What to Do When Your Emotional Shields Are Cracking
Constant trauma will eventually get to you, no matter how hard you try to shield yourself.
There comes a time in every empath’s life when they start to feel cracks in their emotional shields.
For many of us, including me, that time is now. You can only be battered with so many terrible stories, so much trauma, so many difficult emotions, so much bad news, before things start to get difficult for you. Before you start to feel exhausted and cranky and overwhelmed.
Almost everyone feels at least some empathy for others. Empathy is the ability to “put oneself in someone else’s shoes to better understand their feelings or experiences.” It’s a great skill that allows us to connect with others on both an emotional and cognitive level. Empathy helps a person build both personal and professional relationships.
But some people go beyond standard empathy. Those people may be called “empaths”. According to an article in “Medical News Today”:
“An empath is someone who feels more empathy than the average person. These people are usually more accurate in recognizing emotions by looking at another person’s face. They are also more likely to recognize emotions earlier than other people and rate those emotions as being more intense.”
Being an empath has many benefits, including:
- Being skilled at creating harmony
- Reducing stress, pain, and strong reactions in other people
- Being tuned into ways to help others; may have healing energy
- Being a good listener who tuned into other people’s emotions
- Creativity
- Ability to create strong long-term relationships
But being an empath also has drawbacks, including:
- Feelings of overwhelm or overstimulation
- Taking on other people’s strong emotions
- Burnout or increasing apathy
- Feeling lonely
- Feeling an obligation to help everyone around you
- Loss of self; feeling like your own emotions aren’t as important
