How To Protect Yourself as an Empath

When you're an empathetic or highly sensitive person, it is easy to absorb other people's feelings and energy and take on all of that negativity. Because we are so in-tuned with others' energies, being an empath or someone who is highly sensitive can be truly exhausting.  

People like us tend to be givers, and it is important that we learn to protect ourselves emotionally, spiritually, and physically as empaths. We need to protect ourselves from toxic people who want to take advantage of our time and energy, and really just suck the life out of us. So what can we do to protect our own energies and mental health? 

The first thing you need to do is to start removing yourself from the negative energy. If you're in a difficult environment, like you walk into the room and feel that the energy is off, it is okay to leave. You don't want to be in a room where the energy is really down or if there is someone there that isn't the best for you. You need to learn how to practice removing yourself when it is time to leave a situation. It is also important to remove negative energy from yourself and your home. Find what works for you, whether that is burning sage or using healing crystals. This is just about making your home healthy and happy by cleaning that environment. For people who are both empathetic and highly sensitive, it is important to take care of the home. Allow a lot of natural light, open the windows, and declutter the home. If there are any scents or music that you find soothing, include that in your home too.  

Next, focus on clearing your mind. Meditation is a great tool for this. With guided meditation, you can focus on your breath and on words of affirmation. Meditation provides you with a great opportunity to decompress for a minute, so you can get your energy back up. Because our energy can quickly go from really high to really low, it becomes extremely important that we monitor and take care of ourselves. We need to do things to nurture our souls and give ourselves the energy to go out and enjoy life. Take some time to be alone. When we are alone, it is easier to detach and decompress what is happening around us. We are able to take the time we need to check in with ourselves and see what it is we need and how we are doing.  

Then, we want to honor ourselves. We want to save the world and help the people around us, and we think, "Hey, your problem is my problem." This is a great quality to have to some extent, but it also means that we put ourselves in situations that have nothing to do with us. At what point are we going too far and taking on these issues at the expense of our own mental health and happiness? We need to learn that their problem isn't always our problem, that we need to detach emotionally from situations in order to protect ourselves. Ask yourself if this is something that you should be doing and if it is good for you to do right now. Is this something that is going to help or hurt your energy? Because we are natural givers, we are going to attract people who want to take and take from our energy. This means that there will be times we need to leave certain relationships. We tend to give people chance after chance without accepting who they really are. We see the best in people and it is easy to not see the red flags that they are showing us.  

Finally, you want to learn what it is that you need. This can be the biggest struggle for empaths because we are so used to caring for other people's needs, that we don't take the time to learn what we need. We need to ask ourselves, "what do I need?", "how do I feel?", and "what is good for me at this moment?" When we internally check-in with how we are doing, we can better understand how to care for ourselves. Besides checking in on how we are doing mentally, exercise is another tool we can use to care for ourselves. Exercise is something that everyone needs, but particularly empaths and highly sensitive people. Because we use and share a lot of our energy, we need multiple ways to fill ourselves back up. If we are able to get outside, move our bodies, and take in the sun and fresh air, it can make a world of difference for us.