Emotion Separation: What Is It and How Does It Help Empaths?
Being an empath means it’s common to internalize another person’s emotions as if they are their own. So, it can be difficult AF to differentiate between what someone else may be feeling and what they (the empaths) may be feeling personally.
This means that social gatherings can sometimes be overstimulating and overwhelming for empaths because you’re feeling ALL the feelings of everyone around you. If your friend went through a breakup, you might be feeling heartbreak that isn’t yours.
That’s why having a strategy to figure out what emotions are yours and aren’t yours is key! I like to call it sorting through your emotional laundry. So, I came up with a technique (kinda on accident one night) to help you do just that!
It’s called emotion separation.
What is emotion separation?
It’s literally exactly what it sounds like. It’s a technique to help you sort through your emotions. It’ll help you figure out which emotions are yours and which aren’t, then only keeping your own.
You’ll basically write down on a piece of paper a list of all the things or emotions you felt after a social gathering. Sorta like dumping the laundry bin of clothes on the floor, write ’em all down so you can see them.
Then, I want you to start sorting the laundry and claim what’s yours and what isn’t, labeling each feeling as “Mine” or “Not Mine” (or the name of the person you believe this feeling belongs to).
Finally, you’re going to claim what’s yours and release what isn’t. Emotion separation is the act of separating or differentiating your feelings from the feelings of another person.
Here’s how to to do it in three easy steps:
1. Write down your feels.
2. Label it. (Mine or Not Mine)
3. Claim it.
By easy, I mean EASYYYY. It’s literally just those 3 steps. But, the most important thing is to make sure you really claim your own emotions and lovingly let go of those that aren’t yours. That’s where you’ll see the real breakthrough.
It’s seriously soooo important as an empath to be able to keep your emotions separate. It can be very overwhelming to have so many other emotions that you take on every single day. So you need to focus on your own and what you claim, because that’s all you can control.
Being an empath is a gift. Really, it is. There are some difficult aspects that cause us to struggle emotionally more than other people. But, if you have the right tools to support you, you'll reap all the beautiful benefits of being one!
