Michaela’s Muses: Empath

I have always been able to sense when people are not OK. It is not something that I see in people’s faces or their body language or anything. It’s just a feeling I get.

When I was younger other people’s emotions were overwhelming to me. If they were happy, I was happy. If they were mad, I was mad. Sometimes in a crowded room I would get mixed signals and become very anxious.

Over the years I was able to get an understanding of what was actually happening. Empathy is a word we hear often. To have empathy is to be understanding of a persons situation. However, to be an empath is a completely different thing.

Most people carry an aura around them when they are feeling any type of way. Empaths can not only detect that but feel it in its entirety as if the emotion was their own. It’s a strange concept, I know. But it’s not something I have had my whole life.

On many occasions I have freaked my friends and family out because I knew immediately something was going on with them when they came into a room.

One example is when my friend and I got coffee together. We sat down with our mugs and I asked her, “what’s wrong?” Her eyes widened and she said, “Wow. How did you know?” For the next few hours she talked about her troubles and it became clear that she needed a friend in that moment.

While I do enjoy helping my friends in this way now, there was a time when I wished I wasn’t an empath.

When I am going through my own troubles, as everyone does, my emotions sometimes get the better of me. When I cry, I really cry. It’s impossible to stop once I’ve started. When I feel something it’s more than just a mood. It’s like when you are hot. Most of the time, when you’re hot, every part of you is hot from head to toe. You sweat in an uncomfortable way.

Now, imagine the sweat is an emotion and there is no fan or glass of lemonade to cool things off. There is no chilly pool to jump into either.

As an adult, I am used to it by now. It’s like living in New Mexico in the summer. However, as a kid it would often take control of me. Now, instead of blocking it out, I try to embrace each emotion that comes along.

Our emotions are real and valid. My advice to all of you is to feel them in their entirety and not worry whether they are right or wrong. Don’t worry about what other people will think of your emotion because it’s not really their business anyway. Lastly, you are not inhuman for feeling.