You’re feeling it, all of it.
There’s no hiding from the emotions of other living things, whether it’s people, animals, trees, or plants. All of it has a consciousness, which can sometimes become too much to handle.
Have people called you overly sensitive? Do you hear or sense what others are not saying out loud? Or that what they are saying is not jiving with their inner truth?
CliftonStrengths® defines people with Empathy® as “Can sense other people’s feelings by imagining themselves in others’ lives or situations.”
You’re highly aware
And the only way you can turn off that faucet if you don’t know that is often to distract yourself from feeling. Do you tear up easily? Or do you fight the emotions with snacking or diversions instead??
You may question why you just know what others are thinking or feeling long before they verbalize it or say exactly what they were about to say.
Who you have around you is extremely important as you tend to be a sponge, and if you buy it as your truth, you may go down rabbit holes that are not yours, to begin with.
It’s not limited to people
Sometimes the feelings we pick up are for the beings, plants, trees, and nature itself. You may feel the pain in their bodies or the impact on nature when you tune into an area. That is maybe far, far away…
When you watch TV or a movie, do you step into the movie and experience it as if you were there? I do.
Can you stand watching anything abusive? Like animal abuse? Wildfires? Floodings? Do you physically feel pain, especially when it comes to animals and nature?
Is what you feel yours?
You may want to ask yourself if whatever is in your body that feels xyz is yours. It may be an out-there question for some, yet a big relief for many that bought the feelings as theirs.
Through Access Consciousness®, I became aware of the power of asking open-ended questions. Simply asking the question, “Who does this belong to? Is this mine?” can bring you the awareness you need. Adding What am I aware of? is another one.
Before I found these tools, I didn’t acknowledge how aware I was or how far out I could feel. And no, you’re not crazy for tapping into events all over this planet.
With Empathy® as my #12 theme, it’s still a strong theme for me, and then there’s being aware that we all have the ability to be independent of what our theme rankings are.
Use this gift to guide others
Having this gift is great when interacting with people that are asking for your guidance and ready to access their talents and strengths. You are a great advisor.
Know that not everyone is ready for your awarenesses. Tune into your surroundings before speaking and ask questions. You may find that silence works great too.
Guide people to have their own aha’s; their version could be slightly different than yours, after all.
Nurture you
Invest and learn how to separate what’s yours and what’s other people’s stuff. Whether you know them or not, having your space is important.
Follow your intuition – what activities help you get your mojo back? What physical activity calls you? Walking? Running? Boxing? Or have you found meditation and/or yoga to be your thing? There are so many choices; try different activities to see what works best for you.
Invest time in yourself to understand how this talent plays out in your life and what your needs are to keep yourself balanced no matter what other people think.
And never forget that even if you get more emotional than others that it’s a gift that can be used to open others up.
Do you have Empathy® as one of your dominant talents? Have you distinguished the difference between what’s yours and what is other people’s feelings and POVs? Please comment below; I’d love to know.
If any of this rings true to you, consider checking out the book Being you, changing the world by Dr. Dain Heer and checking out the tools of Access Consciousness® to see if they can contribute to your life (and no, I’m not being paid for saying this, the tools helped me on many levels).
Are you curious about what your talents might be? CLICK HERE for more information about the CliftonStrengths® Assessment or HERE for the BP10™ Assessment.
Lastly, visit Gallup’s YouTube channel for more information on the CliftonStrengths® theme of Empathy® HERE.
