11 Aug Strategies For Keeping your HSP and Empath Superpowers in Check
As an HSP or Empath, do you ever feel like you are on the line of virtual realities? Here I mean you feel more than others, and your intuitive superpowers are sometimes helpful and other times make you feel like you wish you didn’t have them? In my article, Highly Sensitive People & Empath—Superpowers or Kryptonite?, I talk about what it means to be a Highly Sensitive Person or an Empath.
Here’s what you can do to aid in finding steady ground for the emotional and physical twists and turns of life.
If you feel like there is emotion involved, incorporate the following strategies that heal and work with emotions; use what makes sense to you. Some resonate with several types of stimuli, some with only one or two.
Create A Practice
For us sensitives, a routine works wonders. Once you have a regular practice, you’re more likely to be able to bounce back from life’s emotional setbacks. Try making your practice a simple, short series of easy strategies to get grounded.
Mini-meditation reps can help such as gentle stretching, filling your lungs with fresh air, and seated meditation with legs crossed and your spine centered and rooted to the ground. Do these throughout the day.
Create a reminder to de-stress and look up from your electronic devices such as set a timer for 20 minutes. When it goes off, honor the clock and take at least 5 minutes to look away, blink, shut your eyes, daydream, or change focus.
Sacred Space
If you live with others, make sure that your home has space just for you. It could be a corner or a room, but make sure you have a comfortable place of refuge where you can completely relax, work, recharge. Add objects of beauty that are meaningful to you and keep boundaries with others regarding your space. Make it yours and stick to any rules you create on keeping your space yours alone.
Emotions and Food
If you’re stressed and you find yourself emotionally eating for comfort rather than hunger, try to redirect yourself to other activities like breathing. If you need to keep blood sugar levels steady or hunger, have some healthy veggies or other snacks on hand. If you’re not sure if you are eating out of emotion, create an eating journal and for two weeks jot down all you consume with notes on emotional levels, etc. This will help you see the bigger picture of your emotional health in regard to food.
Another example that keeps the desire for munchies away is doing core muscle strengthening reps. For every email you send out, get up from your chair and stretch or do a wall-sitting exercise for 5 minutes. Standing desks are also great for you as long as you mix up activities. Something that works for me is doing wall squats that strengthen my core and removes my mind from technology and external stimuli.
Noise
If loud noises bother you, go to a quiet space or put on headphones for several minutes and meditate or sit in quiet. Sitting outside in nature recharges as does sitting on the earth. Real dirt or ground soaks up energy that many human-made products, especially inorganic and plastic materials won’t.
Visuals
We all know that there is a lot of visual stimulation in the world. Find out what you can tolerate and what doesn’t work for you. Crazy patterns, especially my own personal love of stripes, sometimes makes me feel dizzy. If I’m overstimulated I know not to drive as much in the dark, especially with weather like a rain or snow storm. Glare affects me. Neon and loud colors can also overstimulate as can our friend sunshine. Get some good shades and always have a backup pair if you are sensitive to light.
Find less-stimulating environments to inhabit. If you’re at a concert or show and it’s too much visually, move. Find a place on the sidelines, in the back, or in a place that feels right. Often the combination of being in crowds with over stimulating visuals calls for knowing your comfort zone to avoid that crazy, “I want to hide in the bathroom feeling”.
Scents
Often people don’t realize that a good scent is personal. In other words, what smells amazing to one person, may be the opposite to someone else. As an HSP/Empath your olfactory senses may be akin to a canine’s. This means you may be able to smell more intensely and much farther than others.
Good or bad smells may have the same effect on your body and can be equally too much. What to do? Take a break from an intense scent by having something that is not overwhelming and smells good to you in your bag or pocket. I love the smell of cedar. It tends to ground me and counteracts smells of perfumes, chemicals, pollution and icky smells, so I usually carry it with me.
Vibrations and energies
Empaths and HSPs soak up vibrations easily. In a busy city for example, the vibration of motors from cars, buses, generators, electricity all come together and add to the combined stimuli of noise, visual stimuli, scents, and energy. Give yourself some slack and remember to counter all that is going on around you with eating consistent, high nutrient meals with protein. Drink enough water, and spend time taking in clean air.
You may already know what recharges you. Swimming may work for one person and yoga for another. Remember to rest as well and figure in down-time in exchange for busy/work time.
If you’ve experienced the emotions of others along then you likely know how they affect you. For example, if you know that someone has had a bad day and you unconsciously take on the pain of another, you need to have a few strategies in your back pocket.
Next week, I’ll share how to defend against the energies of others as well as how to be proactive if you know you’ll be encountering energies that could drain your own energy levels.
A lot of work can be done on clearing your own space. Check out my post on how decluttering can help you improve multiple facets of your life.
Remember, setting boundaries with others is important in keeping a check on your emotional health. Saying “no” can sometimes mean saying “yes” to a more centered you.
Over time, I suggest adding to this list to keep yourself covered. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you’re on emotional overload. With pragmatic strategies to cope, empaths can have quicker retorts, feel safer, and their talents can blossom.
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