I bumped into another empath at work to day. Neither one of us knew quite what to do. It was kinda embarrassing. After all, the last thing you admit to in a large, rationally minded corporate is being an empath. When you are in the professional world you work on concrete evidence, not emotions. But to be an empath means being able to pick up on other people’s emotions. It means that when I am in a space and there is someone who is very negative or anxious or sad I can’t explain why I am suddenly feeling those things. I pick up the emotions in the room and struggle to differentiate between what is mine and what is coming from other people.
It sounds quite handy, it isn’t! It is draining and confusing. I pick up what isn’t being said in a space and then struggle trying to explain to people why I am thinking what I am thinking, because nothing has been said – there is no evidence. It’s like listening to a radio station no one else has access to – those who can’t hear think I am mad.
All my life I have struggled without knowing why. I was always being too sensitive – I needed to toughen up and stop making things up. I never knew that I was an empath, that it was a real thing. It is and I am learning how to use it when facilitating and coaching. In fact, I am not sure I could do what I do or have the Impact I have without it.
There isn’t a whole lot of info out there about managing being an Empath, or at least none that I have found that is really concrete (I am not talking about the copious amounts of info in New Age sites which really isn’t that helpful).
I have had to learn how to hold my own emotions and own them. I have had to learn how to let go of emotions that were never mine in the first place. I have had to learn about emotional boundaries. I didn’t know they existed before, no-one I know needs them so how could anyone teach me how to create them. I have had to learn how to protect myself without isolating myself and so how to fit into a world where leaking emotions is just what everyone does. No-one else notices, I do!
Now there are two of us!
I can’t help wondering who else is out there? What ways are they finding to fit into a world where emotions aren’t really allowed ?
What would happen if we could find each other ?
What could we learn ?