Empath Survey

Thank you for your interest in the upcoming empath’s course.

At present, I envision small group coaching one evening a week UK time over 8 weeks, starting in mid September. There will be supplementary content and action steps.

The survey below has some questions that will help me develop the most helpful content for you.

Before we get to that, here is a list of empath characteristics I have noted that are discussed in a range of books I have been reading in my research. There is no hard and fast empath indicator: it is more a case of you recognising yourself being described in this list. Not everything has to apply to you (except, I think, the emotional sponge): for example, although I like animals well enough, I feel no special affinity with them, maybe because they played no real part in my childhood.

Characteristics of Empaths

Emotional Sponge - you find it hard to disentangle yourself from others’ problems. You cannot just listen sympathetically to a friend’s problem, give advice, then get on with your day. You absorb their pain like a sponge. It affects you long after you hear about it.

Highly Intuitive - you can sense things that others cannot and....

have an ability to read a situation that others lack - although you may not have the confidence in this that you should, because some of the other traits on this list may result in you doubting yourself.

The Feel Bad Crutch - because people sense that you can mop up their pain, you can easily become a feel bad crutch for people. They can't stop moaning to you and leaning on you, pouring out their victim stories for you to mop up. You may find that they are more cheerful around others, although this may be completely unintentional on the part of the person leaning on you. You, however, get the worst of both worlds.

Narcissists love you - this is an intentional extension of the feel bad crutch. Christiane Northrup in Dodging Energy Vampires talks about narcissistic supply, which is when a narcissist uses others as a way to self aggrandise. It may be combined with strategically putting you on a pedestal. Maybe you experience feeling used one week, then on the receiving end of a rush of compliments, flowers etc the following week.

You feel an affinity with animals

Violence and cruelty are intolerable to you

You take too much responsibility for the wellbeing of others and generally give too much of yourself to the world.

You put others’ wellbeing before your own - in fact, you may not respect your own needs at all when someone else is leaning on you.

You avoid standing up for yourself or hide your true self with certain people in order to avoid getting a dose of negative energy from them.

You are a people pleaser

Crowded places overwhelm you easily

And now for the questions...

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#1 Looking at the list above, how strongly do you identify as an empath?

#2 Can you describe how being an empath makes your life difficult? Please give as much detail as you like.

#3 Can you identify any strengths in yourself because of your empath nature?

#4 Do you use food to help deal with the difficulties that you experience in life as an empath? Please give as much detail as you like here: do you binge? What on? What sort of factors trigger overeating?

#5 If you had a magic wand, what is the one thing you would change in your life? Remember a magic wand can do anything - give you any magic powers, make anyone else transform or disappear

#6 What is your time zone?

#7 Any other comments or information that you would like to add, please let rip!

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions - I really appreciate it. I will be in touch when I have collected everyone's thoughts.