Empath how to protect yourself

5 Protection Strategies for Empaths

I’m a physician and an empath. In my medical practice of over two decades, I specialize in treating highly sensitive people and empaths like myself. We feel everything, often to an extreme, and have little guard up between ourselves and others. As a result, we often become overwhelmed by excessive stimulation and are prone to exhaustion and sensory overload.

The key to self-care is to quickly recognize the first signs of experiencing sensory overload or when you start absorbing negativity or stress from others. The sooner you can act to reduce stimulation and center yourself, the more balanced and protected you will be. Whenever you start to feel exhausted or overwhelmed practice the following five protection tips from my book The Empath’s Survival Guide to help you regain your balance.

1. Shielding Visualization

Shielding is a quick way to protect yourself. Many empaths and sensitive people rely on it to block out toxic energy while allowing the free flow of positivity. Call on it regularly. The minute you’re uncomfortable with a person, place, or situation, put up your shield. Use it in a train station, at a party if you’re talking to an energy vampire, or in a packed doctor’s waiting room. Begin by taking a few, deep, long breaths. Then visualize a beautiful shield of white or pink light completely surrounding your body and extending a few inches beyond it. This shield protects you from anything negative, stressful, toxic, or intrusive. Within the protection of this shield, feel yourself centered, happy, and energized. This shield blocks out negativity, but at the same time, you can still feel what’s positive and loving.

2. Define and Express Your Relationship Needs

Knowing your needs and being able to assert them is a strong form of self-protection for empaths. Then you can be in your full power in a relationship. If something doesn’t feel right, raise the issue with your partner rather than suffering silently. Finding your voice is equivalent to finding your power–otherwise you may become exhausted, anxious, or feel like a doormat in relationships where your basic needs are unmet. Your partner isn’t a mind reader. Speak up to safeguard your well-being.

Ask yourself, “What do I need in a relationship that I’ve been afraid to ask for? Would you prefer more alone or quiet time? Would you like to sleep by yourself sometimes? Do you want to play more or talk more or have sex more? Or would you like to dance under the full moon together? Let your intuition flow without judgment. Uncover your true feelings. No reason to be ashamed or to hold back.

3. Set Energetic Boundaries at Work & Home

Empaths often suffer in their environment when they absorb the stress in their surroundings. The workplace especially can be noisy and over-stimulating. To protect your energy level in an emotionally demanding or crowded environment surround the outer edge of your space with plants or family or pet photos to create a small psychological barrier. Sacred objects such as a statue of Quan Yin (the goddess of compassion), the Buddha, sacred beads, crystals, or protective stones can set an energetic boundary. Noise cancelling ear buds or headphones are also useful to muffle conversations and sound.

4. Prevent Empathy Overload

When you’re absorbing the stress or symptoms of others and you need to release the negative energy inhale lavender essential oil or put a few drops midway between your eyebrows (on your third eye) to calm yourself. When you able spend time in nature. Balance your alone time with people time. For me, time management is key to my sanity. I try not to schedule patients back-to-back. In my personal life, I don’t plan too many things in one day. I’ve also learned to cancel plans when I get overloaded. This is a skill all empaths must learn so you don’t feel obliged to go out if you’re tired and need rest.

Set clear limits with energy vampires and toxic people. Remember, “No” is a complete sentence. You don’t have to keep explaining yourself. I am adamant about avoiding draining people, particularly when I’m overloaded. Finally practice self-compassion. Be sweet to yourself whenever possible—avoid beating yourself up. After a hard day tell yourself, “I did the best I could. It’s okay honey.”

5. The Jaguar Protection Meditation

When you need extra protection I recommend this meditation to call on the power of the jaguar to protect you. I use it when there is too much negativity coming at me too fast. The jaguar is a fierce and patient guard who can keep toxic energy and people away.

In a calm meditative state, from your deepest heart, call on the spirit of the jaguar to protect you. Feel her presence enter. Then, visualize this gorgeous, powerful creature patrolling your energy field, encircling it, protecting you, keeping out intruders or any negative forces that want to get through. Picture what the jaguar looks like: his or her beautiful, fierce, loving eyes; sleek body; the graceful, purposeful way the jaguar moves. Feel secure in the circle of this jaguar’s protection.

Give inner thanks to the jaguar. Know that you can call on her whenever there is a need. Feel the power of that.

As a sensitive people you must learn is how to deal with sensory overload when too much is coming at you too quickly. This can leave you exhausted, anxious, depressed, or sick. Like many of us, you may feel there is no on/off switch for your empathy. This is not true. When you feel protected and safe you can take charge of your sensitivities rather than feeling victimized by them. To gain a sense of safety, recognize some common factors that contribute to empathy overload. Begin to identify your triggers. Then you can quickly act to remedy a situation.

