Learning how to strengthen empathic abilities is about becoming aware of your ability, accepting it, and allowing it to blossom in your life.
Suppressing it for the sake of fitting in or trying really hard to be something you are not is a recipe for unhappiness.
It is why so many empaths are struggling in life.
Being authentically yourself and freely giving and sharing who you really are is the cornerstone of happiness.
Empaths tend to not conform with the general profile of ‘the heard’ which is why they tend to avoid being themselves.
Ultimately, life is not about getting.
Life is about giving.
As an empath you are in a unique position in life because by nature you are a giver.
This is NOT a bad thing.
Empath tends to be sad, depressed, and lonely because they are so sensitive to the world around them.
More than that though, they fail to really understand that this is a gift and by giving and sharing this gift you actually fulfill the purpose of life.
My main goal with this article is for you to understand that you do not need to suppress your emphatic abilities.
On the contrary, you need to develop it if you want to truly be happy.
Your True Self needs to find expression through your life if you want to truly be happy.
9 Powerful Ways To Strengthen Empathic Abilities
One of the first steps to strengthen emphatic abilities is to stop suppressing it. Stop trying to be something you are not.
Being an empath is not a weakness. It is a strength but it can only be a strength if you recognize it and own it.
Here are 9 powerful ways to strengthen your emphatic abilities.
1. Accept It
Most empaths go through life never really identifying with being one. They simply think they are different or even ‘weird’.
Being really attuned to the feelings and even thoughts of others is not something you can switch off – nor should it be.
Accepting the fact that you are an empath and accepting the fact that it is a gift and not a curse is the first and most important step to allow this ‘superpower’ to blossom in your life.
Forget about what others have to say about you and your emphatic nature.
When you truly accept who you are and that your nature and your natural inclination is to understand and ‘feel’ people at a deep level.
When you recognize this power within you, you can start to develop it more. The awareness of it alone will start to help you to strengthen empathic abilities that may still lie dominant within you.
Like anything in life, you grow through awareness.
Being aware of your emphatic ability allows you to be conscious of it. When you accept it (instead of cursing it), your awareness will help you be more sensitive to it and eventually develop it more.
2. Be Grateful For Your Gift
A lot of empaths struggle in life. They are often introverted, gentle-natured and easy to be taken advantage of.
One of the great lessons I learned in life was from Joseph Campbell who said “Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”
You may struggle with many aspects of being an empath – especially in a society where its a fight to the top.
Know that the very things about yourself that you may be struggling with contain your true ‘treasure’.
Being an empath really is a gift.
It’s probably the closest thing there is to a ‘super power’. The ability to truly understand and sense people’s emotional states is in reality an ability to tune into their energy.
When you are grateful for this ability then you can start using it and developing it more and more.
3. Give More of Yourself Freely and Consciously
Most empaths gravitate towards jobs and careers that are in service to others. Social workers, nurses, therapists and even doctors are often empaths.
The need to be in service to others is born into an empath.
You may be in a career that is not aligned with giving and serving and you may find yourself unhappy because the nature of your work may not support your inherent need to serve others.
You need to find ways to serve regardless of where you are. To strengthen empathic abilities you simply have to use it.
No matter where you find yourself in life there are always people who need help. As an empath, you have the unique ability to truly ‘hear’ people out.
You have a unique insight into people’s problems and people will often find it easy to talk to you about their innermost fears and problems.
The more you help and support others by listening to them and offering them love and support in a non-judgemental way, the more your empathy will pour out.
To strengthen empathic abilities you simply have to do more of what renders your ego useless.
The ego wants to be the most important. The ego wants to be right, top dominate others and to be in charge.
Your Higher Self wants nothing of that.
Find ways to serve. Find ways to give of yourself. You have a unique gift in your emphatic nature and giving that away with no demands or expectations allows it to flow stronger within you.
4. Create Boundaries and Limits
Your understanding, kind and giving nature means that many people will try and take advantage of you.
This can drain you mentally and emotionally.
It can also leave you feeling victimized and often cause you to start acting against your emphatic nature. This will start to suppress your emphatic abilities.
Suppressing who you really almost always leads to unhappiness.
