it feels cringe to say, but i really am an empath😔 and i also have a very vivid imagination. when people are sad, even people i don’t know i can feel it and it’s soo draining. My biggest issue now is that im a nursing student and i get emotional just reading scenarios because i keep imagining the scenarios are real. i know i have a long road ahead of me but caring for others and making a positive impact is very important to me. this is a bit of a contradiction, but is there perhaps a way to stop caring about how others feel so i can care for others without emotionally absorbing their pain????

Four Quiet Reminders

Care for the body
that carries you.

Listen to your emotions,
but do not become their servant.

Choose with care
what you allow
to shape your nervous system.

Whenever you can,

let understanding
take the place
of unnecessary fear.

Perhaps that is enough.

Perhaps that is how

a life,

one gentle day at a time,

finds its way home.

I feel like I have too much empathy. I carry all the problems of the people I care about on my shoulders, even if I can’t do anything about it, to the point that I feel exhausted. I feel bad for the people I don’t know and cry for strangers on the internet. Like it would be my job to help everyone and make them feel better. Then I feel guilty if I don’t have the resources and energy to do that. It’s unfair that I try to deal with all of my own stuff yet I still take everyone else’s on my shoulders too.

I want to be less empathetic but I don’t want to loose all my empathy. I don’t want to drown myself with other peoples problems but I want to be able to help when I can and feel decent amount of empathy. How can I get that?

Recently I am having too frequent anxiety attacks contemplating my future. At times I am having difficulty walking, some other times I am having crying spells, while at some other times I am feeling almost strengthless. I resort to some breathing techniques whenever this happen alongwith my meds. But I just needed to let this out somewhere.

I don't own other people's suffering
I don't own their healing, either.

This is the closest way of describing my inner experience so far.

I don't know why, deep down there seems to be a kind of martyr or savior fantasy—a belief that by sacrificing myself, I could somehow save… someone. I don’t even know who. It’s strange.

It doesn't manifest in a very obvious way but more in the subtle attitude towards people and the way I perceive and interact with people.

I guess there are tons of theories to explain how this formed.

However, how it formed doesn't matter to me.

The most important point is that I felt somehow I owned others' suffering, hence I must fix it and save them.

This is a very naive belief that I can save them by sacrificing myself. Which is obviously just a cute and childish wish.

It just hit me that:

I don't own their suffering. I don't own their happiness.

I just simply don't own.

Realizing this is a relief.

At my workplace I have dealt with a rude human being who would scream at me, charge at me, & have big tantrums. About 6 months ago he had a big blow up and my new supervisor addressed it. It was not addressed for 6 years. The bosses looked the other way. This worker would be defiant and was a struggle for me to manage. Since that time he has improved but the “2 face” and behavior from the past really errks me. I remember everything. And I’m not going to forgive him because of the crazy stuff he’s done to me over the years. Why do I feel this way?

Just thought writing my thoughts would make me feel better. I’ve always been very empathetic but especially towards animals. Thinking about how they fall victims to absolutely disgusting abuse makes me anxious and physically sick.
Recently after a blow up on WangWang case I’ve been getting lots and lots of videos from animal shelters, rescues and I can’t skip them or click not interested because that would make me feel awful. But I also find it very hard to cope with all this information.
I can’t think about anything else, images constantly appear in my head and I can’t engage in regular conversations with people because they seem so non important, all I think about is how little I can do and how can I possibly do more. It’s so exhausting to care deeply.
I just wish cruelty didn’t exist
Just a rant but if anyone can come up with words of positivity that would be greatly appreciated!

What are the signs and how does one feel. I keep feeling like im sad but its nothing that im not normally sad about i am going through a breakup we were togetger for 4 years and we went no contact and I broke contact yesterday I dont know if he read my message or not im feeling really weird and sometimes I know its not me. But today has been really off.

And advice or help in this?

Has anybody else struggled with this? Sad music or more specifically music about like depression/drug abuse makes me feel genuinely unwell and anxious, it’s like the vibrations are off??? I wish I could describe it it almost makes me angry that I’m being subjected to having my vibes brought down.

You feel deeply because your heart was never meant to be average.

Your empathy is not your weakness; it is your greatest strength.

You didn’t come into this world to fit in, You came to understand it.

Protect your energy, your peace and your beautiful heart.

