How to Thrive as an Empath – Connection, Protection and Transformation
- Prune Harris
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Your energy fields are designed to be protective, connective and to hold you strong and resilient in all situations.
Since I was born, I’ve been able to see energy. If I was looking at you now, I would be able to watch your energy weave and flow within you, around you and continually interact with every other form of energy and life around you. Paraphrasing Thich Nat Hahn, you are designed to inter-be.
How do you feel about that? Perhaps this knowledge lights you up as you realise just how essential and interconnective every being is in the great weave of the web of life. Perhaps it feels utterly exhausting and brings up awareness of overwhelm that you already experience in your daily life.
Because of the emerging shifts in planetary consciousness that we are all living within and being affected by, every second of every day, we are experiencing connection at a new depth than in previous decades. And if you have a sensitive energy system, or already know that you are an empath then you will likely be noticing a greater level of sensitivity which of course can lead to overwhelm, feeling bombarded by the energy of others, of places, animals, plants, technology, EMFs, lights, and noise. You may feel as if you always need to guard and protect your energy.
First, let’s explore what is meant by ‘empath’ or ‘highly sensitive person’.
Empathic versus being an Empath:
While being empathic means showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another, an Empath is a person with the ability to perceive and often experience the mental or emotional state of another individual.
Sensitivity and the Highly Sensitive Person:
Sensitivity can be defined as quick to detect or respond to slight changes, signals, or influences. Or having and displaying a quick and delicate appreciation of others’ feelings.
The definition of a highly sensitive person is someone who experiences acute physical, mental, or emotional responses to stimuli. Highly sensitive people know from long experience that they feel things far more strongly than others do.
How do you know if you’re an empath, or highly sensitive?
Here are a few questions to ask yourself…
Do you find bright, busy, noisy places like supermarkets, shopping centres, or social gatherings overwhelming, draining and stressful?
Do you struggle to be around and connect with loved ones after you come home from a long day of work?
Are you impacted by the emotions and energies of those around you?
Do you feel wiped out or unwell after being on screens for a short amount of time
Do you feel you need a lot of quiet, alone time to recover from normal life?
If you are answering yes to any of these questions, it is likely that you have a highly sensitive or empathic energy system that is tuned into everything around you, potentially leaving you drained, frazzled and fractious.
But does that mean that your sensitivity is a curse and you are always going to feel overwhelmed? That you have no choice?
NO.
Before I go on, I want to share with you that EVERYTHING you experience and perceive is energy.
You are energy. Your thoughts are energy, your emotions are energy, your relationships are energy. The cosmos is energy. Everything is energy.
You can’t be separate from it. You can’t protect or defend yourself from it. You are a co-creative vibration thrumming your own way through the cosmos connected to everything else.
I also want to let you know, as someone who has a super-tuned, super-sensitive, super-plugged-in system, you do not need to be a victim of your own sensitivity, and it is totally possible to THRIVE as an empath or highly sensitive person.
I LOVE being connected at that vast and cosmic level. It lights me up and helps me sing my soul into the world, as well as deeply grounding me and holding me strong, trusting and safe.
So, as an empath or highly sensitive person, the big question is how can you feel grounded, safe, protected and joyful in your everyday life?
It’s easy! You learn to understand and support your energy system, which is the foundation of your health. Understanding your energy is not only easy, it’s also key to being able to hold your own dynamic energetic container so you are protected AND connected, so you can be you – joyfully, utterly you.
And yes, it is possible to be protected AND connected at the same time.
CONNECTION MEANS PROTECTION.
PROTECTION MEANS CONNECTION.
Protection does not mean your shields go up and nothing penetrates.
Protection does not mean your intuition will be blocked.
Protection does not mean limited empathy or compassion.
Protection does not mean you miss out on anything in your life that enhances you and your ability to be your fullest self.
When you activate your energy systems in their balance and health then your fullest, most magnificent protection kicks in.
Protection means you can stay grounded in all situations.
Protection means your system is resilient.
Protection means not having to react in fight, flight, freeze response in situations that aren’t life-threatening.
Protection means an easy ability to connect and relate with others in your life.
Protection means not experiencing overwhelm.
Protection means always feeling safe.
Being grounded and staying energetically cohesive are essential forms of protection, and therefore healthy, safe and balanced connection. It helps you stay strong in the face of difficulties and still hold your own space. Your energy field becomes resilient.
So what does being energetically grounded mean?
Simply put, being “grounded” means your energy fields are holding your energy body and physical body connected to the world beneath your feet, and the world above your head. You are physiologically and energetically designed to have an electromagnetic flow moving through every cell in your body every second of the day.
Without this flow your energy fields will lose coherence and cohesion. Your system will not feel safe, your stress response becomes easily triggered, and you are in a spiral of energetic reactivity.
When you understand how to support your energy, you are able to support and sustain your groundedness even when you are in stressful or sensitive situations.
Life should be about living, about thriving, about discovery and enlightenment. Your energy fields hold this understanding deep within their templates. Along with your incredible protective system, you also have the template for optimum health and vitality at every level of your energetic anatomy. It is this pattern of optimum health that you need to encourage daily and there are so many ways that you are able to do this.
One of the most wonderful and empowering aspects of understanding your energy anatomy is that you really can affect deep and lasting change every day by working with simple energy practices and techniques.
Here is one of my favourite practices for enhancing protection and connection, for building resilience and restoring grounding to your system.
Wings of Strength
Much love to you, and your magnificent, sensitive energy fields.
Prune
Illustrations by Alysha Takoushian
