Episode 45 – Are You an Empath?

Do you feel like you’re overly sensitive? Do you feel overwhelmed in large crowds, in areas with strong smells, and even in online communities? If so, you might be an empath. You might be feeling into the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the people, …

Do you feel like you’re overly sensitive? Do you feel overwhelmed in large crowds, in areas with strong smells, and even in online communities? If so, you might be an empath. You might be feeling into the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the people, animals, and environments around you.. What most people don’t realize, though, is that when pain, strong negative emotion, or anxiety/panic arises within them, that these feelings are often being absorbed into their energy field from the environment around them, rather than emanating from within.

So, what does it really mean to be an empath? For me, it means that we deeply and unconsciously sense, feel and take on the thoughts feelings, physical sensations, symptoms, and emotions of others in our environment. This can be people or animals, the land that we walk upon, people from our past that we suddenly think about, or it could even be people within our virtual environment.

Separation is an illusion.

See, we all have this basic human illusion of separation. We feel like we are individuals and that our physical bodies are separate from nature, separate from other people’s energies, but we are all so very deeply interconnected. We are all in an energetic relationship with one another and with every single thing in our environment, when we breathe, we are in relationship with the trees. And similarly, when we tune into any being or situation with our awareness, we are instantly energetically connected with whatever or whoever we are tuning into. I have a handful of patients that I can almost guarantee that if I think about that person, send them my loving thought waves, they call within a day or two. We are all intertwined with one another on a cosmic level and the seeming separation between us is an illusion. I might go deeper down this particular rabbit hole another day, but for now, this is just a good thing to keep in mind when learning about empathy.

So, Are you an empath?

To find out, follow along with this questionnaire (from Dr. Judith Orloff’s book: The Empath’s Survival Guide). Answer these with a ‘mostly yes’ or ‘mostly no’ to each question and keep a mental note as you go of how many “mostly yes’s” you get:

1. Have I’ve been
labeled as “overly sensitive,” shy, or introverted?

2. Do I frequently
get overwhelmed or anxious?

3. Do arguments or
yelling make me ill?

4. Do I often feel
like I don’t fit in?

5. Am I drained by
crowds and need alone time to revive myself?

6. Am I over
stimulated by noise, odors, or non-stop talkers?

7. Do I have
chemical sensitivities or can’t tolerate scratchy clothes?

8. Do I prefer
taking my own car places so I can leave early if I need to?

9. Do I overeat to
cope with stress?

10. Am I afraid of
becoming suffocated by intimate relationships?

11. Do I startle
easily?

12. Do I react
strongly to caffeine or medications?

13. Do I have a low
pain threshold?

14. Do I tend to
socially isolate?

15. Do I absorb
other people’s stress, emotions, or symptoms?

16. Am I overwhelmed
by multitasking and prefer doing one thing at a time?

17. Do I replenish
myself in nature?

18. Do I need a long
time to recuperate after being with difficult people?

19. Do I feel better
in small cities or the country than large cities?

20. Do I prefer
one-to-one interactions or small groups rather than large gatherings?

Now calculate your results: If you answered yes to one to five questions, you’re at least partially an empath. Responding yes to six to ten questions means you have moderate empathic tendencies. Responding yes to eleven to fifteen means you have strong empathic tendencies. Answering yes to more than fifteen questions means that you are a full blown empath.

One of the biggest things that I’ve noticed within the TMS community specifically is that the most sensitive people and therefore the ones who I see as the most overly-connected empaths (who might not know that they’re empaths) can 1) read a post in a TMS forum or group and suddenly develop the symptoms listed, and 2) also feel moved to respond and offer their love and support for those who are hurting.

You know who you are. And you are a wonderful soul, who has just taken on too much of the world’s suffering and owned it as yours and yours alone..

We can begin to look within and explore more and tune into the sensations that our bodies are giving us instead of personalizing them and making ourselves into the victims of these sensations. Begin to tune into and notice the signals that your body is giving you and tune into the messages that might be underneath them. Signals could be tingling on the skin, sudden pain, intruding thoughts, feeling super distracted, feeling suddenly negative, ringing in the ears, flashes of light, orbs, or vibrations or wave sensations.

Simply having a dialogue with yourself and your symptoms is a really powerful way to shift out of dis-empowered empathic experience to an empowered empathic experience. When we begin to ask ourselves curious questions, we calm the nervous system, we begin to tune into our intuition and we can, with practice, learn to trust ourselves again.

When we’re empathic, we often have no idea what we really truly want or need, because we’re often too in tune with the energies coming in from all directions that we forget to check in with ourselves to hear our own inner voice. So begin to get curious. Ask yourself:

What energy or pain is this?

Is this really mine or is this someone else’s?

If this energy is someone else’s, where is it coming from?

Why am I feeling this now?

What is it’s purpose?

What color is this feeling or pain?

What is the shape that I’m seeing in my mind?

What is the texture?

Is it spinning in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction?

When we begin to ask these curious questions, we not only signal to our brain that we’re safer than we once thought within these sympyoms, but we’re getting curious and interested in our own expereince and offering our body the attention and awareness that it’s calling out for. Start building a description of your sensations and you’ll be amazed to find that as you begin to nurture this relationship with yourself, your body feels attended to and begins to unwind.

At the end of today’s episode, I’ll guide you in a gut=centering exercise as well that will help you to slow down and drop into your body, your spirit, and your intuition.

Listen into the episode today to hear more!

I also announced last week that, for a limited time, I’ll be testing out “on the air coaching” with listeners of this show. I want to be more of a support for you guys, so I’m trying it out and we’ll see where it takes us! For now, if you’re interested in trying out what a short mind-body coaching conversation feels like, you can apply to work with me HERE.

As always, thanks so much for tuning in! If you have your own healing story you’d like to share on this show, please reach out!

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**DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor and this or any other podcast hosted by Katelyn Michals, L.Ac. is not intended to replace traditional medical care. It is important that you are evaluated by a physician before embarking on this or any other self-help program**