4 Myths Sabotaging Empaths - Mammoth Myth #4: EMPATHS ABSORB OTHERS’ MOODS, ENERGY, FEELINGS

​I often hear it said that Empaths “absorb” other people moods, energy, and feelings. That statement, in itself, may be true - for SOME Empaths. But you don’t have too. You have a choice.

Empaths sense extra information from the people and places around them. That’s how we are wired. We don't’ have to try to do it - it just happens.

As children, this may have caused quite a problem for us. With our inability to discern information with our cognitive brains, which doesn’t fully develop until the ages of about 24 to 25, we may have felt sick, overwhelmed, and scared throughout our childhood. To top it off, most of us didn’t have parents or caretakers that helped us manage this energy when we felt it. So we ended up ‘absorbing’ the information by thinking it was ours, and not realizing that we were only noticing things around us.

So now that we’re adults, it’s time for us to make sure we are no longer absorbing the energy of people and places. We need to learn to discern what is, in fact, our energy, and what belongs to others.

I have had a great opportunity as a part-time cashier in a natural grocery store.  In my check-out lane, I have a constant flow of energy from the general public, as you can imagine. 

I have learned that I am a physical Empath, so I feel the energy that I notice in my body, often as a symptom of some kind. So a person may enter my lane to pay for groceries, and I suddenly feel nauseous. I used to get immediate anxiety because I thought that it was my symptom. I would then create a story around it - it must be something I ate, am I going to have to go home sick, what is wrong with me?

I often notice that I feel the energy of others when they are unaware of how they are feeling. When my daughter was in high school, a generally stressful time for most teens, she would plop in the car after school, and I would immediately feel a fuzzy head and loads of stress in the form of anxiety and overwhelm. I began to realize that my body was just interpreting her energy that way. 

As I’ve learned to discern energy, I now say to myself “oh, I am noticing that I feel nauseous suddenly. I must be picking up on the energy of this customer.” Typically the sensation dissipates when I say that, confirming to me that I am picking up on another person’s symptom. For me, this can come in the form a physical symptom, or an emotional symptom; I can feel a sudden sadness or anxiety I didn’t have before and I don’t have a situation that provoked it. 

Does that happen to you? In what ways?

Exercise with exertion every day

No matter how you intuit energy as an Empath, there are some basic strategies that you can learn for yourself to feel grounded and healthy as you go through your day.

1. Ask yourself, “Is this mine?” particularly if it comes on suddenly when you enter a room or get a phone call from someone.
2. Treat the sensation as feedback or information. Avoid creating a personal scenario around the symptom that will have you thinking it’s yours. If it is yours, you will know soon enough.
3. Take a deep, slow belly breath, concentrating on the exhale. Repeat this a few times to rebalance your body.
4. Make sure you have a superstructure of care in place. 
5. Eat whole foods (proteins, vegetables and an occasional fruit). Processed foods contain a lot of fake ingredients that confuse our bodies and make it harder to stay grounded and feeling good.
6. Avoid grains and sugars in any form, as they are inflammatory and stimulate our bodies in ways that make it harder to stay grounded around energy.
7. Avoid caffeine and stimulants because they are just plain ungrounding!
8. Practice energy balancing techniques which fortify your energy and clear away energy you may have taken on as your own.
9. Exercise with exertion every day. The deeper breathing and movement will help you stay grounded and balanced, releasing any stress you happen to inadvertently absorb as your own.
10. Get plenty of rest and sleep. Without enough sleep, the chances of you staying grounded go way down.
11. Stay humorous. We may end up realizing we absorbed energy that wasn’t ours later than we had hoped. And we can take things oh so seriously. Try to have a little humor about being an Empath as that will keep us feeling more balanced.

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LET'S AFFIRM
(say this 1,000 time while looking in the mirror): 

"I completely embrace myself as an Empath.
I easily know what energy is mine, and what I am sensing.
I easily and effortlessly set firm boundaries.
I have compassion for another's energy as I know it is that person's journey.
I learn how to be with people, in many places, and stay rested, strong, and balanced.
​I love me."

B U S T E D !   When we absorb energy from people and places, it is not a healthy response to energy. We need to learn to discern what is ours and what is not, and that takes a superstructure along with practice, practice, practice.