Are You An Empath?

What Is an Empath?

An empathic person is someone who feels highly tuned in with the world around them, especially in terms of emotions. People with empathic personalities are usually excellent “people readers,” meaning they can look at someone and read their emotions accurately.

Empathic individuals are the people in this world that are most in tune with themselves and their environments, and they feel all the feelings and emotions around them. They are often greatly affected by other people’s emotions. For example, when someone they are close to is hurt or sad, empaths often feel those emotions themselves. Empaths usually thrive in helping professions like nursing, mental health, veterinarian, social work, and life coaching.

True empaths like to see everyone around them enjoying life as the best version of themselves. They value all living things and the world around them. Negativity and unhappy news can have a staggering effect on them, as these things tend to have a big impact on them and go against their nature.

Highly empathetic people like the silence of their own environments above anything else and tend to see crowded areas like malls, movie theaters, and other prominent community gathering spaces as overwhelming. If any of this sounds like you, you may be an empath.

Traits of an Empathic Personality

Complete strangers tell you their problems: One minute, you are standing in the checkout line, and the next, your cashier is unloading how hard and long their day has been. You patiently listen to all their medical, mental, and maternal issues. At the end of the conversation, you leave them in a better place than you found them simply by listening.

You do not care for negativity: You tend to stay away from people who complain incessantly or talk down to people around them or behind their backs. Because you feel deeply connected to the emotions and feelings of everyone around you, you won’t stand for talk or actions that put people down or make them uncomfortable.

You have always been considered the peacemaker: Whether it’s with your friend group, your family, or your coworkers, you’ve always been one to listen to all sides of the story and calm people down. The older you get, the more you pick your words and battles carefully. You are fully aware of the reactions the wrong words can cause, and you are also aware of how much energy some people who disturb the peace take out of you. Hurting anyone or anything crushes your soul. You hate to see anyone in any pain, especially if you feel you or your actions are the source. You’ll do anything to see peace and harmony restored to a situation.

You feel all the feels: Have you ever felt like you’ve felt the entire spectrum of human emotion in a single day? You might find yourself reacting more strongly to things than other people—good, bad, or otherwise. People might say you wear your heart on your sleeve or you feel too much. You are very aware of most, if not all, of the feelings in the room.

You can tell when a person is not being their authentic selves: Empaths can usually smell lies and inauthenticity a mile away. Fake smiles or criticism guised as compliments never fool you and likely grate on you. Additionally, you can tell when people do not like you or bring ulterior motives to a situation. Over time you will learn not to take their feelings personally. You understand not all energies match.

The Difficult Side of Being an Empath

One of the most draining aspects of being an empath is that not only do you feel the emotions of the room but, for better or for worse, your body tends to absorb the energy. You may experience unexplainable aches and pains after leaving an emotionally turbulent room. If you enter a room or home with negative or hostile energies, you may feel them as a physical push to escape the situation.

Being an empathic person carries a great responsibility not only to the world around you but to yourself as well. To deal with the overabundance of emotion you experience, you will need to learn how to protect your mental and physical energies. Once you learn that you do not have to save the world and everything in it, you will find yourself in a more peaceful frame of mind. The skills that you will need often take time, practice, and at times professional help to master. Being an empath can be a challenging but wonderful gift.

The world can be an overwhelming place, especially if you tend to feel all the feelings in the room. Learning how to handle your emotions can be a challenge, but learning how to use your empathetic gifts without draining yourself is an even bigger one. Empaths are wonderfully adept at understanding people and keeping the peace, but the emotional toll on them can cause mental health concerns. Being an empath is not something you can control; it is something that you are born with. It is a wonderful gift to be so in tune with your and other people’s emotions, but it can become difficult. You are not alone. The staff at SokyaHealth recognize that having an empathic personality is a gift, and can provide you with the tools to help you stay grounded when the emotional weight of that gift becomes too much. Call 800-930-0803 to gain the emotional freedom you deserve.