I am a sponge. I absorb the emotions and feelings of others.
I was then told, Repeat what you just said. As I repeated it, I heard myself giving myself permission to lowering my personal vibration, I did and as a sponge becomes larger so had I. The light bulb went on.
What I found incredibly interesting was how something as simple as someone mirroring what I had said can bring such clarifying.
I was recently "labeled" as an Empath and this has been confusing for me. To try and understand the context in which this was intended I had to of course surf the internet to find the definition.
They are sensitive to the visible as well as the invisible and pick up on body language, tone of voice, body movements, the words people choose when they speak, the words they avoid, the logic they use; and the hidden things that only an empath can sense inside another person.
I took the word Empath to mean empathetic. Compassionate, Understanding, etc. These I understood to be positive things. Being this way can be fantastic but commiserating or taking upon someone else's burden or negative energy can indeed be brought on myself unnecessarily. I had been taking the we are one statement to an incredibly undeserving level!
The last week has been incredibly emotional for me. My partner's father had a serious injury which has caused a great deal of stress on the family which was indirect to me. There has been much turmoil in the world with fires, earthquakes, floods and recently incredibly violence in one of Canada's most loved cities.
The violence has disturbed me. I saw reports of people beaten, injured and millions of property damage brought onto a city that was in a celebratory mood. The damage in fact was done towards the company which I am employed with so it hit close to home for me. I have been angry and seeing the reports brought me to tears. It saddens to me the casual disregard for fellow human lives, property and livelihoods.
In the last six months, I have become emotional when it comes to violence, abuse and injury. Something within my heart is pulled and tears flow. As I see others suffering, I too feel their pain even though it may not be happening to me at this very moment.
I spoke to someone regarding this and I feel as though I absorb and carry their personal vibrations. So, in turn my energy becomes depleted and I joke about the energy vampires seeking their teeth into my jugular vein.
My life lesson right now is that I can be supportive and compassionate but there comes a time where I cannot lower by vibration to that of another. It is their life lesson, not my own.
