06/06/2025
What is an Empath?
An Empath is a person who has Clairsentient abilities. They can sense and feel the energetic field of other people and environments around them. The energetic information they perceive comes through the standard 5 senses and our sixth sense of ‘intuition’.
I have always been an Empath.., and like most Empaths I have experienced overwhelming emotions for most of my life. I could always tell when friends were upset, or if people didn’t like me, or if someone was lying… I just didn’t know how I knew.
If I was out with a group of friends I would sense who was feeling left out, who needed a hug and who needed cheering up.
When I first started working in sales I instinctively knew what to say to get the sale as if I could read the objections of the person buying.
I had no idea i was doing any of this intuitively, I just thought everyone felt it.. and it wasn’t all positive.. infact it felt the opposite, it felt like a burden. Like I was weak.
I would often get sick, have to take time off work and be alone. I struggled to be in busy environments for too long. I struggled with crowds, bright lights, I often got ill.
And I often felt like a flake!!
And then I was told I was likely an Empath.
I started researching what that meant and it was like everything suddenly made sense.
Interestingly the symptoms and sensory overwhelm of neurodivergence are almost identical to that of an Empath.
I have my own theories on this. I think they are often one and the same but I understand it’s not always quite so simplistic.
The more I learned about my intense gifts the more I started to realise just what an incredible superpower bring an Empath is!!!!
In my corporate environment it had always felt like a curse.., but as I stetted learning the healing arts it fast became obvious this was an amazing gift!!!
But it also has its flip side, and that is the sensory overload!!
Empathic sensory overload occurs when empaths, who are highly sensitive to the emotions and energy of others, experience an overwhelming amount of sensory and emotional input, leading to a state of distress or shutdown.
It can manifest as difficulty focusing, irritability, restlessness, and a need to retreat from stimulating environments.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Empaths and Sensory Sensitivity:
Empaths, often described as Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), are naturally attuned to social cues and emotional states.
This heightened sensitivity means they can pick up on more information and feel things more deeply than others.
They may be particularly sensitive to sounds, smells, lights, textures, and the emotional energy of their environment.
Empathic Sensory Overload:
Emotional Overload:
Empaths can feel overwhelmed by the collective emotions of a crowd, the anxieties of loved ones, or the stress of a busy workplace.
Sensory Overload:
The heightened sensitivity can also lead to sensory overload, where they are bombarded with too much information through their senses, such as loud noises, bright lights, or strong smells.
Response to Overload:
When overwhelmed, empaths may experience a variety of symptoms, including:
Emotional: Irritability, anxiety, feeling overwhelmed, emotional shutdown, panic.
Physical: Headaches, fatigue, racing heart, physical discomfort.
Behavioral: Difficulty focusing, restlessness, urge to withdraw, or even emotional meltdowns.
Managing Empathic Sensory Overload:
Self-Care:
Prioritizing rest, quiet time, and grounding techniques (like spending time in nature or engaging in mindfulness exercises) can help manage overload.
Setting Boundaries:
Learning to say "no" to requests or commitments that may be overwhelming, and setting limits on social interactions, can help protect energy.
Creating Sensory-Friendly Environments:
Minimizing exposure to loud noises, bright lights, or strong smells can be helpful for those sensitive to sensory input.
As empaths we have to learn to take our energetic health seriously. We have to learn to take care of our sensitivity with reverence instead of punishing ourselves. Effectively we often have to learn to love what made us feel so vulnerable and different from others.
If you are struggling to understand your gifts of sensitivity then I highly recommend the following Empath books:
The Empath Experience by Sydney Campos
Sensitive is the new Strong by Anita Moorjani
The Empowered Empath by Judy Dyer
I am also an Empath Coach (as well as a witch and a healer) and I help people undertand themselves and their own magic all the time. 💙
