What is an Empath Person? [Are You an Empath?]

The term empath is derived from the word “empathy”.  It is a person’s ability to be able to somehow sense or feel another person’s feelings, emotions, and at times, even their pain. 

This is a FUN article you will enjoy reading! An empath person can sense and internalize another person’s feelings or emotions as if they are their own.

Definition of Empath

Do you think you may be an Empath? Ask yourself if you sense someone else’s feelings or emotions. Do their feelings actually become your feelings and emotions? You may be an empath if you said yes.

Does this story sound like you? Say you visit a loved one that is in the hospital with a non-life-threatening illness. As you’re walking down the hall toward their room, you pass a room where there are several members of a patient sitting in chairs around the bed. 

As you pass that particular room you are overcome with grief and so much sadness. You can somehow “feel” the emotions within that room, and you know that person’s time is nearing. You can’t explain it, but you feel it as if it were your own loss, your own family member passing away. 

Many times, as an empath person, this type of scenario can drain you both mentally and physically.  

List of traits an Empath person may possess

• Take on others emotions, feeling, and possibly even pain as if they are your own
• Want to help others
• May be oversensitive
• Other people seem to feel at ease telling you things about themselves
• Can often feel overwhelmed
• People may think you are moody
• Living in a cluttered home can cause emotional stress for you
• Good at sensing “the Truth” when speaking to others
• Other people often ask you for advice with their problems
• In tune with nature and the world around you
• Sadness about an event in your life can linger for a long time
• Being in a crowded situation can often drain your energy making you tired
• Watching television or reading negative news stories can cause you to be depressed
• Love animals
• Mirror others
• Don’t hide your feelings
• May suffer from anxiety
• Enjoy being alone and in a quiet place
• Often have a total sense of certainty about something important
• Stand out in a crowded room
• People are drawn to you

Take a quick “Are You an Empath” Quiz! (Located at the Bottom of the Page)

Empath Mirroring:

Some empaths have the ability to “mirror” others. What this means is that they sometimes seem to take on a person’s persona. They absorb that person’s characteristics, traits, and emotions as their own. 

Sometimes for the one “mirroring”, it is hard to distinguish what or who they are, as to what they are absorbing from the other person. They experience the other person’s sadness, which in turn causes the empath to become depressed. 

They may also experience a person’s anxiety, which in turn causes them to become anxious. One of the most important things to remember as an empath is to not allow yourself to become drained mentally or physically. It is important to learn to set healthy boundaries as an empath. 

Learn to control the amount of time that you spend around those that seem to radiate negativity, and most importantly learning to disconnect yourself from someone that is constantly draining you. It’s okay to say no sometimes if it means protecting your own emotional well-being.

Empaths Enjoy Being Alone:

One of the other traits of an empath is wanting to avoid crowded places at all costs. The minute that an empath walks into a crowded room, they often have an immediate sense of being completely overwhelmed. 

At times this can become almost unbearable.  Because empath’s can feel the energy that is all around them, walking into a place with a lot of people can become overwhelming to them because they are picking up “energy” from so many different people all at once. Have you experienced this?

Do You Have Any of these 10 Signs of Being Lonely? Click Here to Find Out!

When an empath senses negative energies, anxiousness, and someone’s physical pain all overtaking them at once, it can cause immediate exhaustion, and sometimes even becoming physically ill. 

That is the reason most empaths prefer to stay more to themselves, or only interact with a couple of people at any given time. 

Empaths are Fixers:

A majority of empaths are considered “fixers”. They have a very hard time not constantly wanting to fix or heal others. Whether that be emotionally, mentally, or health-wise. It’s extremely hard for an empath to not care. 

Because an empath actually senses what other people are feeling this desire to help others is natural. They tend to take those urges to fix or help others and act on them without even realizing it most times. 

Because an empath can absorb another’s feelings of despair, it’s in their nature to want to take that feeling away from the other person so that they can heal them, or fix them.

Caution! In doing this, the empath can become completely drained mentally or emotionally. This is something to try and be aware of if you think you are an empath.

Empaths Can Become Co-Dependent on Others:

Some empaths can also become totally reliant on others. They are trying so hard to take away that person’s pain, that they lose themselves in the process and become co-dependent with that person.

