What makes an empowered empath?

In this post, we’ll explore what it takes to own your empathic nature and transform the outdated crippling stories that tell you being an empath is a weakness.

If you’d rather listen…

Hello Dear Intuitive One

Have you noticed how articles and books geared towards empaths, tend to focus on the hardships and struggles aspects? Article after article just offers us sympathy for how hard life is for us, how fragile we are and how our empathic qualities are a burden we carry, more than a blessing.

Have you noticed, too, that all the online quizzes seem to be designed to rate and gauge how powerfully empathic we are, solely by the number of imbalances, symptoms or troubles we have in our personal relationships? As if being a sensitive empath is an illness or disease ready for a diagnosis!

Before we go any farther, I want to make a promise to you, Dear Intuitive One, This is NOT another one of those posts.

In fact, before we delve in, let’s take a moment and tune-in together to transform and shift this outdated corrosive, crippling falsity that runs through our collective story.

Right here, right now, let’s alchemize it.

Place a hand on your belly and a hand on your heart, as we give ourselves a moment to anchor into this moment together. Take a few nourishing belly breaths to help you drop into your body and the here and now.

Now that we are a bit more grounded l invite you to tap into the bone deep knowing that being different is, in fact, a powerful blessing. The qualities that make you different allow you to see and sense the world more deeply. So deeply, in fact, that your insight is a superpower that helps you navigate and understand the world with heaping doses of compassion.

If you're moved, let your gratitude for this knowing fill your heart-center. Breathe into this knowing… feed it with your breath so it can grow and spill out the edges of your heart-center.

Feed it so it can cascade through your body, filling you with an empowered, embodied knowing that you ARE a little different and that makes you really freaking special.

Okay, now that we have the love flowing strong… Let's you and I chat about what it means to be an empowered empath.

Being an empath means that you have the ability to feel the world deeply. It means you have the ability to sense things with your whole body and soul. This is a profound gift.

Being an empath, however, does not mean that we are required to feel all the things all the time or that we don’t have permission to turn the volume down, or hit the off switch for a bit.

It’s when we don’t know how to create these boundaries that our tremendous gift becomes overwhelming and disruptive to our ability to function. Just like any superhero, we have to learn how to control our abilities - so we can appreciate them as the gifts they are.

For us, boundaries are how we do that. Energetic boundaries. Without them, yes, life gets really freaking hard.

Let’s look at the 5 major differences between

being An Empowered verse Unboundarired Empath

Unboundaried Empaths

1. We habitually use our sensitivities as an excuse to avoid life and avoid things that are safe but make us feel uncomfortable.

2. We use our sensitivities as justifications to blame others and their behaviors, by being quick to label and judge other people’s behaviors, feelings and situations as vampiric, bad, toxic or negative.

3. We regularly embody one or several of the Drama Triangle roles of victim, persecutor or rescuer.

4. We believe the term empath describes us as a very special yet disadvantaged person in the world with little resources and control of what we sense and pick up.

5. To be an empath gives us appropriate cause to wall ourselves off from those around us and those who we can learn the most from.

Empowered Empaths

1. We learn to work with our sensitives so we are able to take ownership of how our interactions affect our emotions and energy.

2. We learn to work with our empathic sensitivities so they enrich our ability to be clear about who we are and what works for us, while embodying compassion for others.

3. We work with our sensitives to create healthy power dynamics and avoid Drama Triangle roles of victim, persecutor or rescuer

4. We believe the term empowered empath describes us as being one of many extraordinary humans who are uniquely able to help foster compassion and understanding.

5. To be an empowered empath means we need special tools and the right kind of support to help us to live our extraordinary purpose in life.

Healthy boundaries create empowered empaths

More than any other group of people, we who feel the world so deeply need healthy boundaries. Healthy boundaries help us feel all the good things but without losing connection with ourselves or our discernment.

They also support our ability to feel safe in our bodies and in the present moment, know what is ours and what is not ours, and give us access to that all-important inner dial that turns the volume up or down on what we sense and from whom.

Boundaries are what transform us from being victims, into empowered empaths.

As an empath, if you're struggling with feeling wayyy too open, vulnerable and struggling to find that inner dial that gives you control of what you pick up (and turns the volume down on it all), chances are your natural energetic boundary needs rebuilding.

We’re talking about that natural energetic boundary you were born with, the one that helps you sense yourself even when you're in the company of other people.

However, without regular tending, natural energetic boundaries get worn down from life’s little and big traumas and stresses, leaving you overwhelmed and your natural boundary in serious need of care.

Having a healthy, well-tuned natural energetic boundary has an added perk too. When functioning well, it helps by giving you the clarity and heart-strength to boost all of your other boundary systems, like your ability to say “no” to things you don’t want to do. You’ll feel better about saying “No thank you”, in all aspects of your life, from your boss asking you to work late (again) to that weird energy you sometimes pick up in the grocery store (so much stress there!).

Intuitive one, it is my hope that you are empowered in everything you do, as I am certain the world is a kinder, more compassionate place with you in it.

XO

Joanna

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