Labels can create realities...
What is an empath? Someone that feels other’s feelings? A human that picks up on the frequency output of other’s emotions? A being that creates a feeling within their own body that mimics those around them? It’s all up for debate, as to what an empath is and it’s an interesting subject to open up and look at, especially if you are someone that feels a lot, and is very sensitive to those around you, you could well consider, or to put it another way, label yourself as an empath.
To be empathetic we are sensitive enough to feel into an energy field that is emitted from another living entity, we are open to not only our own feelings and energetics but of others too. This is a form of emotional intelligence, a highly intuitive response to the field of energy around us and is an interesting thing to think about. I have to debate as to whether this is a healthy thing to do, as a personal reflection for myself. Let’s consider this for a second, that this way of being could well be a learned response from childhood. Before we are ten years old, or thereabouts, we are like sponges soaking up all experiences from our outside environment, observing very closely indeed our caregiver’s reactions to the environment and learning, on a very deep level, how to be. We begin to format in our minds what creates feelings within us. Either good feelings of being at peace, with security and a foundation of bliss and love and on the other hand, stress responses, alertness and readiness to take action. So much of our learnt behaviour, which stays with us well into adulthood, begins at these very early days of life and we create a blueprint, a way of being, based on this early observation. So we can see that our early environment and the people in it have a huge impact on how we then label ourselves later on and how we create our unique reactions to emotion and feel into other energetic fields. Little babies watch intently to those around them, they are held closely to the hearts of their caregivers and therefore are held in the energy and frequencies that are resonating from the bodies of these first human contacts. This creates a life long behavioural pattern within our bodies and is driven by the early formed mind and personal blueprint of who we think we are. If the environment is stressful, abusive or toxic in energy, in any way, for extended periods of time, the child can become hypervigilant for emotional responses. This is a natural survival mechanism that is developed within us, innately creating a flight, fight or hide reaction and this awakens the hormones of stress within the physical body, from the chakra points, which in turn create a loop of feeling and observing, feeling and behaving and over time this becomes habitually responsive and our personality. So one theory is that as an empath, we were trained to become vigilant of others emotions, in order to keep ourselves secure or to feel into others frequencies in order to help and become the security for them, to aid in the lessening of stress responses in others. Perhaps as a young child establishing a particular response to the observation and feeling of this outward energy, created soothing energies for the caregivers, this quickly became a go to for the adult to relax from the hormones of stress, this would in turn imprint this child with a saviour belief or a wounded healer archetype, which can be typical of adults who label themselves an empath. Both the child and the caregiver found peace in this established behaviour, but it’s formed through a secondary gain of toxicity and reliance on each other. The child has learnt to be the security for the adult and is therefore not the natural law. My opinion, is this happens more in westernised cultures, because we have lost the family unit, it’s become corroded by the society of consumerism and both parents work endlessly to provide the standards of living set in the wider societies acceptance, older generations working for longer and the industrialisation of schools and nurseries taking on the caregiving roles of younger and younger children, these children are being set up as hypervigilant emotional observers in order to attempt to create peace within them, all the time looking outside of themselves for peace, which as small children should just be their everyday experience, to be held by a peaceful welcoming adult, not stressed out. ADHD has been observed as a reactionary development to a stressed out and not intune parent too, with a different set of reactions set up in the child in order to attain the crucial intunmenet and attention so needed in the early days, but with parents being stressed or living in overly stimulating environments, this is seen to be on the increase. I feel it's exactly like empath characteristics, it's a learnt response to an early environment and is based in a traumatic response to outside energy. All of this is unconscious of course in the caregivers, it's not consciously done to the child and is possibly multi generational behaviour now too. We can always change however and because we are behaving one way today doesnt mean were stuck with these blueprints forever, it does take a level of responsibility to begin to observe our outward behaviours towards others and our inner monologue, how we speak to yourself and what energy we hold in our bodies as frequency, this is a lifetime quest to upgrade with awareness for our self to become emotionally resilient, kind and empowered. Ideally this happens to a level before we become parents, but at anytime in our lives is an act of enlightenment and truth.
So to be empathic is a sort of super power, it enables one to traverse the environment energetically with the senses and socially become observers of others, then create responses that perhaps aid in peaceful and non violent communication, to bring love and open field trust into the space. We are soothers of stressors in ourselves and others around us, able to feel into energetic wave forms coming from living entities and connect to them through the heart centre. This is an amazing skill, if used with consciousness. It is when we are unconscious and working with our learnt behaviours, without a deeper observation, that being an empath can become very depleting to our own energetic field and can create disease within our own physical system and tip our thoughts and mind off balance. Taking on other’s energy inorder to create a harmonious and peaceful state for not only yourself but with others outside of us, can create another learnt unconscious behaviour that I argue all empaths know very well, the behaviour of people pleasing! This is a behavioural tendency to do things for others before thinking or acting for oneself. This is given to us once again early on, we’re told we’re good little children when we do things for others, and it’s lovely to take into account others thoughts and wellbeing. When we become people pleasing however and it's mixed in with empathic learnt behaviour and it’s an unconscious behavioural trait, this is a slippery slope to overwhelm and fatigue within your own system. Empaths who people please tend to feel selfish if they do things for themselves first, but a beautiful reframe for this, is that you can give more when your cup is not only full, but overflows! This means you have to sort yourself out first, in every way possible. Energetically, mindfully and spiritually. This will be through actively doing things that make you feel good and harmonious. Your unique approach will become apparent to you because the things that create energy quickly for you will be the things you find easy and peaceful and fill you up with good vibrations and high frequency. These tend to be a mix of movements, creative endeavours, spiritual mindful activities and being with nature and others who light you up. These things need to be done regularly and done with vigour and not put aside for others needs. They have to become so paramount in your daily being-ness and lifestyle that they are permanent features to everyday life, like drinking water and eating food. Being a self labelled empath you recognise energy as a huge part of life. So in order to traverse a life with boundless energy takes a level of consciousness and acceptance that we are the co-creators of our life and what we output, we get back as input. If this is unbalanced, we can totally expect dis-ease within our physical, mind or spiritual bodies. Over giving aligns with overwhelm, and people pleasing is seeking self validation. When we realise this consciously we can raise our level at which we are playing the game of life, draw up energy to move into a higher level of responsibility and step into our service with steadfast action and strength, no longer depleting ourselves.
So as labels go “empath” can be seen as a superpower, yes, if used in a conscious way. I’d personally say that to deconstruct all labels is a good plan of action and will allow you to evolve rapidly in consciousness as you recognise the archetypes and given labels that were created, not by your true nature, but by your caregivers and experiences in the first years of life and open up your mind, heart and spirit to your true nature that resides under all this conditioning, at this place you are labelless, you are energy, in your true essence!