Disengaging for Greater Engagement

Do you know how to take a step back? To take some space? To allow for distance? To disengage? Have you allowed yourself to experience the sweetness and benefit that comes when you do? Most of us don’t give ourselves this gift, and it can be at great cost to ourselves and our relationships.

If you’re an empath, if you’re sensitive and pick up on what’s happening around you then chances are, taking a step back, taking space for yourself and reconnecting to the Truth of who you are is very important for your well-being. If you don’t do this, you could feel the effects, big time.

Over-extending, over-giving and being energetically entangled.

Many of my clients struggle with issues that in some way fall in this category. We tend to extend to everyone else, support everyone else and even like doing it, most of the time. However, we also tend to neglect the signals that say “step back” ” take a break” “dis-engage” “take care of yourself.”

Even if we’re aware of the signals, we often override them. Empaths tend to be energy facilitators. Often, without even being fully aware of it, we read and move energy affecting the experience of another person or a group. In some ways, we’ve merged, our energetic experience with that of everyone else. We’ve entangled our sense of well-being with that of others and think that if we step back we will somehow suffer or lose.

The value of disengagement…

Usually though, it’s the opposite. Our inability to step back or to separate and really self-connect, can cost us our peace, our spaciousness, our clarity AND our ability to effectively contribute. We can get lost in the “energetic sea” so to speak losing our own sense of grounding, truth, clarity and self-connection. When we DO successfully disengage, we can return, renewed and refreshed and with a clear sense of ourselves and how we would like to engage (or not).

Tools for supporting disengagement

So what does it take for us empaths to step back and really stay self-connected?
Here are some ideas and tips to put into practice that can help.

• Get in the habit of regularly checking in with yourself and monitoring your own energy.
• Make a commitment to putting yourself and your own well-being, first and foremost (don’t worry, you’ll discover that in the long-run this is really to EVERYONE’s benefit)
• In any social situation be it one on one or in a group, take little breaks to check in with yourself. If you have to, spend some extra time in the bathroom, but take some time to self connect and know when it’s time to “call it a night”
• Recognize when it’s time to really step back and spend some time alone. Most of us have these signals, so learn to recognize them and stop overriding them.