Why Do Highly Sensitive People Absorb Other People’s Emotions?
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) have an immense capacity for empathy. Due to this trait, we tend to be drawn to helping professions, and we often become caregivers for our friends and families. Our empathy often surpasses that of the regular definition of the word. Rather than simply sensing what someone else is feeling, many of us actually start feeling it ourselves.
As exhausting as it can be to absorb the emotions of others, it can be an asset in jobs that require a little mind reading. However, when this trait starts functioning at high speed, it becomes emotionally exhausting, leaving us feeling like our tank is on empty.
As a therapist candidate, it’s my job to hold the stories of others. And not just their stories, but the emotions and implications those stories have had on their lives. It’s an immense honor to be included in the life stories of others — and to witness their journeys.
But some days, this is a lot to hold, and my HSP tendency to not just hear emotions but make them my own kicks in. This is one of the contributing factors to the problem of burnout in therapists and other helping professionals, especially when proper self-care is not in place.
Let’s take a closer look at why many HSPs absorb the feelings of others, and how they can stop being so exhausted by it.
(Not familiar with highly sensitive people? Check out this complete guide.)
All HSPs tend to be highly affected by the emotions of others. Many of us can walk into a room and immediately sense tension, joy, discomfort, sadness, etc. without any verbal communication. In a way, we are master non-verbal communicators.
But it’s more than that — it’s like we can just “sense” emotion. Most HSPs have experienced something along the lines of being with a friend, knowing the emotion they are experiencing, and waiting for them to come out and tell us. This is one of the reasons we hate conflict so much: We can sense it coming and experience the feelings of the other person as well as our own.
These emotions do not stay separate from us. Many HSPs would struggle to enter even a slightly tense atmosphere and not feel tense themselves. While most people can pick up on the emotions of others to some extent — thanks to mirror neurons — for HSPs, the experience is much more intense.
As a result, we may find ourselves feeling sad, irritable, or lethargic. When this starts, it’s often due to one of two things: Either we are picking up on the emotion of the other person and making it our own, or we have already taken on this burden of emotion and our brain is telling us it’s tired of carrying someone else’s weight.
(Source)
What Does Science Tell Us?
Science Finally Confirms That People Absorb Energy From Others
A biological research team at Bielefeld University has made a groundbreaking discovery showing that plants can draw an alternative source of energy from other plants. This finding could also have a major impact on the future of bioenergy eventually providing the evidence to show that people draw energy from others in much the same way.
Members of Professor Dr. Olaf Kruse’s biological research team have confirmed for the first time that a plant, the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, not only engages in photosynthesis, but also has an alternative source of energy: it can draw it from other plants. The research findings were released this week in the online journal Nature Communications published by the renowned journal Nature.
Flowers need water and light to grow and people are no different. Our physical bodies are like sponges, soaking up the environment.
“This is exactly why there are certain people who feel uncomfortable in specific group settings where there is a mix of energy and emotions,” said psychologist and energy healer Dr. Olivia Bader-Lee.
Plants engage in the photosynthesis of carbon dioxide, water, and light. In a series of experiments, Professor Dr. Olaf Kruse and his team cultivated the microscopically small green alga species Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and observed that when faced with a shortage of energy, these single-cell plants can draw energy from neighbouring vegetable cellulose instead. The alga secretes enzymes (so-called cellulose enzymes) that ‘digest’ the cellulose, breaking it down into smaller sugar components.
These are then transported into the cells and transformed into a source of energy: the alga can continue to grow. ‘This is the first time that such a behaviour has been confirmed in a vegetable organism’, says Professor Kruse. ‘That algae can digest cellulose contradicts every previous textbook. To a certain extent, what we are seeing is plants eating plants’. Currently, the scientists are studying whether this mechanism can also be found in other types of alga. Preliminary findings indicate that this is the case.
These are then transported into the cells and transformed into a source of energy: the alga can continue to grow. ‘This is the first time that such a behaviour has been confirmed in a vegetable organism’, says Professor Kruse. ‘That algae can digest cellulose contradicts every previous textbook. To a certain extent, what we are seeing is plants eating plants’. Currently, the scientists are studying whether this mechanism can also be found in other types of alga. Preliminary findings indicate that this is the case.
“When energy studies become more advanced in the coming years, we will eventually see this translated to human beings as well,” stated Bader-Lee. “The human organism is very much like a plant, it draws needed energy to feed emotional states and this can essentially energize cells or cause increases in cortisol and catabolize cells depending on the emotional trigger.”
