Empathy is a gift and a curse. Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings and perspectives of another. With the gift to understand things on a deeper level, comes with the curse of knowing too much. It is not to be confused with sympathy. To me, sympathy is pity. Pity does not bring one up, unlike empathy, which chooses to understand the perspective of another instead.

This trait is often misinterpreted as “weak.” But why?

There are many different misconceptions about being an empath. Some people think we are weak. Some think we are too sensitive. Some think we are lazy. But what is the reality of an empath, and how does this trait make it seem like it is a negative trait?

Empaths are great listeners, making us the perfect friend to confide in when another is feeling down. We can listen, and learn to understand from their point of view. But empaths attract so much negative energy. Not so much negative in a bad way, but a lot of dense information.

Because we attract so much negative energy, it can often lead to other issues, such as a constant state of fatigue, resulting in more need for rest, which can be misinterpreted as being “lazy.” However, we are anything but lazy, besides the occasional down days.

We have the ability to understand people who are very similar or so different we have a hard time relating. We are people who look into one's past to reflect on why they are the way that they are. We try our best to decrease the amount of judgment we release.

Being patient with others, and ourselves is a heavy yet rewarding task we deal with daily. Being an empath doesn’t mean you’re not tough. Patience is one of the most difficult things to continue when you just really want to punch a jerk in the face. I struggle with this often.

Empaths think about others a lot, sometimes more than they think about themselves. They want to help others, yet sometimes pay the price of being emotionally stressed. Sometimes, when I’m supposed to be asleep or when I’m waking up, I spend some time to think about the wellbeing of people I care about.

We feel everything so deeply. The positive and negative. When we are happy, we are overwhelmed with joy. When we are sad, we are in an ocean of despair.

Like I said earlier, there is a gift and a curse in feeling everything so deeply, including the emotions and perspectives of another. We absorb physical and emotional energies very easily. We mourn with the mourners and cheer with the ecstatic. We feel whatever we are exposed to, and don’t always have the ability to control what we are thinking about. Empaths are anything but weak and lazy. And being “too sensitive” is in no way a bad thing.

It can be a little much sometimes and overwhelming at other times, but there’s a gift to feeling everything so deeply.