I’ve mentioned before in my blog posts that I am a highly sensitive person. Some may even call me an empath. I pick up on the tiniest changes in someone’s tone of voice, word choices, and body language. Sometimes, I can even sense what a person is feeling without any logical explanation. No, I do not claim to have any special psychic abilities. I’m not a complete mind reader or fortune teller. I simply receive more information than I ask and more often than not, I am not sure what to do with it. Like many people, especially women, I’m in touch with my intuition. It’s a blessing and a curse.
It’s a blessing because I can tell when someone needs something even when they don’t ask for it. Sometimes I feel like I know exactly what to say when someone is feeling down. I know how to read between the lines. One time, my former manager jokingly told me that he appreciated how I never asked him any questions or bugged him before he had his coffee in the mornings. Truth is, I wasn’t paying attention to the coffee part. For some reason, I was able to pick up on the feeling that he wasn’t ready for anyone to bug him. Cool, right? (This may be a very common scenario for you other highly sensitive people.) I can also quickly pick up how my dog is feeling (just figured I’d throw that one in there).
But then it gets painful. I can tell when people think I’m rambling. Or if I tell a joke that isn’t funny. I can tell when people are bored when hanging out with me. I can spot a fake smile from a mile away. I can sense when people talk behind my back. I take it all personally. I will never show it, but I do. It happens all of the time. When it happens, I get nervous and that makes everything worse. It has turned me into a self-conscious perfectionist. Most of the time I wish I could just turn it off.
Us empaths need to constantly be reminded that we don’t have to be perfect in everyone’s eyes. Not everyone is going to love us. We need to set realistic expectations for ourselves. Most of us only have a few close friends for that very reason. But let me tell you, they are the best of friends.
We are hyper-aware of the darkness that exists in reality. We see the things that many people can ignore. Ignorance is bliss, right? Wrong. We should not be afraid of the dark because light cannot exist without it.
Embrace every emotion because you have the gift of feeling. It certainly keeps things interesting, right?
Take care ️,
AF
Awkward AF 