If you are an empath, you can easily identify with and experience another's feelings. Empathy can be a very good quality as it can help you connect with others through a deep level of understanding.
Since an empath is naturally understanding and compassionate, you find it easier to forgive others. This can help improve the quality and duration of your relationships. You are always there with support when anyone close to you is suffering.
They may become easily overwhelmed by negative emotions or feel as though they are responsible for the emotional well-being of others. Additionally, because empaths are so in tune with the emotions of others, they may struggle to express their own feelings, leading to difficulty in forming close emotional connections.
There are many benefits of being an empath. On the bright side, empaths tend to be excellent friends. They are superb listeners. They consistently show up for friends in times of need.
The empath concept is controversial. Opinion is divided on whether empaths actually exist. There is also debate around some abilities associated with empaths. For instance, empaths are thought to have special skills in reading others, detecting lying, and healing.
1 Being an empath comes with a lot of positive traits. For one, Brown says, empaths are "highly intuitive and emotionally intelligent," so they can read the room, pick up on other people's energy, and be very aware of their own emotions, too. The catch? Taking on everyone's feelings can be a lot.
People who are highly empathetic may unconsciously mirror other people's movements. MRI scans have shown that there is a neural relay mechanism in the brain that allows empaths to mimic the postures, mannerisms, and facial expressions of others. Interestingly, this mimicry also applies to tiny movements.
Intellectuals can make good partners for certain empaths because their sense of logic compliments and grounds an empath's emotional intensity. Ask for help. Intellectuals love to solve problems. Be very specific about ways they can assist you with a problem or task.
Empaths and intimate relationships
While empaths can make wonderful caring friends, in a romantic relationship they can often find it difficult. Empaths tend to love hard and intensely, experiencing deep feelings of connection.
Perhaps you have always had the ability to feel the emotions and physical symptoms of others as if they were your own. If this rings true in your life, you may be an “empath.” Only 1 to 2 percent of the population experience this type of sensitivity, having the ability to feel and absorb the emotions surrounding them.
You don't always know which emotions are yours. This is probably the biggest ongoing challenge empaths face. When you're constantly absorbing emotional information from other people, it can be hard to know what you're feeling from others vs. your own thoughts and emotions.
Fearing intimacy and getting closer.
Some empaths may avoid dating or romantic commitment because they fear being overwhelmed by a partner's energies and emotions.
If there is one type of person for an empath to avoid besides a narcissist, it's a chronic complainer. Chronic complainers, characterized by negativity, learned helplessness, and vocal self-pity, can take a bright, beautiful, positive day and quickly turn it into a massive nightmare.
The narcissist in this position will take advantage of the empath and see their compassion as weakness. The attraction between the two is profoundly due to their complementary desires, unhealthy as it may be to seek attention and validation from one another.
If this isn't understood, empaths can stay perpetually lonely; we want companionship, but, paradoxically, it doesn't feel safe. For emotional empaths to be at ease in a relationship, the traditional paradigm for coupling must be redefined.
Feel it out
If you identify as an empath, you can better relate to other people's feelings and connect with others on a deep and profound level. But empathy is a double-edged sword. You may absorb emotions that impact your own feelings more than they should, and it can be hard to let go of them.
Empaths are emotionally intelligent individuals, so they can often understand and connect with their partners in a deep and meaningful way. They are also typically very supportive and understanding, which can make them great partners in times of need.
Empaths might also shy away from physical contact. They might be uncomfortable being in close proximity to people, especially those who express love through hugs and other forms of physical touch. This can become problematic in romantic relationships if the empath struggles to let their guard down and be intimate.
An empath is a person highly attuned to the feelings and emotions of those around them. Empaths feel what another person is feeling at a deep emotional level.
An empath can fall in love with whoever they want to, but it may not work out if the person they fall for isn't able to express their feelings. In the case of empaths romantic relationships, they will be more compatible with someone who isn't afraid to show emotions and will allow others to as well.
Empaths absorb others' energy to the point where they feel like an 'emotional sponge'. They do not have the filters most people do, and they seem to feel other people's stress and feelings in their own bodies.
Trauma. Childhood neglect or abuse can affect your sensitivity levels as an adult. A portion of empaths I've treated have experienced early trauma such as emotional or physical abuse, or they were raised by alcoholic, depressed or narcissistic parents.
Empaths share all the traits of what Dr. Elaine Aron has called “Highly Sensitive People,” or HSPs. These include: a low threshold for stimulation; the need for alone time; sensitivity to light, sound, and smell; and an aversion to large groups.
In rare cases, being an empath may refer to intensely heightened perceptions. Roughly 1% to 2% of people can feel sensations on their skin while watching someone else be touched, a phenomenon linked to empathy and known as mirror-touch synesthesia.