Invitation to a Conversation on Empaths, Sensitivity & Narcissism.
Join on zoom, if so inspired.
First of all, happy Fall! (Invitation to an Autumnal ritual coming soon.)
Secondly, I apologize for the late notice of this conversation, but it is what it is, and if you can join—great! If not live, then we will send out a recording.
EMPATHS, HIGHLY SENSITIVE FOLKS AND SOME PINGPONG ABOUT DISCERNING WHAT MIGHT ACTUALLY BE THERE AS WELL
In about an hour (@ 12)pm MT) Max Weichert and I will meet up and will have a great time talking about empaths, sensitivity, childhood coping patterns and whatever other rabbit hole we might find wandering along.
This will be a free flow (it's just how we roll).
And if you enjoy this kinda conversation and like to join us LIVE on Zoom, you are warmly invited to sit with us, enjoy a cuppa tea and throw your 5 cents in the chat-hat!
If you like to join, here is the link.
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86903585043?pwd=Q1NiMVBQY1J5Sy8xcVdVZHhkMFQvUT09
Meeting-ID: 869 0358 5043 Password: 085205
And this is the post that inspired our interaction today,
On Sensitivity, Empathy & Empathic Dysfunction.
What are your thoughts about being an empath, or a highly sensitive person? Do you identify as either?
Personally, I am a highly sensitive person. Always have been.
Though I am naturally sensitive--and I think most of us are-- I also developed hypersensitivity to help me attune to the shifting moods of my environment and caregivers as a child, and that stayed with me later in life. It helped me deal with dangerous people and situations.
My sensitivity has been both healthy--and not.
My sensitivity is also part of what makes me good at my work.
I fully feel the energy that is moving within and between myself and my clients during our session work. At times I will cry before they do, and at times that is what enables them to also feel what is happening.
I don't tell them "this means that".
I just FEEL and let the energy take them where they need it to go.
Despite this, I do not identify with the "empath" persona.
Too often I see it as a series of adaptations that usually arise in childhood as a means of dealing with a lack of safety and support from caregivers and the environment. I also see a lot of victimhood masquerading as "special" needs with people who do identify as empaths. And I often joke (but for real), that in my practice I help empaths recover.
What I also often see in some people who identify as empaths, is latent narcissism that needs to be developed into a healthy self-identity. This will help a person to stop mirroring that absence of internal presence within themselves, and replacing it with narcissistic relationship dynamics.
I say all of this with great compassion because that used to be me.
Recovery from narcissistic enmeshment requires a piercing amount of self-reflection and accountability. Part of that, for may of us, is being willing to look at our empathic dysfunction.
Having empathy and being an empath are not the same. We cannot actually feel what another person is feeling, and assuming that we can is quite narcissistic.
We can, however, become deeply honest about our own feelings, fully responsible for the sensations that various experiences and dynamics evoke from within us, and deeply kind and genuinely empathetic to other's plight without crossing our own boundaries or theirs.
This process requires sensitivity, responsibility, and refined distinctions. It's powerful and can lead to places of peace, harmony, and more meaningful connections.
Curious what that might look like for you? I'm only a message away.
Lotsa love,
~Justice
I'm chemically sensitive. In the air, water, my food, in candles, soaps, detergents, sprayed in clothes, on lawns, outgassing from carpet, furniture, cat litter....List of toxic substances go on and on. I'm sensitive deception after learning the hard way that people are not all trustworthy. I'm not sure I'm sensitive in the way Justice describes but I appreciate her disclosures. It's Illuminating to grasp that sensitivity (or the appearance thereof) may have a narcissistic dimension.