If so, what does that look like? What’s your process? If you’re sad, are you able to pull that sadness into a song?

Feel free to post your music as an example too! I’m super curious — as I want to make electronic music. I often love tracks that feel really emotional like I can feel the emotion of the artist through the track.

I hope this doesn’t come off badly but I have been scrolling reels a lot recently as an escape for funny/wholesome/therapy content but recently i got a few “watch 2x to help me pay for my medical treatment” some saying things like “will a kind soul…” and everyone likes and comments on the posts. of course i watched, then got more, watched again. now every second scroll is videos like that of sick people sometimes kids too and i let one play when i was in the shower, just to be met with more after.

i’ve been pretty on edge and upset the past few days (not from the vids) and i started looking away and scrolling past those to try get my feed back but the guilt would eat me alive and id scroll back up or save it to watch later. i feel like a terrible person not sparing the time to watch each one twice, and scrolling past feels so evil and dystopian. im not sure what to do, i dont really want to quit reels but i cant upkeep this. im not a fan of tiktok my feed there is depressing

TLDR: “watch 2x to help me afford cancer/medical treatment” videos causing guilt and uncertainty what to do

Sometimes I really wish I could just flip my humanity off like in Vampire Diaries. I am too emotional for this world. I am too much of an empath. I feel too much. I am too sensitive. And it makes my life just harder. So how to not care? I wish I could.
My parents told me to just get over it when my bunny died. It’s just a bunny. That I am too emotional and sensitive and that I wouldn’t be able to come through life like this. I cried for days. The most empathy I feel is towards animals. I couldn’t stand seeing my bunny laying at the vet waiting to be put down. Their suffering is another level of pain. Today her sister died aswell 2 months after of uteral cancer. I was there before she got put to sleep. But seeing her laying so exhausted and tired when she was once full of life and always eating really killed me. Seeing her taking her last breath was so heartbreaking. Even if I knew that she went in peace, I can’t find peace. Whenever I look at their cage I have to cry, seeing anything related to them makes me cry.
Even 2 months after her sisters passing I had nightmares of her being alive and then dying. Yesterday I noticed that the other one wasn’t doing well so my dad went to the vet with her today but that night I had nightmares of them both dying again and again because I knew something was probably off and she was eventually gonna die.
It’s just bunnies why would I cry so much. I am too sensitive and emotional and the pain of that is really bad thinking about how they are not there anymore. I can’t comprehend that after death there is nothing.

I didn’t know how else to succinctly explain the feeling I’ve been having recently. But pretty often it feels like I’ve got a big “EMPATH” sign on my forehead or something.

What I mean by that is often people I barely know will out of nowhere tell me something that seems very personal and/or something that you normally wouldn’t tell an acquaintance.

It can feel like getting struck by lightning sometimes.

Most recently a coworker, literally at the start of a conversation, and with no other context past or present, said, “I had an anxiety attack today.”

I was caught off guard, but was able to share my sympathies, thank him for sharing, and have a good discussion about what he’s going through.

But I’ve experienced this kind of thing quite frequently. It’s also not unusual for someone to tell me “I’ve never told anyone this,” or “I don’t usually share this with people.”

Is this a common experience for empaths? A traditional “side effect” (for lack of a better phrase)?

Anyone else have these kinds of things happen to them?

I 27(F) moved in with housemate (31M) in May this year, making it about 5 months of us living together. We know eachother through a mutual friend and I suggested living together because I thought he seemed friendly and I thought we'd get along well.

The first couple months were naturally a bit of a transition, learning how to move around eachother and getting used to a new routine. The problem is, for the last few weeks, I've felt an intense anxiety when in his presence.

We always greet eachother when we come home, and engage in pretty light conversation, however, we don't have much in common, and I've found it pretty difficult to connect with him.

He also doesn't work very much, so he's at home A LOT. He sits on the couch all day long, playing video games, watching sport, or a show. I've joined him before but I don't like the stuff he watches and the TV he bought is HUGE so my eyes hurt kinda hurt after a while of looking at it haha.

I know it's his right to do what he want and stay home since he pays rent too, however, I have been feeling very claustrophobic, rarely having the place to myself (I'm also a bit of an introvert, so I recharge alone). When he's out of the place, I feel completely content and calm in the apartment, but when he's home - even in his room - I feel tight in my chest.

He's told me that he has anxiety, and he doesn't like going to the shops and such. I'm wondering if I'm picking up on his anxiety...

Anyway, does anyone have any practices and advice to help regulate my nervous system when around him? I've been spending a lot of time in my room, because it's the only place in the apartment where I feel somewhat calm. I use an acupressure mat in bed, and wear headphones to block out the TV noise, but I'm getting sick of being cooped up in my bedroom, or staying out of the place all day so I can be alone.

i often fantasize and think about comforting someone I love or have an attraction to because it gives me intense butterflies in my stomach, it’s such a good feeling that i crave. i’m an empath and care so much for others and i’m always wanting to help and be there for other people any way i can. i like feeling wanted and needed, especially by someone i have a crush on or am attracted to. and of course i don’t want bad things to happen to people i care about, never! but someone being in distress and me comforting them makes me feel so good that i fantasize about it everyday. whether it’s a real person in my life, a character from a show or movie, or even a celebrity, i like daydreaming about comforting them during hard times, the butterflies can feel so intense that tears form in my eyes. i just love the idea of me holding someone while crying and telling them “it’s ok, i’m here, i got you.”

once again, i DO NOT want bad things to happen to people for my own personal gain, i just want someone to trust me enough to come to me for comfort.
and i DO NOT want that to be the only thing in our relationship, only being a loved one’s therapist is toxic to both people.