If You Identify As An Empath, Here's How to Protect Yourself – Silk + Sonder

If you’re an empath, you know one thing to be true: Protecting yourself is important. If you’re not an empath (or have never heard that term at all) you may be scratching your head. So, first things first: What is an empath, anyway?

An empath is someone who feels more empathy than the average person. While a sad news story may leave most of us feeling down for a few minutes after reading it, the highly sensitive empath will feel affected by the story for hours, maybe even days.

Empaths are also great at reading emotions in others, and they tend to take them on. Other telltale signs of being an empath include having a strong intuition, being someone who people come to with their problems, and having a hard time in crowded spaces because you’re picking up on and absorbing so many different energies.

Whether you’ve identified as an empath for years or reading this made a lightbulb go off in your head — congratulations, welcome to the empath club! — it’s important to remember to celebrate yourself, because the world needs more empathetic people. But because you’re so sensitive to people’s energy, it’s crucial to put protective measures in place to make sure you don’t feel too overwhelmed or depleted.

Here’s how to protect yourself as an empath.

Spend time alone

Alone time is important for everyone, but especially for empaths. Because you’re so deeply impacted by the energy of others, it’s important that you spend time alone so you can re-energize. Make sure this alone time is full of restorative activities like journaling, meditation, or even watching a soothing show or movie. It’s all about what works for you!

Get enough sleep

Not getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night can be really tough on empaths. Because other people’s emotions drain you so easily, being physically exhausted exacerbates this feeling. So make sure you’re practicing good sleep hygiene so you can make sleep a priority.

Being well-rested is especially important for empaths.

Have a really solid daily routine in place

As human beings, we thrive on routine. While there will be times when our routines are thrown out of whack — and that’s OK, it’s what makes life interesting! — doing your best to stick to a routine can help you stay grounded as an empath.

For example, maybe before you check your phone in the mornings you meditate, and then sit down and journal with a cup of tea. Maybe you have a set wind-down routine at night, which consists of reading a book, watching a show, or knitting while listening to a podcast. Routines are highly individualized, but sticking to one can be beneficial for empaths. If you’re having a hard time with this, a habit tracker is one of the best tools out there.

Spend time in nature

One common characteristic of empaths is that they tend to crave time in nature, because it helps them feel connected and grounded. Spending time in nature doesn’t have to mean taking a strenuous hike or driving out to the beach if you don’t live near one; it can also mean indulging in the gentle Japanese wellness practice of forest bathing, or even taking a walk in your neighborhood or grounding your feet in the grass in your backyard.

Avoid saying yes too often

Let’s talk about boundaries: They’re important for all of us, but especially for empaths. Empaths are sensitive to loud noises, large crowds, toxic people — the list goes on and on — but it’s also really hard for them to say no because they’re naturally so invested in the lives and emotions of others. But if you do your best to set boundaries and say no when you know you need to, it will pay off.

Practice meditation

You’d be hard-pressed to find a mental health expert who won’t say meditation is an essential part of any wellness practice, and it’s especially crucial for empaths. When you practice it regularly, meditation helps you gain more control of your thoughts as you let the ones that you know don’t serve you gently float away like fluffy, air-filled clouds. Meditation can help empaths create more of a protective barrier around themselves, eventually (hopefully) making them slightly less sensitive to the energy of others.

Journal

Journaling is a powerful tool for an empath. Journaling naturally helps us organize our thoughts, and often leads to a greater understanding of why we’re experiencing certain thoughts and feelings. By writing through deeper, more difficult emotions, empaths are able to better identify specific triggers and eventually come up with personalized strategies for self-protection.

Journaling can help empaths organize their thoughts and pick up on patterns.

Use a mood tracker

A mood tracker is included in every issue of Silk + Sonder, and for good reason: Mood trackers help us link moods to specific actions. A mood tracker can help us understand just how much a lack of sleep affects us, it can help us identify toxic people and friendships, it can be the catalyst for eating less sugar (sugar increases our anxiety!) and so much more. Regular use of a mood tracker can help an empath better understand what activities she or he needs to cut out of their life.

Next up, if you want to eat more mindfully, get started with these 22 food journaling prompts.

Empaths in an Unideal World: A Short Course

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Knowing Yourself A Man among People

In an ocean of negative information, sensitive people have the hardest time. Constantly thinking that someone is not well can lead to depression and seriously damage their health.

The idea to separate people with heightened emotional sensitivity into a separate category belongs to the psychologist Elaine Aron. She found that they make up 15-20% of the population, and suggested that their brains process sensory impulses differently than other people.

Empaths are much more receptive to other people's emotions and actions. They are natural listeners, sincere in communication and often disinterested altruists. They instantly notice falsehood and pretense and suffer from it.

