncertainty, just because it makes you look slim on the outside, it might start accumulating all kinds of negative energies, thoughts, emotions etc. Black is considered the color of evil for many reasons. One of them is, it actively participates in how your energy will function, the psychological stability within you and some other aspects too.
So, the end thought is, if you’re going to a place full of happy, uplifting energy which you want to absorb, you can wear black. In all other unknown places of uncertainty, avoid wearing black would be a good choice.
3. Spend some time alone and relax:
It’s important for empaths to spend alone time more frequently. It helps to reflect on things and thus will give new perspectives to find a solution. To regain their powers, empaths need time with themselves often, i.e., they need time to reconnect with their inner self or inner power. You need to take some time alone to center yourself and relax your mind and body. When you take some time alone, disconnect yourself from everything. Brightness, noise, phone, computer, internet, television, even one-to-one conversation – you need to disconnect from every one those events that disbalances your inner equilibrium. Just feel your own energy without having others around. You can avoid being an empath only when you are being your own best friend and nurturing yourself. External stimulation can hamper your inner peace and is difficult to clear negativity.
4. Ground yourself:
If you feel like absorbing all kinds of negative energies from around you which is making your inside feel heavy, ground yourself back to present.
- Touch some nearby objects with unique texture and feel it.
- Name the feeling you are having currently and try to experience it. It’s better to experience than to feel it.
- Try differentiating your feelings than that of others around you and realize the feelings you’re feeling do not belong to you.
- Take long, deep breaths and release the heaviness.
For example, you’re sensitive to others feelings and emotion. Your friend has come up and she’s very happy. You can feel her happiness. But you should know that it’s her happiness that’s seeping into you. Try to experience her happiness, not feel them. Same goes with the negative emotions.
This way you can you keep your energy separate from the energies around yourself.
5. Spend time in nature:
Nature is a natural healer. It can make empaths feel at ease. When you spend time among greenery or beside water, it cleanses negative energy. If you’re an empath and feel overwhelmed from time to time, then try walking on earth barefoot and lie down on ground. Let the healing energy of earth seep into your body. To cancel out the negative energy coming from others, try to feel the grounding energy coming from the mother nature. Feel the soil through your feet, feel the freshness that’s levitating in the air.
6. Take frequent breaks from social media:
Nowadays, we are connected to internet and social media all the time. But sometimes we let social media control us rather than we control scrolling through them. Social media is no doubt engaging, and it was created to be engaging in the first place. Top notch engineers and developers are working day and night on these social media algorithms for us to consume them mindlessly. In one sentence, social media is a labyrinth where it is very easy to get lost in. Once you start scrolling through mindlessly, it’s difficult to stop. All those dopamine that releases inside our brain prevents us from doing so. In that case, we start picking up all sorts of energies through the screen.
Since empaths are extra sensitive, this pattern affects them the most. So, empaths begin to absorb the negativity through the screen. It’s indeed hard to develop a habit, but reducing social media time can actually safeguard an empath from all kinds of unwanted negative emotions.
7. Preoccupy yourself with hobbies:
If you’re finding it hard to reduce screen timing or social media in other words, it’s better to pre occupy yourself with the hobbies you like most. It’ll help you reserve your time and focus on something that can uplift your energy rather than make you feel heavy. Being creative is one very positive way for an empath to guard their energy. It will prevent your mind from wandering around. Thus, keeping you from absorbing negative energies. Painting, playing musical instruments, pottery, carpentry, gardening — are to name a few hobbies that demand your concentration and won’t let you stray.
8. Set limits and boundaries:
If you’re an empath, you have to set strong and healthy boundaries around yourself. It’s natural for empaths to understand and feel others’ emotions. So, it’s easy for them to absorb negative energy as well. It’s important for empaths to know what they can handle or what they cannot. Otherwise, it may be draining. As an empath, you must limit your exposure to others and spend alone time often. Set boundaries based on your own needs, feelings and energy levels. Say no immediately to something, if you’re feeling uncomfortable around it. This way, you can protect yourself from people who drain your energy consistently.
9. Be aware:
Stay in a constant meditative state, so that you can be self-aware of yourself. Unless you are aware of your feelings and emotions, you can get confused about why your body is feeling the exhaustion. Empaths may pick up and absorb negative emotions of others without realizing and get depressed over it without understanding what was happening. Staying cautious of self can help you take care of yourself more.
10. Visualization:
Last but not the least, visualize a protective bubble around you. There are many techniques of protective visualization.
- Imagine a glass wall around yourself which helps to keep other people’s energy separate from yours. Imagine, when others’ emotions come towards you, they hit this protective glass wall around you and bounce back towards the source. So that, you don’t feel a thing. You can acknowledge the feelings but won’t absorb them. This technique can work in a large crowd as well.
- Another technique is energy field, which enters through your crown chakra and reaches to the earth through all the other chakras present in your body. Gradually, the energy field expands itself and engulf your whole being inside its protective bubble. You need to imagine and visualize the whole process before walking through a large crowd. Through these techniques, you might notice their energy, but you’ll no longer absorb them.
Wrapping up:
Empathy is a gift until it doesn’t drain your own energy. Empathy helps you to connect with other people. But without having a strong sense of self, empathy can bring more negative side effects. By protecting yourself, you can stop being an empath. With your power of empathy you can heal others and make your compassion and understanding shine through, but only when you protect your own energy from outside disturbances.