This needs to be said.
I’m so tired of the confusion. Being an Empath is NOT the same thing as having empathy.
Merriam-Webster defines empathy as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions.” It then gives examples:
- He felt great empathy with the poor.
- His months spent researching prison life gave him greater empathy towards convicts.
Concise Encyclopedia defines empathy as the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. The empathic actor or singer is one who genuinely feels the part he or she is performing. The spectator of a work of art or the reader of a piece of literature may similarly become involved in what he or she observes or contemplates.
These are great. These are important aspects of society and very important to the well being of the world, since so many people lack the ability empathsize with others and many people believe this lack of empathy is why there is war and hatred. Yes, the world needs to learn empathy if there is ever to be any facsimile of peace and I don’t want anyone to think I’m trying to take away from that need. Yes, this kind of empathy is learned. Everyone can do it. So few choose to allow themselves empathy and compassion towards others, however, this is not what I’m here to discuss.
Having the empath gift itself is so much more than these definitions.
Concise Encyclopedia states the word “imagine” and that is the whole key.
True empaths do not “imagine”. They do not simply “try to walk in another person’s shoes”. They are not simply saying “been there, done that, burned the t-shirt” and they definitely are not just trying to understand. They are not writing or reading a book that allows them to “experience” something vicariously.
They are physically and emotionally LIVING through the experience.
True empaths FEEL everything. They pick up the energies and they are living the experience. Sometimes they cry for no reason because someone around them or connected to them is sad.
My friend and I created an Empath Support Group on Facebook. I have also created the Empath Help Centre.
These are great places to learn, grow, share and discuss the gift (or sometimes curse, as thought by some, although I disagree that it is a curse) of being an Empath. Seriously, we empaths feel EVERYTHING. We need to learn to shield or control our gift. We need to protect ourselves.
Many of us are healer empaths and can heal energetically and even physically, but we can only do that when we are in a good place ourselves. Often, we have many other gifts that enhance our empathic powers. We have the ability to take negative energies and turn them into positive energies, but these abilities are already listed all over the internet, so I’m not going to describe them now. (Traits of an Empath at a Glance)
We strive for balance. We strive for control. But it isn’t easy. In the beginning, before we learn control, before we find a balance, it can be downright painful, exhausting, terrifying and lonely.
We are from all walks of life. We are not to be feared. We are not to be shunned. We are people who are here to help.
Please, understand that there is a difference between being an empath and having empathy.
All empaths have empathy, but not all people with empathy are truly empaths.
My next statement may piss some people off, and ya know, I hope it does.
If you have NEVER been brought to your knees with someone else’s pain, you are NOT an empath.
Updated: Found this great blog:
https://chakracenter.org/2015/07/16/empaths-vs-hsp-theyre-not-the-same-thing/
The thing about life is that nothing in it is circumstantial. Here I am scrolling through the web because I just found the dude’s principle on FP. So of course me being the over-analytically focused individual I am – I needed to see others post their PROOF from Experiment 1. Mind you I wrote down at 3:00pm the need for MY PROOF to appear by 3:00 on 19 October. Now underneath mine I also happened to include Om gam Ganapatayei Namaha which unless you are a yogi, a metaphyscially based persona, or learned Sanskrit as your native tongue means nothing. Without going into a dissertation the short of it is calling on the spirit of Ganesh to remove any obstacles from your life and path. So I keep reading on this site because A) I wanted to know what YOUR PROOF was, and B) because well blogs are for reading aren’t they! Well what I found just brought such an overwhelming feeling that tears literally welled up into my eyes. And it was from reading this post. You see my entire life I have tried to explain to others that I literally FEEL everything around me. Not I get it, or I see it, or I am aware of it but I feel it. I get nauseous sometimes in a random room of people only to find someone sick. I get aggravated or suddenly sad only to encounter an individual close by actually having a reason to go through those emotions. And all I do when I attempt to explain it to others is “It’s a gift from the higher powers that be”…. Well thanks to this amazing blog, and YOU I have found a word for it. EMPATH… And while I have to wait and see if that was my definitive sign (11 min AINT BAD) I know that THIS was PROOF of that request to remove obstacles from my life. Knowing you are not alone and realizing that you should only focus on DEVELOPING the talent and gift you have been blessed with instead of asking WHY or getting upset because you literally change with your environment is ALL THE PROOF I NEED TO SAY I NEED THAT BOOK!!! Experiment #1 completed. And it’s only 16 minutes later! Thank YOU!!!
*huggles* and love to you Erykah Stacy!
