Member-only story
These 8 Things Are Stealing Your Joy As An Empath

Are you an empath?
An empath is a person that senses the emotions of others. A healthy empath will be able to discern between his or her own feelings and the feelings of someone else. Empaths feel things really deeply, compared to the average person. For example, you might take the death of a pet a lot harder than other family members, or you might get really down after a falling out with a friend. Your emotions will affect other parts of your life, like time with family, school work, job assignments, etc. Average people will be upset about those things as well, but they can move on a little quicker, and it might not impact other parts of their life.
Empaths generally notice small details, and appreciate the finer nuances of food, art, music, and architecture. They often feel at home in nature, and may be soothed by the sound of water, watching animals or tending to plants. A large number of empaths are introverts and renew energy by spending time alone. There are some extroverted empaths, who get energy from being around others, but they also need some alone time. Empaths have excellent intuition and can sense things without really knowing how they know.
What can steal an empaths joy?
These are some of the things that can steal joy from an empath’s daily life.
- Lack of boundaries around emotions — If an empath lacks boundaries, they will have trouble knowing if an emotion belongs to them or someone else. Feeling emotions that don’t belong to you can become overwhelming. Suddenly, a trip to the mall or a crowded event, can become exhausting and result in the need for more sleep and possibly irritability. Even spending time with loved ones or friends that are going through a difficult time.
- Not making time for self-care — Empaths love to help others and are often people-pleasers. They may have a difficult time saying no to the demands of others, thereby putting themselves last. If you put yourself last on your list, you will not have time to do the things that replenish you, like exercise, eating healthy, spending time with friends, and hobbies.
- Not being able to say ‘No’ — It is not uncommon for an empath to say “yes” to something they don’t really want to…