How to Stop Absorbing What Isn’t Yours
Image by Haute Stock
A grounded guide for sensitives who take on too much
Have you ever worked in a place, or lived in a home, where something always felt off?
Maybe it didn’t seem obvious at the time.
Maybe things looked fine on the outside.
But everything underneath was swirling.
And somehow, you always felt like it was your fault.
You’d sit in a meeting, or a family room, or a tense silence—and no matter what anyone said or did, you’d carry it. Their tension. Their blame. Their shame. Their avoidance. And because you’re wired like a sponge, your body soaked it in before your mind could sort it.
So you left feeling like the problem. Even if you never said a word. Even if it wasn’t yours to hold.
This Is What Absorbing Energy Looks Like
It’s not always big. It’s not always dramatic.
Sometimes it’s just you—sitting quietly—trying to keep your face calm while your chest tightens and your stomach flips.
It’s you—coming home after a long day, your anxiety loud and unexplainable, wondering why no one else seems to feel what you feel.
It’s needing to pour a glass of wine just to come down.
To create space between you and everything you picked up that day—even if you can’t quite name what that was.
And then it’s pretending.
Pretending you’re fine.
Pretending you can handle it.
Pretending you’re not highly sensitive. That you don’t need what others need. That you should be immune.
This is what it’s like to be highly sensitive.
Empath. Intuitive. Perceptive. Whatever word you use—it’s the same experience underneath.
You feel what isn’t yours.
And you carry it like it’s yours.
You don’t just notice someone’s sadness—you hold it.
You don’t just sense someone’s chaos—you organize around it.
And it happens so fast, you don’t even know it’s happening.
You can’t serve energy if you’re swallowed by it.
You can’t hold space if everyone’s in your field.
You can’t hear your guidance if you’re full of other people’s noise.
So What Do You Do?
You start by telling the truth.
You name it.
You notice it.
You stop pushing it down.
“This doesn’t feel like mine.”
“I’m carrying too much again.”
“My system is full of things that don’t belong to me.”
And then you move it out.
Not because you’re bad. Not because you’re weak. But because you’re finally being honest about what it costs to hold it all.
Try this:
Shake your hands
Put your feet on the floor
Say softly: “I give back what isn’t mine.”
You don’t have to believe it fully yet.
Just say it.
Give your nervous system a chance to start remembering itself.
Image by Haute Stock
If You Still Feel Like You’re Drowning
You're not alone.
You’re not crazy.
You’re not too much.
You’ve just never been shown how to be sensitive without becoming a storage container for everything unspoken around you.
But that’s what we do here.
We name it.
We notice it.
And we begin the work of connecting back to ourselves—so we can stay soft without absorbing it all.
It doesn’t happen overnight. But with time, something shifts.
You stop carrying what isn’t yours.
You start recognizing your own energy again.
And little by little, you remember how to stay with yourself.
Want to go deeper into this kind of work?
Check out the energy support sessions or read the book How Not to Absorb Everything.
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