Bader-Lee suggests that the field of bioenergy is now ever evolving and that studies on the plant and animal world will soon translate and demonstrate what energy metaphysicians have known all along — that humans can heal each other simply through energy transfer just as plants do. “Human can absorb and heal through other humans, animals, and any part of nature. That’s why being around nature is often uplifting and energizing for so many people,” she concluded.
How to Clear your Space.
Here are five energy tools to use to clear your space and prevent energy drains while releasing people’s energy:
Stay centered and grounded. If you are centered within your spiritual self (instead of your analyzer or ego) you will sense right away when something has moved into your space. If you are fully grounded, you can easily release other people’s energy and emotions down your grounding cord with your intention.
Be in a state of non-resistance. What we resists sticks. If you feel uncomfortable around a certain person or in a group, don’t go into resistance as a way to protect yourself as this will only keep foreign energy stuck in your space. Move into a state of non-resistance by imagining that your body is clear and translucent like clear glass or water. This way, if someone throws some invalidation at you, it will pass right through you.
Own your personal aura space. We each have an energetic aura surrounding our body. If we don’t own this personal space we are vulnerable to foreign energy entering it. Become aware of your aura boundaries (about an arms length away from your body all the way around, above and below) as a way to own your personal space.
Give yourself an energy cleanse. The color gold has a high vibration which is useful for clearing away foreign energy. Imagine a gold shower nozzle at the top of your aura (a few feet above your head) and turn it on, allowing clear gold energy to flow through your aura and body space and release down your grounding. You will immediately feel cleansed and refreshed.
Call back your energy. When we have our energy in our own space there is less room for other’s energy to enter. But as we focus on other people and projects we sometimes spread our energy around. Create an image of a clear gold sun several feet above your head and let it be a magnet, attracting all of your energy back into it (and purifying it in the gold energy). Then bring it down through the top of your aura and into your body space, releasing your energy back into your personal space.
Originally written by Michael Forrester and published on Prevent Disease
How to Avoid Being Drained by Energy Vampires
Have you ever had the experience of having the life sucked out of you by spending time with a particular person?
I’m talking about feeling exhausted, bored, irritated, stressed, anxious, threatened, overwhelmed or depressed after just a few moments in that person’s company.
There may have been times where you felt guilty for having negative thoughts about that person — which made you feel even worse. You may even have thought there was something wrong with you, such as feeling a headache coming on or stressing over a work deadline. Either way, you didn’t understand why you felt so out of sorts.
If that describes a familiar experience, chances are you have been in the company of an energy vampire.
Energy vampires are emotionally immature individuals who have the sense that the whole world revolves around them. They are almost incapable of seeing things from another person’s perspective. They often lack empathy. They believe that they must take everything they can get from others and that giving anything will deprive them of essential resources. It’s as if the whole world exists just to serve them and you are the latest object upon which they have set their sights for exploitation.
Here’s how to protect yourself from being drained. This is a two-pronged approach. First, you need to assess your own emotional capacity. Second, assess how much of a threat to you the energy vampire is. Weighing both these aspects will help you decide what action you need to take.
Emotional Capacity
The extent of your own emotional capacity will determine how much of this person you can take. The most important tool in your kit is your ability to self-reflect. This means being curious about your own reactions so as to understand yourself better. You also need to be kind to yourself by accepting yourself just as you are.
If you have a daily self-reflective practice (e.g., walking, meditation, yoga, cooking, cycling for at least 40-60 minutes), that will increase your emotional capacity. Similarly, so will a good relationship with your partner, a steady job, a good place to live and lack of trauma. Having a mentor, a good education and experience with personal development also helps.
Conversely, if you are currently struggling with a disruption in your life, or if you have a particularly harsh inner critic that never stops nagging you and continuously puts you down, you will be more vulnerable to a vampire attack.
The other thing to consider is, what is your motivation for having this person in your life? If you are highly motivated (e.g., in getting ahead at work) and this person is just a nuisance you have to put up with, then you are likely to be more resilient. However, if you put up with being drained just because you are too afraid to quit your job, then you are paying a very high price indeed for that fear.
Vampire Assessment
At first glance, energy vampires can seem highly attractive. They often are good-looking, bold, flamboyant or intelligent, and may appear to have a high opinion of you as indicated by their flattering attention. Drawing you into their inner circle may seem like just the boost you need in your usually drab work environment.
However, be aware that they are “grooming” you — setting you up to exploit you in whichever way best suits their purposes later. What seems quite innocent at first, such as finding a good friend, may lead you to compromise your ethics, morals and values against your will — maybe even breaking the law in due course. And because energy vampires are masters at avoiding responsibility, you could be the one who takes the blame when things go wrong.
(Source)
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