Being an empath means that you’re highly sensitive to any energies of other people, places, and also nature. Your sensitivity can often cause an emotional and mental rollercoaster. Thus it’s important to know how to protect yourself as an empath.
I was 22 when I first heard about empaths. A friend who I met while living in China told me that he’s an empath and thus he feels other people’s energies in his body. At that moment something weighty just lifted. I realized why I felt so sad when I was surrounded by individuals who have given up on their lives or why I didn’t want to stay in certain environments, and my energy always would go down.
I realized why I felt so sad when I was surrounded by people who have given up on their lives or why I didn’t want to stay in certain environments, and my energy always would go down.
How do you know if you’re an empath?
If you’re an empath, then you often feel like a crazy being. Your mood goes up and down without any particular reason. If you go to a supermarket, you feel very stressed and anxious as you’re picking up other people’s energies.
You may even develop some diseases that doctors cannot explain and then all of a sudden you’re healthy again.
After talking with negative people, you end up feeling depleted, and they feel energized. This happens because you’ve taken their emotions and thought patterns into your mind and body and you’ve allowed them to take your energy.
When you’re alone, you feel much better and more balanced. But when you go to visit friends or family, you start to feel negative, and you feel like you need to leave. Immediately.
It’s also very likely that you have active psychic abilities or you have a strong intuition. You also quickly feel into other people’s problems, and that’s why they’re coming to you.
You don’t feel good in loud and noisy environments, and you prefer to be somewhere alone, sipping a cup of tea and reading a delightful book.
When you listen to music, you easily connect with the lyrics, and it can change your mood rapidly – going from happy to sad and melancholic very quickly.
You have to find your balance
Being an empath is a divine gift, but if you don’t know how to balance and ground yourself, it can become a nightmare. I know many people who have become a drug or alcohol addicts just because they take in too much energy of others and they don’t know how to protect themselves.
When they numb themselves with alcohol, drugs, but also food, or sweets, their openness shuts down a little bit. This gift becomes more bearable and unconsciously they protect their energies.
Currently, I’m in Bali, and through a series of coincidences, I was blessed to meet some spiritual monks and gurus. Those who don’t have a website and you don’t find them in the touristic places.
We talk a lot about energies, balance, energy protection and healing. They also teach me new ways to meditate and work with my energies so I thought that I could share with you some of it in this article.
We all agree on the importance of keeping balance. As an empath (or perhaps some of you are healers, too) the amount of energy is disbalancing you. Anything can take you out of your core, and you can easily get lost with it.
But when you become more stable, and you begin to take care of your energies consciously, you’ll see that you can walk in an overcrowded street, and you feel open and good. You can also heal more people because you don’t take in their problems.
Instead of allowing your environment to affect your mood, you find the source of stability within yourself. The balanced energy doesn’t harm you or the others.
If you think that this is too esoteric or spiritual, let me put it into plain English.
As an empath, you tend to close yourself and withdraw from people and also your dreams. You feel like the world is too complicated and burdensome to cope with. Thus you can destroy your relationship with a person you love, or you can choose not to follow your dreams because it feels too overwhelming – it’s your chaotic energy that overwhelms you.
But if you learn to protect and balance yourself, you’ll create less drama in your life. You’ll not be as moody as you used to and you can use this extra time to create something beautiful or enjoy the presence of your beloved ones.
Finding your balance = creating less emotional drama = creating more time and energy for things that matter = more fulfilling and happy life.
Just for the sake of the depth of each of the below techniques how to protect yourself as an empath, I’ll stay general. But you can choose few ways and then learn more about them and incorporate them into your daily life.
If you’re an empath, you need to have some daily grounded and balancing habits. If you’re working on an important project or you have a job interview or someone you loved left you, you need to double or triple your efforts to protect yourself as an empath because you’re more open and vulnerable.
If you’re going through more challenging times, you have to take care of yourself more. Because difficult moments take more of your energy and then your aura is more open to the influences of your environment.
Also, remember, you only take in the energy of others when you allow it. Even if you want to help others, you cannot help them by feeling like a mess. You have to balance your energy, heal your wounds and then you can be there for people who need you.
12 Ways to protect yourself as an empath
- Detachment. Only what you give your power to can affect you. Thus the best protection of all is prevention. What makes the energy come into you is that you sympathize with others, you want to help them, or you are upset and judgmental of them. Thus you think that they’re not fine and you need to “fix” them somehow. The need to “fix” others is one of the things that creates the energy tunnel between you two, and you take their burden or “flaw” into you, and subconsciously you try to heal it. But when you develop (and this takes time, maybe lifetimes) the attitude that everyone is fine, when they go through an issue it’s a learning curve for them then you don’t feel the need to fix them anymore. You help them when they’re ready.
- Journaling. The daily habit of journaling is another great way how you can connect with your innermost self as well as release some stuck energy. We mostly feel the energy in the form of emotions so when you write how you feel down, the energies begin to shift and transform. For example, you can take your journal and write how you feel and how would you like to feel instead and then write; “Dear Universe, remove this for me. Let me see the truth and let my heart stay pure and open.” You’ll see changes in the way you feel because by journaling you’ll release negative emotions and become more stable.