They become completely obsessed or drawn to fix the person. it is almost as if they become that person. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever felt so in tune with someone else you kind of think and act the same way? 

Most empaths will tell you that this is one of the main reasons that they consider their gifts both a blessing and a curse. They always want to save everyone and save the world, but always seem to lose themselves in the process. 

It’s always hard to watch someone else going through something, and all you can do is watch and hope for the best. This is especially true for empath’s so they tend to take action on these feelings.

Empaths Need to Re-Charge From Time to Time:

Over a period of time, it’s important for an empath to recharge. They become so consumed with everything that’s going on around them that it completely drains them.

It can make them want to sleep more just to rest their minds. Being overly tired and worn out can also make you become physically ill. When this happens, there are a lot of ways to recharge. 

Empaths Love Nature:

Most empaths seem to be drawn to nature. Remote places such as the mountains or a deserted beach are perfect for empath’s looking to recharge. Hiking, camping, or even sitting on the beach just listening to the waves crash on the shore seem to calm the spirit. 

It’s important as an empath to disconnect from the world around them for a period of time. Even if only for a few hours to clear the mind and relax.

Needing time alone to recharge doesn’t necessarily mean that empaths are introverted or are pushing others away. It is just sometimes needed for an empaths well-being.

Empaths Don’t Always Fit In:

A large majority of empaths feel as if they just don’t fit in for many reasons. This is because they feel more deeply than most. Not one to just go along with the crowd, empaths are sometimes considered aloof.

Empaths are sometimes shy. Here are 10 Ways to Stop Being Shy. Click here to see.

Empaths are Truth Detectors:

Empaths somehow know when someone is lying to them and when someone is upset or sad. 

They can see past a person’s mask or the fronts they put up. The person that someone tries to hide something, such as a narcissist, won’t have much luck with an empath.

They know when someone is not being who they really are, or trying to hide things. As an empath, it’s hard to get close to someone or form a friendship with someone that isn’t genuine. 

They have a very hard time allowing anyone close to them, especially in relationships. Empaths seek connection with others. It’s hard for them to form a connection when they know that someone isn’t who they are trying so hard to be. 

Once an empath has uneasy feelings or vibes about a person, they will begin to question every single thing about that person. Every action that person makes, they are constantly trying to read them to see what their true intentions are. 

Empaths Tend to Distance Themselves:

For that reason, a lot of empaths tend to distance themselves and prefer to stay away from most people unless they truly trust you. It’s their way of protecting their own peacefulness. 

Not only that, it’s also hard to explain to someone else how they somehow just know things about others without the other person telling them. 

Empaths are Not Understood:

Sometimes other people don’t understand what they have never experienced themselves, so they naturally consider an empath crazy, or just weird. That’s why a lot tend to stay more to themselves and self-isolate more than most.

Empaths are unique personalities. Click here to see the world’s rarest personality type. Is this you?

Types of Empath People:

There are many different types of empaths. While all of these types have a way of connecting with specific things, they all are extremely sensitive to specific things around them.

The Telepathic Empath:

Can you read someone’s mind? Telepathic Empaths seem to be able to do this at times. It is almost as it they sense what someone’s thoughts are just by being near them.

A Telepathic Empath is a very fascinating person to have as a friend or family member! Have you ever thought you could read someone else’s mind?

The Physical Empath:

The physical empath has the ability to sense or feels another’s physical well-being or physical pain. For instance, they can go visit a family member that has been ill. The minute that they walk in the door, an empath immediately begin to mimic that family member’s symptoms. 

It’s as if they have the same ailment as the other person, even possibly running a fever themselves or suddenly having a terrible headache. 

Physical Empaths are like a huge, porous sponge when it comes to absorbing others physical symptoms.

The Emotional Empath:

The Emotional Empath has the ability to sense or feel another person’s emotions. Sometimes this can be a blessing, but other times it can also feel like a curse. 

One example would be, a close friend was just proposed to by her fiancé, so she decides to call her best friend that is an empath to tell her the good news. An empath immediately feels their happiness, as if it were them that was just proposed to and getting married. 

Emotional empaths can easily become emotionally exhausted. Because they absorb emotions around them or if they are around negative people it drains them. It can become extremely exhausting for an empath from constant negativity, causing them to become depressed and negative themselves. 

