“Empaths did not come into this world to be victims, we came to be warriors. Be brave. Stay strong. We need all hands on deck.” ― Anthon St. Maarten
Walking on earth and absorbing other people’s emotions almost all the time can make you feel exhausted and depressed. Most people wouldn’t understand the struggles an empath has to experience in their lifetime, so much so that even making a relationship work is an everyday battle.
Empaths are people who are extremely sensitive to emotional energies. Because of this, they usually feel drained and stressed even without doing something. Unstable emotions can lead a normal person to make unfortunate decisions. This is the main reason empaths find it difficult to balance their life and relationship.
Relationships, in general, (with family, friends, or with a special someone) can be a challenge for empaths because the more they get close to people, the more they get sensitive to their emotions.
Empaths are warriors inside
They say being an empath is both a gift and a curse. Yes, you may feel like there is no escape and sometimes, you just want to shut everything off. But, this doesn’t mean that you are not free to do what you want or choose for yourself. Despite the tendency to “soak up” emotional energies of other beings, what makes you even more special is the fact that empaths are highly compassionate, loving, intuitive, and insightful people. You have the ability to understand others at a deeper level. The world needs you because you want to change the world for the better.
Strengthen Yourself and Your Relationships
The common problem that empaths have to face is that relationships can become quite a strain or a struggle because they care more deeply for people they are involved with.
Seeing people you love and care in pain can hurt you. But just because you feel that way, doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. You have the power to improve yourself and find that balance between being an empath and making your relationships work. According to Dr. Judith Orloff, finding the balance is the key to the art of empathy.
Here are some things that can help you balance your empathetic self with your relationships.
How to Balance Being an Empath in Relationships
Negative emotions are not bad or wrong. Our experiences help us grow and so do the negative emotions. When your loved one feels pain, know that it’s part of life and that we all learn from it. There isn’t always something that needs to be fixed. Things happen as they should and the people around you don’t need fixing. You don’t need fixing.
1) You can’t assess your emotions. The feeling doesn’t require you to know what it means. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Being happy doesn’t always mean you’re doing life right and being sad doesn’t mean you’re doing it wrong.
2) You can be okay even if others are not. One of the problems of being an empath is that you feel like you can’t be okay unless everyone around you is. It’s time to take that weight off of your chest. Not everyone is your responsibility. Don’t feel responsible for others’ feelings. What they experience is necessary for their own growth.
3) You don’t have to keep saying “yes”. Sometimes you need to set personal boundaries to preserve your self-worth and to avoid co-dependence. Saying “no” doesn’t make you selfish, it lets you and your partner grow as a person without emotionally depending on each other all the time.
4) Unplug yourself from the world. If you feel like you can’t breathe anymore, take some time alone. It will help you compose yourself and reflect on what could have caused the overload so it won’t happen again in the future. Accept yourself as you are and so with others. It’s easier to feel when you are not resisting.
5) As an empath, you may sometimes feel shaken to the core, but the beauty of being one will forever remain in the hearts of the people you love. In the end, the only validation you need is knowing that people value you for who you are and not for what you can do for them.
Being an empath doesn’t make you weak. When you finally find that balance, you can only become wiser and stronger. Remember, nothing is wrong with you. You are perfect the way you are. You just need to learn to love yourself more and everything else will follow.