I had a conversation recently with my husband in which I told him I wished that I didn’t give a shit. You may not know me, but if you did you would laugh at this statement. You would laugh because if anything was impossible ever in the world – me not giving a shit is that thing.
(Okay maybe there are a couple of other impossible things out there, but this is still one too.)
You see, I am a feeler of energy. If we are connected at the heart, I absorb your energy. I didn’t ask for it. Some might think that I am a total weirdo. Fair. Others might say that it is something that I created, but I disagree because I don’t get to decide. If I decided to create such depth of energy “sponging” so to speak, I would have also built in an off switch. This is not a gift or a super power. It comes with the heaviest of weights at times that would exhaust even the strongest human, and more often than not, I do not want any part of it.
If I could touch on the glass-half-empty side of it for a moment because hell-ooo, I am human and sometimes I do that, it is emotionally exhausting to feel this much and in so many directions. I want to kick and scream and tantrum them all away – but I can’t. I haven’t shared with those I love so deeply all of the times my heart literally hurt because theirs did, too. I haven’t because it is almost embarrassing to look at a person and say something to the effect of “I literally feel you.” Not only is this a creepy, borderline asshole thing to say because it is and I know that – but it also can appear to the other person that I am stealing their thunder.
Good and bad.
I promise you that stealing anyone’s thunder is the absolute last thing on my mind when I am in this place. I think that when someone is hurting – the selfishness surrounding their feelings is part of surviving the hurt and other people’s intentions can be taken entirely the way that they were not meant.
If we are looking at it optimistically – glass half full – this can absolutely feel like a gift, rather than a burden. Having this intense ability to really love another person while at the same time absorbing the energy of the love they share with you is overwhelming, but in a good way. I could describe it as similar to being high – or maybe as a euphoric feeling of floating after an amazing orgasm. You get it, right? I sometimes can get through an entire week of bullshit solely on someone else’s energy. But, like any intense high – without more of it – the crash can be debilitating.
So how do I recover? Is recovery even an option? How is it possible to legitimately love so deeply in so many different directions? I often find myself reflecting on these kinds of questions.
I have to constantly remind myself that I can love myself enough to get through the week. Self-love is not easy. It is not euphoric. It is this constant voice reminder that “”I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” Sometimes this doesn’t do the trick.
I also have to put boundaries in place. Mental ‘safety cones’ if you need a visual. I have been this way for so long that I can almost always feel it coming and I am able to brace myself – except for when it is unexpected. Which happens more than I like, and has happened more than I have liked lately. It is difficult to set boundaries when you are blindsided. Especially when the energy is not good.
For example, recently I found out that someone that I love very much was diagnosed with cancer. Not the “oh it will be fine, we caught it early” cancer either. It knocked the wind out of all of us. I don’t know about anyone else, but the news literally stopped me in my tracks. I was frozen in a whirlwind of feelings. I felt his energy. His fear. His devastation. As much as I am sure that it debilitated him – it also debilitated me, and likely everyone around him. I bring this up because it sparked this almost thousand word release about something deeply personal to me, but also because I had to find a new way to deal with it. I prayed, meditated, wrote him a letter, cried … I even tried to ignore it because the energy hurt that bad to feel. Imagine the worst pain a broken heart could have ever caused you and multiply it by a sequence of ridiculously high numbers.
Even then you might not know. Or maybe you do know. Maybe you are a feeler, an empath, like I am.
In stopping to reflect, I realized that I have a coping mechanism that I probably never realized I had. Meaning, I know that I do it, but I hadn’t realized the stem of it. By projecting the energy outward in the form of actually giving love, I am able to deflect some of it by loving others. Whether it be in the form of a card, a love note, food, or simply a trinket I see in passing – I feel less intensity in the energy when I am able to tangibly show love.
So that is what I did. When I think back to a week ago, when the energy was fresh and new, I still feel it. It feels different now, because I know that I gave out a portion of the energy that I absorbed, and immense pain was transformed into hopeful energy.
Or at least I would like to think that it was.
My point in writing this is almost 100% selfish, but if you are anything like me, even a little, in terms of empathy, the hope that you open your eyes to it or learn something new about how to set boundaries to protect yourself would be as precious to me as having this opportunity to get it off of my chest.
Kylie
I am realising more and more why I was so drawn to you and your blog all those years ago on MySpace.
I have just recently started working on trying to block energy myself. Working on meditation and visualisations. Being an energy empath is exhausting. It is hard to explain to people why you are so easily excitable when good things happen to other people and why you get really low at other times. Difference is, for me, it’s everyone I come in contact with not just people I know and love.
Happy, sad, angry or any other emotion you can think of, I draw everyone’s energy into my own aura and I suffer for it, badly at times. I end most days with nothing left to give and I am trying to work on blocking my aura from absorbing it all.
Naomi
Im extremely empathic & intuitive & am learning to “block,” others peoples emotions…slowly but surely. I picture myself as a disco ball reflecting all. A giant mirror works as well. I carry stones and crystals at all times the deflect negative energy. I don’t think I will ever be able to block all, but choosing to be energetically open or not is the difference in sanity for me. Social anxiety, mood swings, energy exhaustion…these I at least have more control over. I feel invasive knowing personal traumas people are not consciously sharing with me. Im sure its varying for every empath, but Ive learned many times I can inadvertently help people heal through the awareness of their trauma. Depending on the relationship, they may or may not be aware of my help. I know intuition work w/ guides plays a large role in this for me, but I am only recently truly accepting this part of my life.
My empathic abilities combined w/varying levels of intuition allow me to go as far as feeling a person Ive never met. For example, a friend is speaking about a new man she just started dating…usually if I open up, I know almost immediately what kind of peeson he is. I dont feel comfortable interjecting negativity if thats my read, so usually I’ll let the friend know what good things could happen, & very specific things to watch out for.
I believe empaths have a higher calling of healing, love & compassion for all people. It is a gift and a curse, but development & protection if self make it so much more a gift than a hindrance. Take care!!!
Flora
I read a great book recently and it has given me a great coping tool when I feel bombarded by negative energy coming from other people around me. I believe the book was called something like ‘Self-care for the Self-Aware’, not entirely certain though!
The author teaches a ‘Keyhole’ exercise which you can do anytime you are in a situation where you are picking up on someone else. You visualise a hole opening right over your heart, going straight through you. The more negativity in the situation, the bigger you make the hole. Visualise those heavy emotions going straight through your heart space, and out your back. Don’t even let these emotions touch the edges of the hole.
I found this so much better (for me) than the ‘blocking’ approach, as I do not want to completely block myself, per se. I want to be able to pick up these things, but I do not want to carry it all with me. Plus, ‘blocking’ drains me a lot also.
Hope that helps! Thank you for the article, and I totally get you. 🙂