Emotions Empathy these traits can be a blessing and a curse, especially when you’re an empath. So what is a empath person? Well, they are usually someone who feels other people’s emotions and energy very strongly, often without knowing it.
This can be both good and bad for a highly sensitive empath since it can affect their mental health and sometimes their physical health.
Empaths possess high levels of intuition that make them great listeners and people to confide in. Because of this empaths have to have strong boundaries with people or they will take on too many others people’s negative energy and emotions.
Although their abilities sound like they would be a gift, it’s not always so. In fact, being an empath is often difficult because they absorb a lot of negative energy from others and have to work hard at keeping themselves protected.
HIGHLY SENSITIVE EMPATH
Empaths are highly sensitive, finely tuned instruments when it comes to emotions. They feel them and sense them in ways that most ways people don’t.
How does an empath know if someone else is feeling upset or hurt? An empath can read it on the person’s face or in his/her body language. Empaths feel other people’s emotions because they have an innate ability to tune into their subtle vibes and energy fields—and this makes them sensitive to almost everything around them.
A highly sensitive empath will often say that they can “feel” things before they happen, whether good or bad—and sometimes even know how something might turn out before it actually happens!
Empaths tend to be super sensitive to emotions empathy, and they feel them with an intensity that others may not perceive. This can be overwhelming at times, especially if an empath is in a place where there are many people present or even just one person who is projecting a strong negative emotion.
Related: Anxiety: the Invisible health threat and how to manage it
Because of their high levels of intuition, they also have the ability to sense what someone else is thinking by tuning into their energy field; this makes empaths highly intuitive individuals who are able to pick up on subtle clues about other people’s thoughts and feelings.
WHAT ARE EMPATHS 9 UNIQUE QUALITIES
What are Empath’s unique qualities? They are subtle at first, even unnoticeable, but the more you develop a relationship with the empath, the more you’ll notice how calm you feel around them and be even confused with their abilities of how they know what you are feeling and thinking at all times.
At times it will seem like an empath is physic and can even read your mind, but that’s not the case. It is because of their high levels of intuition and other traits they possess that they can know know
Related: 6 types of empaths
1. Empaths Absorb Other People’s Emotions
Empaths live in a world of feelings, even if they don’t show it. A highly sensitive empath can pick up on what a person is feeling through their body language and facial expressions. Because of how their empath brain works, they naturally start to feel or mimic the same emotions empathy as the people around them,
This is why empaths are so highly sensitive to others around them; they literally absorb these emotions like a sponge absorbs water!
The ability to empathize with another person’s pain is an incredible gift; however, it can also be extremely overwhelming when an empath takes on too many emotions at once. It is important that they find their own balance between social interaction and alone time
2. Empaths Are Good Listeners
One trait that makes empaths so great is how good they are at listening to other people. This may seem obvious, but it’s worth mentioning because many people don’t realize just how important listening is for truly understanding others.
So why are empaths, good listeners?
- They care about other people and want to understand them better.
- They’re introverted and spend more time observing than talking
- They’re good at reading body language and facial expressions, making it easy for them to guess what someone is feeling even if they aren’t saying anything out loud
Empaths have an innate ability to intuitively understand others; they can read people’s emotions almost immediately, which makes them excellent listeners. Because of their high levels of intuition and their natural gift of understanding emotions empathy, they are natural counselors that are able to listen intently without judgment and then offer advice.
3. Have a Hard Time Saying "No"
Empaths have plenty of intuitive and positive abilities, but despite this, they have a lot of guilt when saying “No” to others. That’s because they care deeply about other people and want to help them as much as possible, but also know they have to look after their mental wellbeing.
For empaths, saying no isn’t as simple as it seems—it feels like a big decision.
Why do empaths have a hard time saying “No”?
- They don’t want to hurt someone else’s feelings
- They feel guilty if they say no to someone, and they have the ability to help them
- They don’t want to be the reason someone feel sad, stressed or helpless
- Afraid of being judged as a bad person
Their ability to see things from some else perspective, makes them understand why someone is always asking for their help
If an empath says no to you, it has to do more with them needing to protect their energy and then not wanting to help. Everyone has limited time and energy—and sometimes we have to say no in order to take care of ourselves first.
4. Don’t Do Well in Chaotic Environments
Empaths tend to do better in environments that are more peaceful and calm and feel uncomfortable with the hustle and bustle of chaotic work environments, social gatherings, or highly congested areas.
Since the highly sensitive empath is so intuned to the energy around them, they can get overwhelmed by the mixture of other people’s energy. It can become too much for them to absorb and analyze and start to feel major anxiety or even have a panic attack. This is why you see an empath all of a sudden level a party or find a place to retreat if they can’t leave.
