10 Common Struggles Empaths Face
And 3 solutions on how to solve them
Have you known you have felt feelings and emotions from other people for a while? Or maybe it is something new to you? Do you consider yourself to be an Empath?
An Empath is compassionate, feels deeply for others, and experiences others’ emotions and feelings.
Do you find yourself caring deeply for others and feeling their feelings and emotions? Or have you found that being an Empath has played a toll on your mental health?
If you’re an Empath, you have, without a doubt, experienced both positives and negatives related to your empathic gift.
Now that you feel the feelings and emotions of others, it can also seem like they are enmeshing with your personal emotions and feelings, thus causing you to struggle to separate, connect to, and make sense of your feelings.
You may have been wondering, “What do I do with being an Empath? How can I normalize the struggles and challenges I face being an Empath? What do I do to solve these?”
Look no further. This article helps normalize the 10 common struggles empaths face and helps you relate to your struggles as an Empath so that you can feel a little less alone. Within this article, you will also find solutions to these struggles so that the emotions and feelings you feel are no longer playing a toll on your mental health.
1. You feel other people’s feelings all the time
If you are an Empath, then you know this to be true. You are often feeling other people’s feelings.You may find yourself feeling sad when someone close to you is feeling sad. You may find yourself feeling compassion when someone is sharing a compassionate story.
In Dr. Marcia Reynolds article called Can You Have Too Much Empathy? written for Psychology Today, she discusses that if you embody another person’s emotions it can be damaging. She shared that it is important to release the emotions you are feeling. Many Empaths however do not know how to release the emotions they are feeling so they often end up absorbing the emotions of others that they feel. If these emotions are not released, they can manifest into physical pain or illness.
Breathwork and self-check-ins are helpful ways to release unwanted feelings and emotions. Stopping to take a few deep breaths to help you get back in touch with your body, while also letting go of the worry or overwhelm of the emotions/feelings you may be carrying from someone else.
2. You often absorb other people’s feelings and emotions
As you feel other people’s feelings, you are then, in turn, starting to absorb their feelings and emotions. For example, if someone in your life has complex mental health struggles, then you may also feel their mental health issues on top of your mental health. Not only are you feeling their feelings, but you are also subconsciously absorbing these emotions. This can become problematic when it comes time to release these emotions.
3. You struggle to relate with others
As an Empath, you may find yourself beginning to question who you are and your relationships with others around you. You may find yourself becoming more aware of their behavioral patterns. As a result, you may wonder if you relate to those around you who might not consider themselves to be Empaths.
You have heard people in your life saying “oh you are just to sensitive,” and “oh she/he/they are over emotional.” You can feel at times that others singal out your highly sensitive personality as “being a bad thing.” In fact, it is anything but that.
Being an Empath allows yourself to be more aware of your own feelings and emotions. As a result of everything being so intensified, sometimes it can be too much. Not only do you start to recognize people in your life who may not be connected to their emotions and feelings, you may also find yourself drifting away from people in your life due to them not welcoming/accepting your gift.
4. You feel way too much
As an Empath, you may also be highly sensitive to articulating your emotions and feelings. You find yourself crying at the littlest of things, or overwhelmed. You find yourself in a sudden burst of happiness and seconds later only to have it vanish into despair. You are feeling all these things but, at times, struggle to regulate the feelings.
Dr. Marcia Reynolds shared how feeling to much can cause the other person’s emotions and feelings to amplify in you. You may have the dire need to want to fix that person, instead of holding space for that person.
Finding ways to talk out your feelings and emotions, and to release them, such as going for walks in nature, and doing the 5–4–3–2–1 exercise can help to center your emotions and feelings so that you are protecting yourself from becoming emotionally hijacked.
5. You are not sure what feelings are your own
Since you are absorbing everyone else’s feelings and emotions, it is hard to figure out what feelings are yours vs. what feelings are theirs. This is especially true in overwhelming moments or when you suddenly become anxious and don’t know why. If you suddenly change feelings, chances are you are not just feeling your feelings.
Dr. Marcia Reynolds also discusses how your body can come “emotionally hijacked” when feeling someone else’s pain, stress, and or anxiety. These lower vibrational energies will also play a toll on your vibrational energy when they are absorbed.
A helpful way to not become emotionally hijacked is to set energetic boundaries by practising tuning into your energy first and foremost. If you know that you are going to be around a person who causes you distress in advance, you can practice writing out what you want to say to them beforehand. Don’t forgot to give yourself permission to say no, or back away when things get too much.
6. You struggle to be in crowded spaces
As an Empath, you also find yourself struggling to be in a crowded space. Crowds can become too much and overwhelming for you. They make it hard for you to stay connected to yourself, given the emotions and energy you are picking up around you.
You often are the person in the corner of the room, taking everything in but wanting to have space at the same time. Sometimes it is just easier to stay home vs. going out as it causes emotional overwhelm.
7. You can’t say no to others
As an Empath, you often struggle with boundaries. You find yourself doing everything for everyone else. You take on a caregiving role but feel that you are more or less giving yourself away. You feel the need to be, therefore, others, but at times struggle to be there for yourself as a result.
8. Your feelings can turn into physical pain
Are you the type of Empath that is always getting sick one way or the other? Or maybe having multiple health problems, but there is no explanation for them?
Chances are you are struggling to release the emotions and feelings you have been absorbing from everyone and the ones that have been repressed in yourself. When I started doing inner work, I had horrible gut health. When I finally tuned into my emotions and feelings, the pains in my stomach started to disappear.
According to Dr. Judith Orloff, MD, the author of the Empath Survival Guide, empaths often deal with feelings of overwhelm. Feeling overwhelmed can lead to feelings of exhaustion, burnout, physical illness or mental health.
If you have unknown physical pain and are an Empath, try releasing some of the feelings you have been subconsciously absorbing.
9. You feel emotionally connected to animals
You feel a deep intuitive connection to animals. You find this to be true when you look into their eyes especially. It is as if they are speaking to you, and you feel this undying love for them. A love that is greater than anything and anyone. As if you can feel what they are feeling, and they can feel you feeling their feelings.
As a result, you find yourself not being able to watch animal movies, or cry during them. Oh and let’s not forget about the commercials that come on TV about animal abuse, they sometimes can give you a knot in your stomach, make you cry or you feel that you just can’t watch them all together.
10. You can get overstimulated easily
When all the emotions and feelings get to be too much, you struggle to process things. It is as if the thoughts inside your head won’t shut off. Everyone is pulling you in every direction, and you want to say fuck it all and curl up into a ball. When you become overly stimulated, you know it is time to reach out and get support, to get help releasing the overpowering energy around you.
Here are three solutions to help you not struggle with these problems:
1. Shield/Protect Your Energy
Imagine an energy shield/bubble around you at all times. To do this, you can close your eyes. Start to envision and feel an energy bubble around you. This bubble is your energetic boundary so that people’s emotions and feelings cannot cross over into the shield unless you let them do so.
2. Keep Track of Your Feelings and Emotions
As you start to tune into your empathic gift, track your feelings and emotions. This will help you get used to what it feels like to sit with your feelings and emotions. It will also help you to tell what feelings are yours vs. what feelings are someone else’s. This will be able to help you to separate/release your unwanted feelings and emotions easier.
3. Release Your Unwanted Feelings and Emotions
You can release your feelings and emotions while simply writing down the feelings and emotions that no longer serve you. After writing them down, close your eyes, connect in with yourself and your energy.
Using your hands to sweep the energy down your body to the ground and out to the Universe (in a j shape). Allow yourself to breathe out the unwanted energy. Guided meditations also help with energy release.