Empathy will kill you
Your capacity to empathize can destroy you and make you lose focus on what really matters.
If you have an inherent ability to sense what people need and where their pain lies, know you have a superpower. But I feel for you.
At times, being so emotionally available and absorbing all this information can be overwhelming. Or you may feel responsible for helping those you love. At the same time as living their own emotions as your own.
This can a barrier to oneself, especially when you’re used to being so disconnected and self-centred.
The major consequences that come from this are the fact that you feel you have to take care of the world and you accept people you know are hurting into your life, even though they are bombs, just because you think you can save them. That will break you sooner or later. Even the ones you genuinely love… you can’t be everyone’s accountability partner. If you can’t detach from the emotion, I’d go as far as saying you can’t be anyone’s accountability partner.
This is the journey I’m going through. I always thought by taking frequent breaks to recharge I could take it, without realizing I was simply imploding. I have a lot of questions, and I’m giving myself until the end of the year to get answers and redefine what I wish to bring into 2022, and what I will choose to leave behind. It’s okay to leave things behind. It’s okay to move on and close doors. It’s okay to take care of ourselves first.