The Empath

The Empath…

The world is on fire around us.  And it is devastating.  And my heart aches.

And as I sit here, working on this piece which I’ve started about a ½ dozen times, I am conflicted about the message I’d like to share.  After all, I am an educated white woman.  And because of that, I must be careful.

I thought about discussing how all lives matter, but how black lives (and all people of color and diversity) matter in a different kind of way right now, until we can achieve true equality.  But that didn’t feel like my story to discuss for some reason.

I thought about walking through the difference between protesting and rioting.  But it just seems so obvious to me that if you are smashing buildings up and stealing stuff, you are just inherently wrong.  That is not a protest.  That is an act of violence and nothing else. What more can I say here?

I thought about talking about coping strategies and ways to manage your frustrations and how to help evoke change.  But that just didn’t feel quite right either.

And while each of these topics are vitally important, I decided to focus on what the state of the world is doing to the empath, as that is the conversation I have had most in the past week.

An empath is someone that is highly sensitive to the emotions of those around them. An empath can FEEL what the other person is feeling.  There is often a keen sense of just sort of knowing how someone else is doing emotionally in time and space to the point of feeling those emotions themselves.  It is, as with all superpowers, both a blessing and a curse. And right now, given the current state of the world, being an empath likely feels very much like a curse.  Because these feelings can be transmitted virtually and not just in real life.

So to all you empaths out there, I strongly suggest limiting the time you spend watching the news, listening to talk radio, and watching YouTube.  I strongly suggest staying away from social media as much as you can or at least unfollow everyone.  The reason I say everyone is because whether you share views with someone or not, the topic of our world burning around us will be triggering no matter what side you hearing from.

To all you empaths out there, please protect yourself from the negativity as much as you can.  I promise you that someone you know will let tell you if you need to pack the car and drive far, far away.  I promise you that someone else in your life is watching and paying attention to all of this.  Maybe it’s because they are not an empath and can tolerate it.  Maybe it’s because they are an empath and see it as a challenge.  Or maybe it’s because they are an empath and feel like it is cheating if they don’t feel this pain with the rest of the world.

Empaths…you do NOT need to do this to yourselves.  You are under no obligation to chain yourself to the pain of others or the world at large.  Instead, save your energy.  Save your healing powers.  Save your light.  

Empaths, your amazing and beautiful energy will be needed.

Because you are one with the earth, and you both need balance.  Your light will be essential.  Because you, yes YOU are essential.