Empath vs Highly Sensitive Person | What's the Difference?

What the difference is between an empath and a highly sensitive person?

I feel like there's a lot of people that use these words interchangeably, but they're actually quite different. They can overlap for some people, and then for others, they don't.

I'll start with defining the variety of ways someone can my highly sensitive, then define what an empath experience is like, and how these two categories overlap for some people.

Highly Sensitive Person

A highly sensitive person is someone who can be sensitive in a variety of different ways... they could be physically sensitive, emotionally sensitive due to their mindset or unconscious trauma triggers, or they could be as sensitive as an overwhelmed empath. 

Physical Hypersensitivity

A physically hypersensitive person might be sensitive to the touch, their body might physically hurt easily from unknown or known neurological symptoms, they may be sensitive to smells, or their skin may be sensitive.

This is due to physical toxicity in their body. They might have heavy metals, toxin build-up, viral load, and bacterial load in their body that they're unaware of. Many people are born with these things and they can build up over a lifetime in a normal environment especially if they've been vaccinated as a child or adult. 

For anyone with physical sensitivity, I highly recommend looking into Anthony William's work, The Medical Medium. He teaches all about neurological disorders, chronic pain, chronic diseases, and how to clear that out through diet and celery juice.

Physical sensitivities can also come in the form of EMF (electromagnetic frequencies) meaning you're sensitive to excessive electronics, internet, led lights, satellites, and similar man-made electronic devices like electric cars. This is associated with having a sensitive nervous system that needs to be healed if you experience pain with this exposure.

You can also be aware of cosmic pulls on the body from the full or new moon, magnetic shifts on our planet, or with other planets. I can physically feel when certain planets go retrograde because there's a physical magnetic shift that I can sense happening in my body.

Emotional Hypersensitivity

Emotional hypersensitivity can stem from unresolved past traumas, lack of education on how to process your emotions at the moment, and a mindset that catastrophizes situations out of proportion to what's really happening. come from a lot of different things.

Often it's from one not knowing how to label your emotions, feeling detached from what's going on in your body, and trying to escape emotionally. Many of us did not grow up in families and in households where we learned how to label and process our emotions or get the emotional support we needed.

Many people are also sensitive simply because they're taking things personally or interpreting things in a negative way when it doesn't need to be. Maybe you have old trauma, old wounds that you didn't know how to process when you were younger, and you are still being triggered by them unconsciously.

You can be an emotionally sensitive person, simply because you don't know how to manage your own thoughts and emotions. You haven't learned those skill sets yet in order to come from a very healthy space. You might get offended very easily.

When you learn how to manage your mindset to see the world differently, you stop taking things personally from other people and realize that the things that people say and do are a reflection of who they are, not a reflection of you.

There can be some narcissistic tendencies as a highly sensitive person because you're so wrapped up in your emotional psyche that's not necessarily at a high level of maturity or mental health.

Mindset reprogramming and shifting of your belief systems are essential for healing your emotional hypersensitivity. This is something I spent years working on. I used the have crying meltdowns one to two times a month for over 30 years! By healing my mindset, that stopped completely which allowed me to have the mental and emotional clarity to manifest my dream life!

If you want to learn more about how to heal, reprogram your mind, and manifest your dream life, get on the waitlist for my enrollment in my online course and coaching program Step into Your Power Academy which opens a few times a year by clicking HERE.

Sensitive Empath

An Empath feels what someone else is feeling. The word empathic means to put yourself in someone else's shoes and experience what they're experiencing.

Empaths naturally empathize very quickly, very easily, very readily, and often don't even realize they're doing it.

You can be in an environment where there are other people that are having an emotional experience, and suddenly you are taking on those emotions. You are feeling what others are feeling. If someone walks into the room and they're really upset... maybe angry, sad, nervous, or even happy or joyful... you'll start to feel the same way simply by being near them.

This is something we are all capable of doing. It's just that some of us have a tendency to experience this more than others. It's on a spectrum, and for empaths, it's an involuntary experience.

If you don't know your body is doing this, then you may get very confused about why you feel so many emotions. If you don't realize you're feeling other people's emotions then you will continue to question why you're emotional and not know where it's coming from.

Empaths may hold onto heavy emotions from other people without realizing it. I used to be so focused on why I was feeling horrible and not knowing why. By continuing to observe my emotional pain that wasn't mine, to begin with, I was holding onto it longer than needed. 

Over time I learned how to stop the pattern of holding onto other people's energy which healed this pattern. You can check out my YouTube video below on how to not hold onto other people's energy.

Part of the process of being an empath is learning to define what is your energy and learning to define what is not your energy. Being aware of when it's your energy, and aware of when it's someone else's. Then choosing consciously to let go of other people's energy. We can't always stop energy from coming in. Energy is energy. It's not about turning off your empath abilities in order to help yourself or protect yourself. It's about learning how your energy works, getting clear on who you are, who you want to be, and what your energy is. Then holding on to your energy is so strong, that your energy overrides the energy of other people.

Whoever has the strongest integrity in their own vibrational vantage point in a given room, that person will overpower the other people in the room. So if you're an empath, if you are someone who picks up other people's energy, you have to be so good at holding your own energy that when you walk into any room, you can feel what they're feeling because you're an empath but you can also choose to let it go very quickly. You can choose to stay strong in who you choose to be. This is the skill set that every empath needs to know. 

Large crowds of people may make you feel more energy or drain your energy. If you have a weaker immune system or neurological system, you might actually fizzle out from being in big social situations and things like that. You can also be sensitive to the collective consciousness of our planet and cosmic changes in the planets, moon, and sun.

A highly sensitive person can be sensitive on a lot of different levels. You can be sensitive physically, emotionally, and as an empath. This was part of my journey in discovering all of my abilities.

I want to normalize all of these experiences because these are experiences that most of us have. These are normal, everyday things. And it's okay, it's part of being human. It's part of the human consciousness. It's part of the collective here on planet Earth. Its part of growing up as part of learning is part of evolving. It's part of how life is.

It's okay to be any of these and all of these in any variation. It's okay to be where you are right now and to learn how to manage and improve your skill sets as well. These are all things that I've experienced in my life. If I can heal my life, and learn how to manage these sensitivities, then so can you or anyone else.