When interacting with negative people, the empath feels anxious, tired, empty

Examples of behaviors that make hypersensitive people feel out of place:

Insincere compliments in the name of practical gain.
Exaggerated self-talk, acting in public.
Rude and tactless behavior masking self-doubt.
Envy, jealousy or resentment showing through in a stream of kind phrases.
Compromise with one's own moral principles in the name of recognition.
Pretense.

In response they:

Experience great anxiety and discomfort in the presence of a person who behaves this way.
They try to avoid such people with all their might.
Face speech problems: they have difficulty constructing sentences and answering questions about themselves.
Experiencing unpleasant physical symptoms.
Fall into silence.

Why do empaths get tired of pretense and hypocrisy?

When they interact with someone who is unpleasant or hides true intentions, they feel discomfort. Symptoms can be physical and mental: anxiety, fatigue, emptiness, heart palpitations. At the same time, they do not dislike insincere people as such and know that this is just a screen behind which people hide their vulnerability.

Judith Orlof, author of Emotional Freedom, offers several strategies.

Learn to separate your negative emotions from those of others. Look for the source of negative experiences outside.
Learn to say no and stop talking. This is not a disaster, this is just a refusal to which you have every right.
Keep your distance. Don't be afraid to move away or move away from the person you don't like.
Explore your pain points. Where exactly do you feel discomfort? Whether your stomach hurts, your head hurts, your neck aches, put your hand there and send a stream of love to yourself there.
Concentrate on your breath. Listen to your breaths in and out for a few minutes.
Use emergency meditation. Find a place where you can retire and focus on the pleasant for a couple of minutes.
Visualize invisible protection. Imagine yourself inside a sphere of white light. In the worst cases, imagine a huge black panther that walks around you in circles and guards your energy field from intrusion.

Text: Xenia Diakova-Tinoku Photo Source: Getty Images

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6 important tips for empaths and highly sensitive people on how to protect themselves

Author Kluber Read 3 min. Views 5.8k. Posted on March 14, 2019 Sometimes they can't help themselves. They show understanding and give the people around them their energy. It is in their nature. It is easy for them to feel everything and everyone, even if they themselves do not want it.

An empath will always be there for you when you need him. He will be the "vest" in which you can cry. He will be the person you can completely trust. All this is extremely exhausting for a sensitive person, literally debilitating. The truth is that it is very difficult for such people to say “no” to others.

So, 6 important tips for empaths and extremely sensitive individuals on how to protect themselves.

1. Create an invisible shield around you.

It is very important for an empath to be able to protect himself, and therefore it is worth doing this exercise as often as possible. Imagine that you are surrounded by an invisible energy shield.

To make it easier for you, choose the color of your shield. Imagine a slightly vibrating shield of pure energy around you.

The point is not at all to isolate oneself from the whole world. But you should learn to let only those whom you want to approach you. You decide who can cross the border of this shield and who can't.

Did you imagine this shield? Excellent! Now imagine a light that burns within you. It is a fire burning in your heart. Focus on it. Be aware of your feelings, thoughts and emotions.

First learn to do this exercise in solitude. After some time, you can try to perform it, being surrounded by other people.

Learn to switch your attention from what is happening around you to yourself. More precisely, to your inner fire. Then turn your attention back to what is happening around you. Note the difference in sensations.

2. Spend time in silence.

Take advantage of the little breaks you have during the day. You should get some fresh air, take a walk and stretch your legs. This is your opportunity to be alone with yourself.

3. Meditate daily.

Practice yoga and meditate. This will help you store energy. Therefore, you will not need to absorb the energy of others.

Read also: 4 superpowers of empaths they don't even know they have

4. Fumigate the space around you with incense.

This is good for everyone, not just empaths.

Regularly fumigating the space around you (including your home and even your workplace) with the smoke of certain herbs and incense, you will get rid of someone else's energy. Therefore, it will not affect you.

We recommend trying sage, copal resin and frankincense. Also look out for Palo Santo essential oil and Nag Champa aromatic oil.

5. Say no and set boundaries.

Yes, it can be very difficult for an empath to say no. However, it is important to learn how to do it. If a person asks a lot, you need to be able to refuse him. In this case, you do not need to explain anything. Just be polite and steadfast in your decision.

Don't feel like you always have to say yes to everyone. Don't feel like going anywhere? Do you want to go home early? This is fine. Do not torment yourself with guilt, this will definitely not make you feel better.

6. Find an assistant, a person who knows how to work with energy.

The main thing is that it should be a person with whom you feel comfortable. Each of these specialists has their own methods of work and unique talents. Find someone who can work with your energy the way you want it.

Learn more