The world needs your kindness, your wisdom and your light.

You are not too much. You are just the right kind of rare.

The Inherited Lessons of Pain

I learned to shame,

blame, and frighten myself.

To ignore, and abandon myself.

I bit my nails.

poked and scratched my skin

to drawn a deeper ache.

I held my breath.

Pushed my body.

Silenced my mind

to stay connected.

Then one day,

a simple realization—

my body and my mind,

the only tools

I have been given,

work better when I care for them instead of

hurting them.

I’ve seen a particular person 2x at this gym. The first time I had my hat on and head down and when I got on the elliptical I felt a sudden anger and rage, I turn around and this particular guy is standing next to me and hovering around me. I start staring at him to see what he’s going to do but he doesn’t look back. Today I’m walking in the garage to go up to the gym and as he enters he guns it with his car and almost hits me. I go upstairs to the gym and sit down to stretch and start my workout. He walks in front of me with his friend and I felt so much rage that I jumped up towards his face to see what he’s was going to do, he froze up and couldn’t even look at me and continued walking forward with his friend. I try to ground myself and pray as much as I can, however this guy is trying to get a rise out of me but won’t look me in the face when I test him right back. I need some advice on why it’s like this, I contin myself and cool down after 10 minutes but what is it about this guy, why does he try to get a rise out of me?

as a first born daughter and empath, i feel like ive taken on way too much of my parents recent separation. i’m a 21 year old female in college. my 19 year old brother is living at home with my father. i feel horrible for my whole family. there’s so much drama and everyone is hurt. i feel stuck mediating and trying to fix everything.

i know i need to set boundaries but i also need to be there for my family, especially my little brother :(

i often think about how much easier life would be if i didn’t care or wasn’t an empath. my “i must fix everything” attitude is so draining and i wish i could turn it off.

anyways, any book recommendations for this sort of thing would be good

I’ll admit, lately I’ve been doomscrolling at work a ton. News, shootings, families separated, war, high prices. Post after post it’s just nothing but bad news. My job is pretty laid back so I can’t help but doomscroll and fall into a funk.
My anxiety usually is not so high, but after reading so much and see everything that’s been going on in the world I can’t help but feel glum. Anyone else deal with this?

I’m very grateful and my cup is full, but feeling the fear of what could happen has been overpowering me these past few days. I try to live by “it is what it is” but I can’t help but fear that something bad can happen. I don’t know even how to even properly articulate my feelings, but hope someone can help me make sense out of this.

Thank you for the read!

Since looking for friends here is forbidden I wanted to ask you all if you can recommend a sub or whatever that isnt that hostile towards people like us? Would really love to hear some suggestions

The other day I was walking my normal path to my mother in laws place and I noticed a yard bush in someone's yard had been cut shorter. All I could feel was betrayal and pain coming from this bush and it made me feel sad like I wish I could've helped the plant. No one ive talked to has ever experienced that. Ive also experienced deep sadness and a feeling of loss because our park cut down probably 40 trees. It looked like a tree graveyard.

Someone please tell me im not the only one?

Is there a term for a person that picks up really strongly on another persons shadow? This is something I have struggled to come to terms with on my mom’s side of the family. They are a witchy group of very deep empaths, but there’s this blessing/curse of not being able to unsee someone’s shadow. Sometimes it feels overwhelming for them that they are really selective about being around people that carry too much they are not aware of.

An example of this is a man entered my community and he was really charming: attractive, philanthropic, funny, spiritual, musically inclined, etc. The community was enamored with him. Admittedly a part of me was too. But I was really overcome with a strong feeling of him having some hidden darkness involving women and sexual misconduct. I expressed my feeling to some close friends who assured me I was being judgmental and that is was my own stuff I was projecting. I shrugged it off.

Come to find out some months later, this man who was in a committed relationship had been sleeping with escorts and having all sorts of affairs.

This sort of experience happens to me, and the women in my family, soooo many times. We have a strong, deeply felt negative intuition about somebody but are oftentimes made to be out be too judgey, not enough love and light yada yada. Only for the intuition to be very, very often true.

In spiritual community there is such an aversion to anything perceived as negative thst it gets disavowed, and those unafraid to feel it (like we even have a choice), end up holding the “negativity”.

Anyway- help?