If you are an empath, self-care is critical to you being able to conserve your energy,
and show up for yourself and others in your lives.
I know, because I'm one of them.
If you're an empath and you're looking for self-care tips, stay tuned, because that's
what I'm going to be sharing with you today.
For the best advice for self-care and personal empowerment, be sure to subscribe to my channel,
and click on that bell to get notified when I release new videos, every Monday and Thursday.
Empaths are individuals who are highly sensitive.
They can absorb other people's energy.
They can sense other people's energy, feelings, thoughts, and emotions.
These are individuals who can sometimes become overwhelmed by the energy that's around them,
or be impacted by what's going on with other people.
Now, if you're not sure if you're an empath or not, I highly encourage you to take a short
quiz.
You can find it at Empath Test.
I'm going to link to that below, and by answering questions, you can find out for yourself,
if you are an empath.
Now, when I was younger, I was able to pick up on people's emotions really easily, and
a lot of times I felt like I was overreacting to situations or people.
I would be really affected by things that I would see on television, and I would often
find myself being unsure if what I was feeling was actually true for me, and because of that,
I suffered from a lot of anxiety and overwhelm, and I didn't have tools in my toolkit to be
able to manage the emotions.
I would take on other people's emotions, take on other people's feelings, without understanding
that that's what was happening, and for any empath out there, you might recognize this
as being familiar.
You might also experience things like when you go into a crowded space it becomes overwhelming
really quickly.
Certain lights, or sounds, or places might be a bit too much for you, and I know that's
true for me.
What I've had to do over the years is develop strategies, to help me take care of myself,
so that I can function in the world, and show up, not only for others, but also for myself.
That's what I want to share with you today.
I work with a lot of empaths, and being one myself, one of the first tips I recommend
to people, and one that I use in my own life is to get enough rest.
We want to make sure that the rest that we're getting is quality, and is allowing us to
replenish ourselves.
Empaths tend to lose a lot of energy quickly, over the course of their day, and getting
that rest is a critical piece to this self-care puzzle.
Now, when I say rest, I mean real rest.
We want our parasympathetic nervous system, the rest and digest part of our nervous system,
to have time to come online.
This enables the body to replenish and restore itself.
If we don't give adequate time for the parasympathetic nervous system to come online, our sympathetic
nervous system goes into overdrive, and that's the fight or flight part of our nervous system.
When that's online all the time, and doesn't have opportunities to shut off, that's when
we get into states of chronic stress, chronic anxiety, chronic overwhelm.
So, getting adequate rest, getting the best rest possible, is one of the most important
things for empaths to remember, as part of their self-care strategy.
The second thing I recommend for empaths is to tune into what the body needs in terms
of food and nourishment.
A lot of empaths I know will skip breakfast, eat foods that keep them a bit more ungrounded,
and those types of foods, and I'll incorporate a little bit from the Ayurveda perspective,
those types of foods might be like raw salads, smoothies, colder things, lighter things,
things that don't necessarily ground the system.
So, for empaths, for myself, what I notice is that, when I eat more nourishing foods,
foods that are easier to digest, like kitcherie, stews, things like roasted vegetables, or
stewed apples even, porridges, oatmeal, things like that, I tend to feel a bit more grounded,
more nourished.
Also incorporating good sources of protein.
Now, as a vegetarian, I skip things like meat, but you might choose to get your protein from
nuts, seeds, legumes, from tofus, from green leafy vegetables that have higher protein
content.
So, tuning into what the system needs, and honoring that as an empath, and being clear
that what you are craving, or needing nourishment-wise, is truly aligned with what you need, and not
aligned with someone else.
The next tip is around avoiding stimulants.
This has to do with things like coffee, or highly caffeinated teas.
Empath systems are already operating at a high level, and when we ingest a lot of caffeine,
our system can tend to get a little keyed-up.
It tends to escalate feelings of anxiety and overwhelm, because our systems are so sensitive
to things.
So, what I recommend is, you don't have to cut out coffee completely.
I certainly haven't, and I've learned how to manage my coffee consumption over the years,
but maybe limiting yourself to one cup of coffee, or one cup of highly caffeinated tea
in the morning, and then shifting to things like herbal teas, or lower caffeinated teas
in the afternoon and evening.
There are also lots of great coffee alternatives out there.
There are chicory root coffees.
There are mushroom blends.
There are things like dandelion root that I know have worked really well for some of
the empaths that I've worked with.
So, choosing how and when you utilize stimulants, and beginning to notice what happens in your
system, when you take these things in.
My next tip for empaths is around creating healthy boundaries around the things in your
life.
Being really aware of where your energy gets depleted, and where your energy fills up.
Empaths by nature tend to be givers.
We tend to want to show up and be there for everyone and everything, but that's just not
possible.
As an empath, as somebody who's highly sensitive, I know that if I'm not being really clear
on what my yeses, nos are in relation to people, events, projects are, if that's not clear,
I end up feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and exhausted, much more easily, and so I've had
to learn over the years, where my boundaries are.
If you want to know more about healthy boundaries, I encourage you to check out my recent video.
I'm going to link to that in the corner above, and in the description below.
Last, but not least, I want you to honor your empathic superpower.
Being an empath is a gift, and it allows us to be there for both ourselves and others
in really unique ways.
Find ways for you to utilize this gift that you have, whether it's through volunteering,
or in the work that you're already doing.
We need to honor the fact that we have this high sensitivity, and that we can use it for
some really good work in this world.
I know that a lot of the empaths that I've worked with, have become counselors or coaches,
they have become nurses or teachers.
Most empaths I know have found a lot of joy in doing work that enables them to be in service
to others.
So, tune into how to best enhance our empathic superpower, and then go out and make that
happen.
Being an empath can sometimes feel overwhelming.
It can sometimes feel like a lot to be this sensitive to people and the world around us,
but with the right tools in place, you can put your empathic superpower to good use.
I hope you found this video helpful.
If you did, be sure to subscribe to my channel, and click on that bell to get notified when
I release new videos, every Monday and Thursday.
For more tips on how to take care of yourself, every single day, make sure you download my
50 self-care tips for everyday living.
You can find the link for that in the description below.
Stay ignited out there.
I will see you soon.
Bye.