What is the difference between having empathy and being an empath? This deep dialogue explores the blessings and challenges of being an empath. Highly sensitive people have much to be grateful for. They are able to experience exquisite passion and joy. They can perceive the big picture on a deep level. They’re attuned to the beauty, poetry, and energy of life, and their compassion gives them the capacity to help others. Their sensitivities allow them to be caring, vulnerable, and aware beings. They also need to take special care to protect themselves from overload or absorbing too much negativity and stress from others. Orloff shares her goal: “Empaths don’t have the same neurological wiring that other people do and so they tend to absorb things and take on the world’s angst. My goal is to give people strategies on how to keep empathy open, alive, and growing while still protecting oneself as well as learning how to set very clear boundaries with others who might snatch it away. They need to protect themselves from adrenal fatigue and energy vampires.”
