Do you feel emotions from other people as if they are your own?
Do you feel sad after meeting someone who was sad? Can you walk into a room and feel heaviness or lightness (depending on what happened there)?
If any of this is true for you, it will be really helpful for you to learn how to let go of everything that is not yours: emotions, feelings and even thoughts that you may have picked up from other people and taken on as your own.
People who do this are often called ’empaths’ and it’s a beautiful talent. It can help you know or feel what other people need. It helps you tune into them and their needs and tune into yourself and your needs on a deep level. It can also be a great challenge because it can be overwhelming to feel not only your own feelings but also the feelings of others.
An alternative to protecting yourself
There are many ways that you might be able to ‘protect’ yourself so that you don’t feel so much. There are visualisations that you can use to block the energies and emotions coming in. I go a different route with this.
I practice to keep feeling everything that comes in, but to not hold onto anything. Because if you block your sensitivity to other people’s feelings, you also block part of your talents and your gifts. However, if you can feel it and let it run through you without affecting you, you have then become a very strong presence. This allows you to fully activate your gifts and talents and to be able to use them effectively for yourself and others.
How can you let go of what is not yours?
1) Acceptance and non-judgment
First of all it is important to not judge what you are feeling. Emotions are simply energy in motion. Allow them to flow through you and then flow out of you. When you hold onto an emotion or judge it, it will stay with you.
Allowing your own emotions, no matter what they are, is a great first step here. That will help you to also look at other people’s emotions with more compassion and less resistance.
2) Grounding
Emotions and energies can only flow out of you when you are connect with your body and with the earth. Your grounding is a direct gateway for all of these energies to make their way out of your energy field into the Earth. If you don’t have that connection with the Earth, the energies have nowhere to go and will stick around. Grounding is necessary to let go of everything that is not yours AND to let go of everything that you are done with inside yourself.
3) Focus on yourself
Many people who are sensitive are constantly focused on the outside world. Instead of being present with themselves, they are everywhere around them with their attention (and energy). This leaves them feeling drained, exhausted and vulnerable.
Practice imagining that you hold your energy firmly in your own energy bubble (about an armslength distance from your body). Imagine that your energy never leaves your field. You are contained, strong, centered and grounded. Stop constantly monitoring the outside world. Just be with you and let things come to you without going over there to pick them up.
In my online course Thriving with Sensitivity is a very effective exercise on ‘pulling in your antennas’ which helps you do this. Click here for more information.
4) Use your intention to let go
Use your intention and your imagination to visualize or think about the energies from others to flow through you and down into the earth. You can visualize a waterfall of light which cleanses you from everything that is not yours. You can also very consciously imagine or think about a certain emotion that is in your field and gently throw it down your grounding. Allow it to leave you and see it transformed into light inside the earth.
Keep in mind that you might have to do this several times a day. For example, after I’ve been to the supermarket I always take a few moments to let go of anything I might have picked up there. Same for public transport or anytime I’ve been in contact with (groups of) people.
Once this becomes a habit, it can be very easy and quick. It will help you feel more connected to yourself and less out of balance. You become stronger and less dependent on what is going around you for your happiness. You will be able to create your own reality from the inside out and decide how you want to feel, regardless of what is going on around you.
Does your sensitivity feel more like a burden than a gift at the moment?
If you struggle with your sensitivity and everything you feel from other people, for example:
- You often feel vulnerable because you feel so much
- Emotions from other people or the atmosphere in a room can sometimes be disturbing or overwhelming to you
- You have difficulty putting yourself first
- Groups of people can be exhausting to you
- Or interactions with certain people drain you…
… then I invite you to take a look at my course Thriving with Sensitivity. So you can feel strong, centered and balanced with your sensitivity again!
