What is an Empath and Are You One?

What is an Empath and Are You One?

Someone that has empathy is different than someone that is an empath even though empaths do have empathy for others. Empathy means that you are able to understand the feelings of others but being an empath means that you will have an emotional connection with someone, and you will pick up their emotions and feelings as your own.

Even though science has not decided if the term empath is real, people will take on the emotions around them and they have the abilities of picking up what others are feeling.

What we do know about this is that there are things called mirror neurons in the body and this is where the brain helps us to mirror the emotions that other people are feeling. This happens sometimes in people that have more mirror neurons than other people do. Maybe this is where the empath’s come from.

Knowing If You Are an Empath

There are ways that you can know if you are an empath or not and some people are way more empathetic than others. We all have people in our lives that are able to read our feelings and who seem to just know everything about what we are feeling.

If empathy goes on a different spectrum, there are some people that have this in a strong way, and some do not have any empathy in their lives or reactions.

Am I an Empath?

You can ask yourself these things to find out if you feel that you are an empath or not. If you answer yes to the questions, you might be an empath:

  • Do you pick up the stress of others?
  • Have people told you that you are too sensitive?
  • Do you feel overwhelmed in your emotions in big crowds?
  • Do people say that you are empathetic?

There are many other quizzes and questions online that you can find that can help you to decide if you are an empath or not.

There is no real set thing that makes you know if you are an empath or not but if you answered the questions and they fit you, chances are you that you are an empath.

Pros and Cons

There are pros and cons of being an empath. Here are the pros:

  • You can support people that need you.
  • You know when someone needs help.
  • You know if someone is good for you.

Here are the cons:

  • You get drained easily.
  • You have a hard time giving yourself time.
  • You might be invasive when you read into what someone is feeling.

Pros

The pros of being an empath is that you can help others. You can help them with their emotions and their feelings, and you can support people that need you.

When you know someone is sad or upset, you can talk to them and help them to feel better. You can help them to trust you and they will become able to trust and rely on you.

This can make you a great friend or parent and can help you to have better relationships with people.

Being able to know things about people can also help you to determine if someone is being truthful with you. You will be able to know if you see a liar and you will not be tricked easily. People will not be able to manipulate you because you already know.

Cons

The cons are also there, and this can be a downfall to reading other peoples emotions. When you are in a crowd, chances are that you will pick up all of the different emotions and it can cause you to become overwhelmed. It is hard to be in certain places where there are a lot of different people.

This can be hard for you also if you need to rest and you are dealing with everyone’s emotions. This can make you feel mentally tired and cause you to sometimes feel unstable.

People that meet you might be uncomfortable because you can read them so well. Not everyone wants to share what they are feeling, and they might not want your insight or your thoughts.

Keeping Yourself Safe

If you are an empath, you need to learn to take care of yourself. Since you are always taking care of others and dealing with their emotions, you have to learn to take care of yourself along the way.

Find Time for You

You will need to learn to take time for yourself. Go on a mini vacation or go out in nature and take a walk. Take time to meditate and quiet your mind.

Empaths need to know when they have to set boundaries because they don’t always want to be picking up the emotions of everyone around them. There has to be spaces where you can rest and where you can take time to heal yourself.

Practice meditating each day and learn to shut out the emotions of others when you aren’t ready to take them on.

Spending Time with People

You have to be extra careful of who you spend time with. People that are negative will wear you down and you need to make sure that you have people that are not toxic in your life.

Some people are not able to be helped and those are the people that will drown you. Keep your mental health strong and learn to keep your energy up.

Find someone that is a professional that you can talk to if things get too stressful. This is a way that you can find someone to talk to and you can work through your own emotions.

Find a mental health professional that you can talk to and develop ways to help yourself to be happy and healthy.

This is a way that you can use your gifting to help you to support others and to take care of yourself all at the same time.