If you’ve explored my website or read my previous blog posts, you’re starting to become familiar with the trait of high sensitivity and are likely exploring or have already determined that you are, indeed, a highly sensitive woman. You’ve come to understand that being highly sensitive means you have a finely attuned nervous system, you pick up on the energies around you, you feel deeply and you need more time than others to rest and recharge.
You may also be familiar with the term empath and wonder if you are one, as well. While being highly sensitive and being an empath do overlap and share similarities, there are distinctions.
High sensitivity is a sensory processing sensitivity which involves being easily overwhelmed by the environment around you and feeling overstimulated by loud noises, bright lights, crowds. Highly sensitive people need more time to wind down at night, more time for rest and more time to recharge their energy. They also process thoughts, feelings and experiences more deeply than others.
While the highly sensitive person does often pick up on the energy of others and feel things deeply, a key difference between an HSP and an Empath is that the person who is an empath will internalize and absorb the feelings of others. A highly sensitive person can feel deep compassion for other people’s pain and emotions, but the empath will actually feel and experience the other person’s pain, joy, stress or emotions in her body as if they are her own. She will absorb the emotions of another person and experience them internally. Energetic boundaries become blurred and it can be difficult to discern someone else’s emotion from one’s own.
Another distinction is that HSPs are typically introverted, while Empaths can be introverted or extroverted. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it is most common.
At this point, you may be wondering if one can be both a highly sensitive person and an empath. The answer is yes! Think of sensitivity on a scale. Highly sensitive people are high on the sensitivity scale. People who are empaths are further along the scale at the highest end. Therefore, all empaths are highly sensitive, while some highly sensitive people are also empaths, but not all. And, for contrast, narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths are on the complete opposite end of the scale.
Does it really matter or make a difference to know if one is highly sensitive or both highly sensitive and an empath? It does! It makes a difference in how we work with our challenges. For example, both would easily benefit from high levels of self-care, increased nervous system capacity and establishing healthy boundaries. However, the boundaries might look different for an empath versus a highly sensitive person. Boundaries for the highly sensitive person might be established around one’s time, physical space and communication preferences, thus guarding against nervous system overload. The empath also needs to establish boundaries around sensory input but must add an additional layer of boundaries to protect against emotional and energetic absorption. This often requires the ability to learn to differentiate between one’s own emotions and those of another person.
Whether you are a highly sensitive woman, an empath or both, you are welcome here! I identify as both an HSP and an Empath and have learned how to navigate this world in a way that adds to my life instead of detracting from it. It is my greatest wish to help you experience this, as well, so that you feel empowered in your life and embrace your inherent gifts!