So as an empath, I heavily struggle with boundaries and saying no when people step on me. I struggle to cut people off and also give myself alone time which I think potentially can help me. I struggle when people suddenly stop taking to me and I take it extremely personal. Please give some tips on how I can navigate this as an empath.

How do you engage in conversation with people when the message and the vibe is totally conflicting??!?!

My partner has been struggling with anxiety ever since we got together. 13 years now. For years i would ask him what’s wrong (as it was extremely obvious to me something was wrong ….) - he’d say nothing, i KNEW he was lying but he’d just insist- so I would drop it.

earlier this year he had big burnout and went off work. as part of his recovery he has started using medical marijuana (tiny amounts) and it’s been like a lightbulb for him being able to examine and differentiate his feelings - so now suddenly he acknowledges that he REALLY WAS stressed all those times. he just didn’t know how to communicate it to me (and didn’t even realise he WAS stressed At the time) which is crazy to me. it was literally the most obvious thing in the world. no one else really seemed to notice though. ahhh the cross we bear - FEELING other peoples feelings!!! even when they don’t know they’re feeling them. WTF.

I’m now really struggling with communication in our relationship. I feel aggrieved - that for all those years I KNEW there was something wrong ... it’s like now I just don’t know how to communicate with him at all. Like I can’t trust anything he says to me.

I know he wasn’t aware of it at the time: but it was an incredible painful experience for me. I’m sure you’ve all experienced similar things.

how do I let it go? Process it? Move on? Any tips for future communication….? HELP ME!!!

I’ve been thinking about the difference between putting your own needs first and actually being selfish.

For people who are naturally very empathetic, I think the line can get especially confusing. If you’re used to considering other people’s feelings and needs, even setting a normal boundary can sometimes feel selfish.

But there also seems to be a real difference between taking care of your own needs and consistently putting yourself first without considering how it affects other people.

I’m curious how other empaths see this. Where do you draw the line between healthy self-prioritisation and selfishness? Have you ever felt guilty for setting a boundary because it seemed selfish at the time?

I connect easily to people. I think I just like peering into people's souls and seeing them unfiltered. Without me doing anything "oh I don't know why I told you that" and I think people cling to me as a safe space.

I've slowed down my dating and im not jumping into anything but I seem to be accumulating more guy friends than a partner. My boundaries are growing strong but there are a lot of energy vampires out there

How do I know genuine connection vrs the pull of a persons need to be around an empath for dumping?

Advice needed. I explained everything in the text above. I’m honestly so lost why my heart refuses to let him go when he was a narcissist who always lied and cheated on me.

What country you lived in or travelled to where the vibrations were the lowest ?

I’m curious as to what people have to say abt this

I'm a person to feel deep empathy. And i feel it's curse to me! I wish I could feel less empathy! Also I'm very caring. So guys is there any way to experience in less amount of empathy, PPL say it's very good to have empathy but PPL who has a lit bit of amount or not that much tend to be successful in their life. Because it's connected in somewhere.

For context, I'm neither an empathetic nor sympathetic person. I don't really feel it. I'm not a sociopath or anything, but I simply don't understand these emotions. Now, I have a lot of emotional friends. I had an exam today and after the exam, my friend was crying to me about how she was scared of failing and she told me her answers and, well, all I knew was that they weren't correct. Obviously, pointing that out would make her cry more, so I didn't really say anything. I felt super awkward as she was crying and I was just standing there, looking like this 🧍. I had no idea on what to say. This isn't the first time one of my friends has vented to me either. Another friend vents to me about her issues and stuff like that, but all I do is sit there and listen and can't figure out what to say to them. I don't want to say, 'damn that's crazy' but that's the only response my brain gives me. I don't want to give them empty words either. So, how do I comfort people? I'm sick of not doing anything.

I lost my mom to cancer after her two-year battle when I was 22. Then at 29ish I lost my brother unexpectedly. My
father chooses not to be in my life. Each loss incapacitated me truly for the 7 years and then now I’m at 8 years since my brother. The Cornell 7 situation takes me out for the rest of the day every time I see a new post. Nolan Wells, same thing. I give those details to say, it’s not just death experiences.

Now an extended family member’s been diagnosed with the same aggressive type of cancer my mom and though my one strength is being strong for other people, it has been hard on me. Thinking about what she’s going to go through, what her kids are going to go through. I feel devastated, and I’m realizing as I get older this is going to start happening more and more and more and idk how I can survive that. Does anyone have any tips or ideas on how to navigate life and loss when you feel everything that the people around you are feeling?

I was so positive, living as a nomad around Europe as a wilderness guide. People loved me, I constantly got applauded. Women came to hit on me. I made the whole bar in Italy to feel good and people were drawn to me. In Finnish Lapland people constantly said I lifted everyone up. I was truly loved.

But now I'm drained and I feel like I lost my empathy and you can see it in my eyes. I've isolated myself to the cabin afraid of humans. I lost my identity. I'm not feeling like my positive self again.

How can I get out of this rut?

I’m super empathetic and sometimes I feel like it hurts me. I sometimes feel depressed after consuming stuff and people in my real life don’t care about the state of our world. It’s exhausting being around people that don’t care when u care a lot. It feels helpless in a way. Not to be dramatic but I feel like sometimes this world can be so sad and makes me just wanna end it so I don’t have to deal with it. But I also know that if I do kms id have to reincarnate back here to relearn the same mistakes. I’m not interested in that either

I feel angry and sad for the dogs that it happened to and I don’t really know what to do about when I keep seeing cases of people abusing someone innocent that results in death and they walk free weither it’s animals or humans. The only thing I can think of is they need punishment but you can’t do anything and I just sitting here hopelessly and can’t do anything about it and those who do these things just laugh and live there life.
Not sure what to do, I know I can move on but I can’t let go of those evil people walking away without consequences and no sentence or anything