Empathy is the capacity to be able to put oneself into another person’s shoes and understand their thoughts and feelings. An empath is a person who has the ability to resonate with other people, on many different levels, so that they can accurately feel their emotional wellbeing.
It is not yet known how empaths have this ability, but many believe that it is innate and is handed down through our DNA.
As for how it works, everything in the world resonates to an electrical energy; it is thought that empaths are able to sense the changes in this electrical energy around them.
Empaths are typically regarded as being sympathetic, caring, sensitive to the feelings of others, and compassionate souls. So would it surprise you to learn that there is a dark side to being an empath?
The very nature of empathy means that many people rely on empaths for support and guidance. It also means that empaths see much more of the world than we do, and as such, this can cause problems in different areas of their lives.
You would think as an empath is well-versed in emotions they would be experts in handling their own, but the truth is they are in a constant battle to keep these emotions in check. Because they feel others’ emotions so keenly, particularly others’ sadness, it can sometimes bring them crashing down into depression.
They find it hard to distinguish between their own emotions and others’ and have to find other empaths to share their thoughts with.
Empaths have to deal with a huge amount of information from their sensitivity to electrical energies. This can make them feel overwhelmed and extremely drained as they try and make sense of it all.
They are particularly susceptible to negative energy, as this upsets them greatly. When all they can sense is negative energy, they can swiftly become fatigued.
Because empaths are trusting souls who always believe in the goodness of people, they are quite often taken advantage of by the less scrupulous amongst us.
Empaths are typically generous and kind and are givers by nature, this can lead them to attract those that only take and never give back. When an empath finds out that they have been conned, they can easily fall into a deep depression.
The problem with being empathetic is that you feel sorry for assholes too.
-Unknown
As empaths prefer to give to others rather than receive, they are more likely to neglect their own welfare, including their mind and body.
This is the dark side that is all too common, as empaths are fatigued from the stress of what they experience, is it all too easy to forget to take care of themselves.
Because an empath has seen all the cruelty in the world, they find it extremely difficult to give themselves totally to someone. They hold a little piece of their heart back, just in case they are going to be hurt in the future.
They cannot allow themselves to fall deeply in love because they are fearful of experiencing all that passion, it could be too much for them to handle.
Empaths are selfless people who are bombarded by sensory information on a daily basis. They feel that their role in life is to help others, but this places an enormous burden on them, as they cannot possibly help everyone that they come into contact with.
Despite the harm to themselves, they would still rather carry another’s person’s problems than let that person down.
Empaths should realise that the problems of the world are not theirs to solve. To prevent the dark side of empathy from taking over their life, they do not have to give themselves to every single person they meet. At the same time, they should let down the walls of their heart once in a while.
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"... it is thought that empaths are able to sense the changes in this electrical energy around them."
Sounds exceptionally hokey to me. Is there a source for this claim?
Birds navigation when migrating requires tiny magnetites in their brains reacting to earth's electromagnetic field. This is awesome for 2 reasons: 1- earths electromagnetic field is not that strong, specially being this one of the weak electric forces, and 2 - magnetites are hugely..small. Well, either way it happens, it's known that it happens and it is being addressed by quantum biologists. So, not beein able to definitly prove why or how something happens does not discard tge possibility that it does happen :)
I am a sensitive empathic person. That means that not only i go through the day feeling with my 5 senses (and not with a intuiton like mechanism) the energy around me (which is both great and horrible), I also disrupt every electric machine at home and office. These I know that are electric interferences. Why? How? I dont know. Maybe some day we'll all know ;)
What she said ☝☝
Thank you for sharing.. I completely understand..identify, and especially feel everything you mention.. I'm 49 and this too has been my life.. Learning to bubble myself often..
Yeah this could have been written in language less rich with "woo". It is of course true there are those more intuitively tuned into others emotions and more open to feeling their effect because of a somewhat over active amygdala. Helping those you empathise and sympathise with, constantly seeing others pain is of course going to be a burden and this type of personality often has issues with anxiety and depression.
Would a source even be relevant for something that is merely a thought?
It sounds like some sort of super power I know, but it is as close to a real explanation as it gets :/ . You just "feel" it, like its not necessarily an electric energy, more of how you can sense when a situation is getting heavy, that sort of thing.
The article is rather close to reality, but for some reason they decided to add a wow factor, which frankly is a bad idea cause it kind of makes it easy to ridicule.
No need to make it seem even more special.
Yess
Personal exoerience
Shits on point 100%
Was nice to get a confirmation
Brilliant article, thank you. Defines my life to a T. Clearly written from an experiential perspective.
It's when we do give our entire selves in love, and are told that it's being returned, but knowing it's not, because we know, that really kills us inside. We loose our calibration and ourselves, fearing that we've finally gone cookoo and are so lost, that we keep questioning....only to be torn between what we hear and what we feel.
Perhaps the lesson is still to trust ourselves and our feelage (knowledge) regardless....and that hurts, when we find that we can also be the subject of the dark emotions we feel so painfully from so many around us as we navigate this experience of this life.
Life is meant to be lived and love...is still meant to be given