Do you ever think that you feel “too much” or you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders?
If you are in the human service work you are likely to be naturally empathic. In fact, you have chosen that line of work as you seek meaning and purpose by helping others. You’ve probably felt overwhelmed as you find yourself stepping into another people’s shoes experiencing their physical or emotional pain even before they dare to express their feelings. In NeuroCoaching, this is called, “Empathic Distress.”
If you identify yourself as an empath, an effective way to avoid getting lost and distressed in the emotional experience of your loved ones or clients is by setting healthy emotional boundaries, and developing emotional awareness. “Moving from feeling with to observing, openly, engaged, with a curious listening stance with good boundaries can make challenging interpersonal work not only more rewarding but it can also increase feelings of efficacy to prevent feeling chronic stress and burnout.”
Keep in mind that you can serve another person to the best of your abilities when your compassion propels you to take action and give the assistance or support needed. Overwhelm and burnout, on the other hand, may lead you to suppressing or avoiding, not only the negative emotions but all emotions, decreasing your willingness to serve.
As Olga Klimecky states on her article, “The Plasticity of Social Emotions,” Neuroimaging findings, complemented by results from behavioral studies, show that compassion is linked to helping and forgiveness behavior, whereas empathic distress not only decreases helping behavior, but is even associated with increased aggressive behavior.
Within the next weeks, I will be sharing science-based strategies that you can implement in your daily life to help you increase self-awareness, self-compassion, and compassion towards others so you can stay emotionally balanced and thrive, as you navigate the world with its unavoidable pain and chaos. Are you interested in this series? If you’re not receiving the newsletter in your inbox, subscribe here!
“Empathy is our general capacity to resonate with other’s emotional states, whether it is positive or negative. Compassion is the feeling of warmth and concern for another person’s suffering which is accompanied by the motivation to help (Singer, Klimecky.)”
Source:
T1 – Professional Distress and Meaning in Health Care: Why Professional Empathy Can Help
VL – 54
DO – 10.1080/00981389.2015.1046575
JO – Social work in health care
ER –
Empathy and compassion
To a mindful life,
Liliam