You need to set clear boundaries for yourself. You need to learn to say ‘no’ when its needed and you need to learn to be firm in maintaining certain boundaries in your life.
When you learn to do this you become strong.
Learning how to strengthen empathic abilities is all about learning to be yourself in a truly authentic way. Never make excuses for what you are.
Giving of yourself freely and without limits within certain boundaries allows you the freedom to not be taken advantage of.
As an empath, you are often the first port of call for friends and family’s problems. You offer them comfort and your unique insight and understanding makes them feel safe with you.
That is not a burden, but it can be if you have no boundaries.
Make sure that those who rely and lean on you know what the boundaries are.
Working within boundaries allows you to give of yourself freely without resentment. This allows you to develop yourself as you practice your unique superpower.
5. Practise and Strengthen Your Creativity
Empath tends to be a very creative people. Being in tune with your intuition usually allows you to be more creative.
There is a big misconception though.
Being creative does not mean you are an artist or that you have artistic abilities.
Being creative is a way of thinking. You can be an accountant and be very creative. You can also be a very accomplished painter and not have any creativity.
Practicing and doing creative things is a great way to strengthen empathic abilities in an indirect way.
When you are creative you engage your intuition and parts of the brain that is aligned with emphatic abilities.
6. Recharge
Empaths tend to be ‘loners’. Most people do not understand this. If you feel the desire to be by yourself and they need to be alone with your own thoughts then you are not weird.
You are simply an empath.
This desire to be alone is not because you are strange or unusual. As an empath, you need this time to switch off and to recharge.
Because you are so connected and sensitive to your environment and the people around you, you are taking in more than most others.
Without time alone you might start getting very anxious and start feeling overwhelmed.
You need to dedicate time to yourself to recharge and to get away from people and everyday life events.
The way your body builds muscle fibres is through a process called ‘rupture and repair’.
When you lift weights small tears occur in the muscle fibres. The body’s natural response is to immediately repair these ruptures and that is how muscles get bigger and stronger.
This analogy holds true for you as an empath too. You may go through difficult periods of ‘rupture’ but when you withdraw and allow yourself to repair you ALWAYS come out stronger.
Spending time in nature is a very powerful way for you to recharge and dedicating time for this will leave you feeling refreshed and inspired.
7. Spiritual Practises
I want to be careful in how I phrase this because it can easily be taken the wrong way.
Empaths are almost always drawn to spirituality in some shape or form.
This can be through religion, it can be through crystals, meditation, tarot…and the list goes on.
The reason is simple. Empaths ‘know’ that the outer world is a world of illusion and that there is something deeper and more profound to life.
Whatever you feel drawn to on a spiritual level, do it!
Practicing and exploring spirituality allows you to delve deeper into your own intuition, inner guidance and spiritual power.
I like to read inspiring and uplifting spiritual books. I like to meditate and I am constantly aware of this Divine presence within me.
Others might want to go to a church 3 times a week, do Bible study or pray 3 times a day.
These are all means to an end.
To strengthen empathic abilities you simply need to grow in your spiritual consciousness. As you do your Divine connection grows stronger and whatever you already had on an emphatic level will expand.
8. Trust Your Intuition
As an empath your intuition is much stronger and more developed than most. We all have intuitive abilities but most people never develop it and most people are not attuned to it.
When you start paying more attention to your intuition and you actually start trusting it you develop it.
Become aware of your intuitive hunches. Listen to that still small voice inside you.
It ‘knows’ much more than you will ever realize.
When you hear it, trust it. Trust the wisdom of your intuition.
9. Love Yourself
Many empaths struggle with self esteem and self worth. Being very sensitive, you often react much stronger to criticism.
Being different is not exactly something that our society rewards on a social level.
The truth is that EVERYONE who is super successful or who really stands out in life ARE weird.
Start loving yourself.
You are a child of the Universe and you deserve to be here. Not only do you deserve to be here, you deserve to flourish.
You are an amazing human being with a unique and special set of gifts.
Love yourself for it. Do whatever it takes to love learn to love yourself because by loving yourself you accept yourself and allow who you really are to shine.