It’s important for an emotional empath to learn to care for themselves, but also be able to separate their own emotions from others around them.

The Claircognizant (Intuitive) Empath:

The Intuitive Empath has the ability to somehow just “know” things. They are able to see the things within a person that another person may be trying to hide from the world. Do you have this feeling sometimes?

They sense what someone doesn’t say, and they know that someone is lying to them the minute the words come out of their mouth. Intuitive empaths are extremely sensitive to everything around them. 

One example would be an immediate, overwhelming feeling that something is very wrong. The feeling that something is going on that they just don’t know about yet. Then they receive a phone call from one of their children about an argument that they had that day. 

It’s as if they knew what their child was feeling, and knew that they would be calling soon to talk about whatever it was that is bothering them. It’s the feeling of knowing, but not being able to explain how they know.

The Precognitive (Dream) Empath:

The Dream Empath has the ability to receive intuitive messages or signs from dreams. They have the ability to use that information to help others, or even help themselves.

They have an amazing ability to read between the lines of those dreams and have an exceptional understanding of those dreams.

The Flora (Plant) Empath:

The Plant Empath has the ability to feel the needs of plants. That may sound crazy to you but plants are living species too! Empath people are often able to connect with plants in a way that when a plant is wilting, they become depressed, or sad. Maybe it is a visual thing but it happens!

When near a plant that is thriving, an empath person seems to be happier and more content in their lives. Remember one of the traits of being an empath is loving nature.

Plant empaths can make some of the best friends. They offer so much care and tenderness to plants, that it overflows into their own personalities. 

They are compassionate, extremely caring, and always somehow know what needs to be done to make things better again.

The Geomantic (Earth) Empath:

The Earth Empath is very similar to the plant empath. Both vibe on the same energy level. While the plant empath is more in tune with plants, the earth empath is in tune with the universe in general. They have the uncanny ability to tune into what’s going on with the whole universe. 

Empaths may be some of the world’s best environmentalists. Do you love the Earth as well? If so, you may be an empath.

Because of that sensitivity, they are sensitive to the changes on our planet and also the weather.  Many times they are able to somehow know when a catastrophic world event is going to happen before it even happens. Empaths just “know” right?

The Fauna (Animal) Empath:

The Animal Empath has the ability to connect with an animal’s energy. They sense an animal’s needs, despairs, and at times their pain. Animal empaths are a soothing force to animals, and animals seem to gravitate towards them. 

A lot of the time you will see this type of empath over on the couch having a deep conversation with a pet, and seeming to understand everything that pet is trying to say.

Do you wonder if Doctor Dolittle was an Empath? Well, he could talk to the animals so yes he was!

The Intellectual Empath:

The Intellectual Empath moves to a higher level of communication often taking on the skills of another person they encounter. This could be as simple as using a different vocabulary than they normally do or even writing at a higher level.

This trait can be especially beneficial to an empath if they are engaging in public speaking or teaching. Ask yourself this question.

Have you ever suddenly started speaking differently around another person? Kind of “mirroring” their speech patterns and vocabulary? If so, you might be an empath!

Should You Associate with Empaths?

There are so many various factors as to what an empath is. But we can suggest to you that empaths are those types of people that you want to be an important part of your life. 

They will always show up for someone in need, even at the most inopportune times. Empaths are highly intuitive and mentally intelligent people. They make exceptional therapists, life coaches, and motivational speakers because they understand things on a much deeper level than most. 

When someone is sad, they feel their sadness and have a better understanding of how to help that person using various coping skills. 

Although they may have not experienced the feelings themselves of what another person is struggling with, they have an intense drive to help that person in any way that they can. 

Many empaths also do a lot of volunteer work. Not because it makes them look good to the outside world, it’s because they genuinely have the desire to make the world a better place and help others in need.

It’s important for an empath to recognize both the struggles of feeling so deeply, but also the blessings that come with being a highly sensitive person. 

For an empath, some days may be a challenge when trying to separate your own feelings from those all around you. Empaths fully understand though that every day can also be a great blessing when you embrace the gifts God has given you.

Just in case you are curious to know…here are some celebrity and well known empaths:

Are You an Empath?

Many people don’t even know what the term means but now that you know what do you think?

Are you an empath? Take this quick and fun Are You an Empath Quiz. Have fun with it. There are no right or wrong answers.