Empaths feel what other people feel and this can be overwhelming at times. So empaths need some survival tips to help them negotiate the world and stay grounded.

These seven survival tips for empaths may help you maintain emotional balance and help others without ignoring your needs, desires, and dreams.

1. Put yourself at the center of your life.
   It is not selfish to put your own needs first. If others depend on you, you must stay emotionally healthy and stable so that you can help them. Besides, you were put on this earth above all else to be yourself and to bring your unique gifts into the world. You’re not just meant to be a helper to others – you’re meant to be your light.

Take care of yourself by focusing on your own needs. Make sure you take the time to take care of your body, mind, emotions, and spirit in whatever way works best for you. Follow your intuition and listen to your body. Don’t do things just because others are doing them. The latest diet or meditation technique may not be right for you.

Through a process of listening to yourself and experimenting, you will find the self-care routines that are right for you. This should include a combination of eating what works for you, finding the right exercise to keep you healthy and active, and finding restorative activities that energize you and take the time to pursue your dreams and goals.

2. Make time for downtime
   Because we empaths find it difficult to refuse to help others, and because we can feel overwhelmed by their emotional needs, we need a lot of downtimes. You need to refuel your energy levels by doing whatever works for you.

Again, you need to listen to yourself and find the right activities for you. You may want to take some quiet time to meditate in a journal or read. Alternatively, you may find that spending time hiking in nature brings you back. Or it might be mountain biking, fencing, cooking, knitting, or restoring vintage cars.

3. The magic of meditation
   Meditation also helps empaths assess their feelings, find balance, and heal. Starting a meditation practice can be difficult. We don’t necessarily want to be alone with our thoughts. But this practice can allow us to become aware of what is going on in our minds and bodies. It can help us sort our stuff from the feelings of others.

Commit to regular practice. Start with just a few minutes a day if it’s new to you. Resources such as Headspace or Calm can help. Instead, check out the wide range of resources available in books or on the Internet.

4. Protect your energy
   As an empath, you can easily pick up negative energies from others. If you know you have to spend time with people you find draining, you may want to consider protecting yourself in some way beforehand.

You can try a meditation where you imagine yourself bathed in golden light, or imagine a halo of light around you, like an eggshell or a protective bubble. There are many such meditations available on the Internet.

5. Find an ally or mentor
   Counselors and trained psychologists always have regular sessions with other counselors to help them deal with the difficulties they have encountered in counseling sessions. As an empathetic person, you will likely spend a lot of your time dealing with other people’s feelings.

Perhaps people are drawn to your understanding of nature and compassionate energy. But you need a place to discuss these feelings and work through them on your own. Find a friend who shares your empathic nature and with whom you can confidently discuss any feelings you have picked up on others and are struggling to deal with on your own.

6. Prioritize how you spend your precious energy.
   We only have a certain amount of energy at our disposal and it’s important to prioritize how we use our limited supplies. For empaths, it can be tempting to give all of our energy to helping others. We find it hard to say no when we see someone as needy.

However, we must be careful about how we use our energies. Our precious supplies should be made available to those who will appreciate our help and who truly desire to improve their lives.

We can support others but we can’t solve everyone’s problems or make everyone happy all the time. We may spend a lot of time trying to help people who have no intention of making changes but would rather wallow in self-pity and drain the energies of others. Spending so much time with these people is not good for them or us. Sometimes the best way to help people is to let them figure things out on their own.

7. Follow your dreams
   As an empathic person, it can be so easy to get so caught up in the drama of others that you fail to pay enough attention to your own life purpose. Take the time to sit down and figure out what your desires, goals, and ambitions are, and then figure out how you are going to achieve them.

To do this, you may need to learn to say “no” to other people’s needs more often. Making time on your calendar to meet your own needs and pursue your own goals can help ensure you find a balance between being with others and being there for yourself.

Use survival tips

Being empathetic is both a gift and a responsibility, but ultimately our main responsibility is to ourselves. By following these survival tips, we can set an example, inspire, and uplift others by living our dreams and following our life purpose. This is often more helpful than trying to support everyone else.

We can use our empathy to help others who really need support during difficult times in their lives. However, we need to give others the space to allow them to learn and grow.

We must understand that we cannot always solve other people’s problems or get rid of their pain, so we need to protect ourselves from getting too deeply drawn into other people’s feelings. Following survival tips can help us understand the best way to truly help others.

In being our most beautiful and radiant selves, we provide inspiration and healing to others. By doing this, we can relieve any guilt we feel when we can’t be there for anyone else all the time.