- Energy vampires. Like it or not but we all have people in our surroundings who suck our energy. You know it when you feel drained after talking with them. It also happens that someone is envious or jealous of you and they (mostly unconsciously) send you their negative energy, and they can even wish you something bad to happen. An emotionally charged intention is powerful, so it’s wise to cut off these people from your life. If you have friends who suck your energy, you can cut the cords and then stop being in contact with them. If it’s your family or co-workers then ground yourself before talking with them and try to keep it short and with firm boundaries.
- Meditation. There are many ways of how to meditate. I meditate each morning differently but I also have some longer practices that I keep for the evening routine. Meditation helps you to balance your energy. The more often you do it, the more connected with yourself you feel. So this is a way how you can be pro-active and protect your energies. But there are also many ways how you can clean your energy in meditation – for example, chakra meditations. Find some routine that makes you feel peaceful, focused, and more energized after you finish. Thus you know that it works for you.
- Water. A water purification is widely practiced in Bali but also in many other cultures. The water represents the flowing Earth energy that washes off anything negative from you. You don’t need to have a holy water to do it. You can use a simple shower and infuse the water with your intention to be energetically cleaned. Or you can just imagine standing under a waterfall and as the water streams down your body anything dark and negative is released.
- A universal vacuum cleaner. This is a method that I frequently use, although, I’m not sure if anyone else does Nevertheless, it works quickly, and you can use it wherever you are. The way I do it is that I close my eyes, feel into my energy field to see where any stuck or negative energy is and then I imagine a huge universal vacuum cleaner to suck this energy out of my aura. Then I imagine white light to fill in the holes. If you practice it few times then you can learn to do it within a few seconds so you can use it anywhere (even in the middle of a conversation ).
- Send it back. It’s very likely that more than 90% of your thoughts and emotions don’t belong to you. Our bodies are like big sponges sucking in anything in our environment. Thus we can also send the energy back (you don’t have to know who the sender is) or you send it to the center of the Earth and ask the energy to help you transform it into the light.
- Kundalini. Kundalini yoga or kundalini shakti is an excellent way to protect your energy. Kundalini is a spiritual energy or the life force which is located at the end of your spine (the root chakra). Through a regular practice (meditation, special breathing techniques, chanting mantras, and particular hand position) you awaken kundalini and learn to work with it and make it stronger. In 1968, Yogi Bhajan introduced his version of kundalini yoga in the United States.
- Gemstones. The protective and healing power of crystals have been used since the beginning of time. Each crystal has a different function and can help you with various life areas. Of course, quartz is the queen because you can use it just for anything. I like to wear a necklace with quartz (from Lapland) over my heart chakra. Especially when I give seminars. If you choose to protect yourself with gemstones, then learn how to take care of them because as they absorb the negative energy, you have to cleanse it off.
- Shielding yourself. It’s very popular recommendation in the west to shield your energy. The basic idea is that you imagine some shape around your body (and aura) that keeps you safe from outside energies. You can either imagine an egg or cloak that is made of white light, and it doesn’t let anything negative come to you. But after discussing with Balinese gurus, I’ve realized that this is not always the best solution. They believe that the energy must flow and when you close yourself into this energy cocoon, your own mental and negative energy is getting stuck there, and you can have negative thoughts. So, when you shield yourself, imagine that there is a hole above your head for the light to come in and for anything negative coming from you to leave. You can also have a hole above your feet, so the energy flows naturally but keeps the protection “walls” on other places surrounding your body. With your intention you allow the good to come it as well as your negative energy to leave, but the outside negative energy is not allowed to come in.
- Nature. Nature is the best healer. If you have an opportunity to go the forest or park, you feel calmer and more grounded. You can sit by a tree, close your eyes, and imagine that the negative energy is leaving your body and you connect with the ground under your feet. You can even walk barefoot (very recommended) and feel the sensations it gives you. For the energy to stay balanced, you must ground yourself regularly.
- Time alone. Every empath needs time alone. This doesn’t change with family or any other commitments. Sometimes we have to disappear from the surface of the world to rejuvenate ourselves. I know that many of us have other people who “need” us. But when you’re alone, the energy that you’ve absorbed from other people naturally disappears (if you don’t actively feel into the problems of your friends). So you balance yourself, and then you have a greater capacity to give love to others. The time alone should be used consciously and wisely. Use this time to read an inspirational book, meditate, journal, dance, or do something creative. Some people say that this is the last instance, I say that this is needed regardless.
Chose techniques that make you feel peaceful and more balanced. Don’t be afraid to experiment and remember that being an empath requires certain commitments to yourself. If you don’t protect yourself that you can create a lot of chaos in your life and also for the ones you love.
Let’s Connect Deeper
You can download a FREE printable guidebook with 7 questions to help you find your life purpose.
Originally published at sylviasalow.com