5 Ways to Protect Yourself as an Empath

It is hard to know whether there were always as many empathic humans as there are walking the earth today, or whether it’s a more modern phenomenon.  Whether strongly empathic tendencies are somehow connected to this age of information, the birth of the internet, and the incredible dissemination of knowledge we know now: our world is SO full of windows into the lives of others and we can be rapidly, intimately connected to experiences beyond our ordinary reach, at almost any moment we choose. Or perhaps the empathic way IS the human way, and empaths are simply re-membering and re-embodying a truer way to be, as the boundaries that keep us apart, are dissolving.

To be an empath is truly a gift, but it’s a highly challenging one! 

To be an empath means to feel what others are feeling. 

Empaths are highly sensitive and intuitive people, they easily, and often unconsciously absorb the emotional energy of the people they are around which can make their worlds especially hard to navigate.

So to not only survive, but to thrive as an empath, means to master some core skills, skills which non-empathic folk may not need to consider at all (though they would surely benefit!)   These fall into two main categories:  Methods to discern and to actually choose which emotions to accept and claim as their own, and methods to effectively process emotional energy, and to let it go.

Without learning a few basic techniques, empaths can quickly be thrown off course, become energetically scattered, and exhausted beyond belief. So if you know you’re an empath, or suspect that you may be, try some of the following methods to protect yourself:

Meditation

One of the best ways to protect yourself from the emotional influence of others, is to become highly, strongly, powerfully centred.  If you’re already internally scattered, if your own thoughts, responses, desires and directions are out of your control, then adding even more to your emotional world will feel unbearable.

SO meditate every day. 

Simply sitting and centring yourself for a short time, calling back in your own sense of self and power, and inhabiting a sense of inner calm will allow you to become highly familiar with what this feels like – with what YOUR inner world feels like. And it will become so much easier to return to and recognize this place when you’re in danger of losing yourself.

Creating an Energetic Shield

If you’re an empathy, you need to approach your days differently.  You need to create boundaries from the start, to stay emotionally strong and secure.  So performing a quick visualization to create an energetic shield around you each morning is one of the best ways to simply and efficiently deflect the emotional energies of others, preventing you from absorbing them.

Something short and simple, like this, is ideal:

·      Close your eyes and feel, sense and know the presence of a strong, clear white light inside your heart.

·      Allow this white light to expand, growing bigger and bigger until it moves beyond your skin, and forms a white bubble, surrounding your body.

·      Set an intention into this bubble of light that it serves as a shield, to protect you from all unwanted energy that does not belong to you. 

·      Know that inside this shield, you are safe.  Try to hold this knowing in your body, mind and heart, and spend a few more moments becoming really familiar with how it feels.

·      Set an intention that the shield stays with you all day, and for as long as you need it to.

·      Continue with your day!

Grounding

It’s incredibly important for empaths to spend enough time out in nature grounding and connecting to Mother Earth.

The energetic frequencies that the natural world offers will always work to soothe, dispel and harmonize any unwanted energetic build up.

And on a physical level, the exchange of electrons that happens between the Earth’s surface and bare skin, when you walk or lie on the ground without any barrier is proven to counteract irritation and tension in the nervous system, and prevent the inflammation caused when negative energy begins to manifest physically in the body.

Embodiment and Exercise

It’s common for highly empathic and intuitive people to struggle with being present in their bodies.  Their feeling states can become so big and overpowering, that their current emotions will often take precedence over their current physicality.  But emotions can quickly become stored in the body (potentially going on to become illness and disease) if they’re not worked through and processed effectively, and a great way to do this (especially if the emotions have been empathically adopted) is to move!

So try vigorous exercise, dancing or even shaking, to bring your attention back into your body, and encourage it to release any manifested energy and tension, that it no longer needs.

Taking a Salt Bath

Water is a healing gift, intimately connected with the flow of human emotion.

So taking a bath (or better still, swimming in wild water or the ocean) is one of the most effective ways to move emotions through, and out of our bodies. 

And adding Epsom salt will really amplify the intrinsic cleansing effect of the water.  

Epsom salt is a magnesium sulphate compound, which relieves muscle tension, soothes the nervous system and also works to clear the human auric field, much like smudging with white sage or Palo Santo.  Add your favourite herbal infusion to the water too, and surround yourself with purifying crystals like smoky quartz, green aventurine or amazonite, to make the ritual of a salt bath one of the most enjoyable ways to cleanse, strengthen and protect yourself.

Remember – your empathic gifts can be used as a powerful tool for growth and evolution (for you and for others) but like most tools, they need to be looked after well.  So honour, hone and respect your gift, and it will serve you well!

 

Article by: Katherine Anne Lee on behalf of Lori Earley