You brought tears to my eyes, I keep rereading your comment.
Thank YOU for being MY synchronicity and reason to continue blogging about E-Squared!
*many happy huggles*
Kris
All these years I’ve thought there has been something wrong with me. I see how even without me knowing it the Way of the Empath has been my way. Now, let me get down to business and pay forward the love.
[…] another’s emotions from one’s own emotions. (As opposed to “empathy”, An empath is not the same thing as having “empathy” sometimes this is called a Psychic […]
This so describes myself. I was recently told that I was a empath as I learned more about empaths I knew it was true. It answered so many questions.
Brought to my knees…and them some. But I am on a healing path now.
This describes me since I was about 12. I always sense others moods, and it was really helpful to my clients (being a psychotherapist) I could get to the root of their problems easily and quickly, as I could feel the dominant emotion (ie anger, frustration etc). I stopped going to funerals years ago, even though I barely knew the person I would be struggling not to collapse with grief.
This is me to a T
A very clear line drawn… touche. That last line is spot on!
I remember spending a whole weekend curled up in the fetal position because some man I didn’t know lost his child. I felt his pain – as if that child were mine. As if I was the one mourning. This happens to me too often. Before my husband was diagnosed with bladder cancer, I had all the symptoms he was supposed to have but didn’t. Once he was told and had his bladder removed, I had no more symptoms. I can’t begin to explain how often this type of thing happens to me. I hadn’t known Empaths were real until I started to write about them. That’s when I did research and couldn’t believe that we really do exist.
i have been bought to my knees….. i am disturbed by injustice… bullies. i cry openly with cruelty, by word or force, i can cry uncontrollably with a sunset, or watching a storm….. reading moods in people…i feel i could be an empath..
I am an empath.
Brought me to my knees and then some…being an empath is very, very hard and I don’t think I’ve ever heard or read one who said “oh, I love being an empath”…with all the negativity in the world, I can’t escape the pain and distress that surrounds me. I know we are chosen for a reason, I just wish I knew what my reason is so I can get on with it.
I am so glad i have found The Empath Educational Center i so need help with being an Empath and how to deal with it as sometime you can feel your actually going mad but i know is a wonderful gift and although i have been bought to your knees by someone elses pain but also i have been privalaged to exprience someone elses joy and excitment is one of the most wonderful and moving experience ever.
Love and light to you all <3 XXX <3
I quite agree.
Absolutely. I LOVE the last line.
Two years ago, after being present at the birth of another beautiful grandchild the midwife said to me ‘you should be a midwife – you are soooo good at it, you have such a lovely way with your daughters when they’re in labour – you’ve had soo many yourself you already know what to do’. My instant reaction was ‘no, I would just cry all the time’ – the feelings are sooooo intense during childbirth – I feel what my daughters/in-laws have all felt – not the contractions, but the energy they put into having their babies, and then I feel each of the babies’ energies during that time too right to the moment they are born – it’s amazing, it’s beautiful and it hurts soooo much inside – it doesn’t start to settle until I get to hold that tiny little baby in my arms for the first time and then it’s like they help me to settle myself, to calm myself – in a way to come back down off the emotional high that I’ve been on….Their inner (& innocent) peace helps me to restore mine….
my post is long i know – i’ve been searching for something like this for awhile now, being able to call myself an empath is refreshing and knowing the ‘why’ behind all the ‘whats’ is refreshing and healing :-) thank u sooo much to u for being here & to the universe for guiding me here – i’ve taken rather a long road to get here lol. And it wasn’t about just typing in the word ’empath’ – and wallah i’m straight there – there was a path i had to take and I’ve been on it for awhile….but I’m getting there
:-)
“State changer” is one name a person called/gave me – as they were ‘lovingly’ growling me for doing that to a group of ppl – a huuuuge room of 200+ ppl and that’s what I did to them without realising it at the time – I’m much more aware now’…
all my life i have felt others,their pain,their joy,im bombarded by it.it has made things very difficult.my biggest problem is,i cant seem to block others out.i have become a recluse to a point.i cant be in large groups.if i try to,im on edge the whole time,flooded with so many emotions from those around me.school was hell.as iv gotten older,i realize what i am,i just dont know how to block out and filter the emoitoins of others.any advise would be very much helpful and appreciated.
[…] is another’s emotions from one’s own emotions. (As opposed to “empathy”, An empath is not the same thing as having “empathy” sometimes this is called a Psychic […]
the last statement says it all.
Last statement is BS ! Don’t guage the skill of others to control their ability by your lack of it .