Set Healthy Boundaries
Being naturally caring and concerned for others, empaths have a hard time saying “no”.
This can lead to problems as you overcommit and drain yourself emotionally. It’s important to learn to control how much time you spend listening to stressful people, and learn to say “no”.
Set clear limits and boundaries with people, nicely cutting them off at the pass if they get critical or mean.
Remember, ‘no’ is a complete sentence.
If you really struggle to say no and set boundaries, consider seeing someone to help you understand where that comes from.
Mindfulness, Meditation and Energy Clearing
Because empaths tend to get caught up in what is going on around them, it is particularly important for them to set aside time to tune in. Practicing mindfulness and meditation can help you reconnect to yourself.
Regular and thorough spiritual housekeeping is also useful to release everything that doesn’t belong to you.
Release Judgement to Yourself
When we judge ourselves it’s like a nasty voice that lives inside our heads, waiting for any opportunity to criticize. Empaths, being sensitive, are vulnerable to these self-critical thoughts. They may think things like, “Why do you feel so much all the time? What’s wrong with you?” or “You’re just too sensitive.” However, it is important not to believe these self-attacks or act on your nasty voice’s bad advice.
This nasty voice is often called “the Inner Critic”, learning to understand why it’s there and make friends with it, can help to bring it over to your team.
Practice Self-Compassion
While it is easy for empaths to feel compassion for others, it is often difficult for them to feel compassion for themselves. Self-compassion is the simple (yet challenging) practice of treating yourself like a friend. It is called a practice because it is something that you get better at over time. There are four components to practicing self-compassion:
1) Acknowledge and notice your suffering.
2) Be kind and caring in response to suffering.
3) Remember that imperfection is part of the human experience and something we all share.
4) Treat yourself just as you would someone you love and care for.
Spend Time in Nature
Nature has wonderful healing effects for all humans, but particularly for empaths.
Nature can be particularly healing and soothing, even it’s just laying yourself down on the grass for 10-15 mins each day or doing basic gardening. If you live somewhere that allows you to walk in woods or forests, along the beach, near the ocean, or even in a small park within your city, you may find that by making time to rejuvenate and recharge in this way will help you to relieve overwhelm and emotional, physical and spiritual depletion.
At the end of the day, having these empathic abilities can be both a blessing and sometimes a challenge, especially where many people struggle to honestly identify and express emotions.
What would it take you to embrace your empathic abilities as your superpowers?