Empaths need plenty of downtime so that they can go inside themselves (especially when things become overwhelming). They recharge their batteries by spending time alone with their own thoughts and feelings, without feeling like they have to give their attention to someone else.
5. Alone Time is Essential
Empaths need alone time. They need to recharge their emotional batteries. They need time to think, process, and get in touch with their own feelings or emotions.
Since they feel everything that’s going around them- It can be overwhelming which creates constant stress and anxiety. So empaths need to spend some quality time alone in order for their bodies and minds to reboot after taking on too much of other people’s energy.
How empaths get alone time
- Go on a walk in nature or sit outside by yourself with your favorite book or magazine in the park!
- Take a bath by candlelight with some relaxing music playing quietly in the background
- Put heads phones on and listen to a podcast or listen to music
- Get lost reading a good book
- Play video games
- Start writing in a journal
It’s important to give an empath space to recharge on their own terms, cause once they have alone time they come back into the world feeling refreshed and ready to face whatever challenges come their way.
Related: 13 Effective ways to protect your energy from negative people
If an empath doesn’t take care of themselves by scheduling quiet times throughout the week (to do things like meditate or read), then they will become mentally and physically unwell and too burnt out to be around anyone for a while.
7. Have Very High levels of intuition
Intuition is the ability to understand something without having to consciously think about it. It’s often described as a “gut feeling” or a feeling that you get in your body when a person or situation doesn’t feel right. It’s also a form of non-verbal communication, similar to how we can communicate through facial expressions and body language without speaking words.
Highly sensitive empaths are very intuned with these kinds of energy signals from other people, which means they’re more likely than others (especially those who aren’t empaths) to pick up on subtle cues that indicate another person’s emotional state or intentions toward them.
This ability can be incredibly useful, but it also poses a challenge for empaths: They may not always know what to do about the information their intuition gives them. For example, if they are having a conversation with someone and their intuition tells them that this person is lying or trying to manipulate them in some, but they have no physical proof to justify how they feel. They just have to go with their gut feeling and act accordingly
This also makes them very judgmental against some with no cause. Since they can see through lies and manipulation, an empath will make a judgment about someone based on nothing else but their intuition.
8. Get Mistaken for an Introvert
You might be surprised to know that the majority of people who are considered empaths tend to be introverts. This is because they’re so sensitive to other people’s energy and need time alone to recharge after spending time with people.
However, might empaths tend to be introverted, but not always introverts. they’re not always shy and even enjoy being out and about with people. In fact, many people who identify as empaths actually have outgoing personalities.
They just get worn down from too much socializing and have to be alone to recharge before they take on anyone else energy. A healthy empath knows how to balance their time spent with others versus alone time to make sure they don’t burn out or ignore the people in their life.
9. Struggle With Perfectionism
Empaths are perfectionists. They want to do their best, and they want everyone around them to be happy and comfortable.
Because they care so much about other people, empaths can be hard on themselves when they don’t achieve what they set out to do. They might think that if something goes wrong or doesn’t go perfectly, then they must have failed at some fundamental level and aren’t good enough anymore.
This perfectionism also makes it difficult for empaths to give themselves credit when things go well—even though other people would probably tell them that their work was amazing! When an empath is alone and doesn’t feel the pressures of the outside world, only then can they take a moment to analyze and appreciate their accomplishments.
Take Away
What is a empath person? They are highly sensitive and easily affected by other people’s emotions, so they often feel like they’re ‘walking on eggshells because they sense when someone is upset or angry without even needing to be told. This means that empaths can feel overwhelmed by the emotions of others at times—or even get sick from being around too many negative feelings for too long of a time!
Related: 9 types of Empathy/Enneagram
However, there are some great benefits to being an empath such as having high levels of intuition and being able to read people’s emotions empathy. They are able to pick up on things about other people that no one else does; this makes them very good at reading body language and understanding people quickly.
Highly sensitive Empath are usually misunderstood as being too sensitive and emotional, but in reality, they’re just perceptive and thinking about things in a more conscious and ethical way than others. They’re not overly dramatic or hypersensitive; they just see the world through a slightly different lens than others do.
Being an empath comes with some incredible strengths, like your innate ability to intuitively understand others. They are good at listening and helping people feel better about themselves, and are often sought for advice from family, friends, or colleagues because they know they will never be judged by anything they say!
What are empaths downsides? Well empaths can also take on too much of other people’s emotions, which isn’t good for anyone involved! An empath needs to find a balance between helping people and looking after their own well-being.
Related: The pain of emotional vampires can cause: the type of people to avoid
