What Is The Empath Shutdown?

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Saturday, 22 April 2023

Written by Diane Katherine

Have you ever been in a certain person’s presence, and found yourself feeling really weird, or even negative, yet having no reason for it? As in, the other person has done nothing to offend or upset you?

Or have you ever found you’ve not been able to talk to a certain person and not really known why? You might find yourself stumbling over your words, or sentences don’t form in your mouth. And again, there’s no real reason. The other person seems perfectly lovely.

This could be all part of The Empath Shutdown.

Here are some more symptoms of how an Empath can act, around certain people, when in Shutdown:

Not being able to think straight when around said person.
You feel the need to get away from them.
Your brain acts like you have no memory.
Your true personality becomes immobilized.
You experience strong sensations of dread in the pit of your stomach.
Fatigue sets in.

When sentences literally won’t form in your mouth, and your brain acts like you have no memory, you know there’s something wrong. Right?

It is common knowledge that when an Empath comes across fake people it is usual for them to freeze. It is a form of protection. Which makes complete sense, because, let’s face it, when someone is hiding part of their personality there’s got to be a reason.

I mean, why would anyone want to hide part of themselves?

The two very obvious reasons are dislike and deceit.

When I say dislike, I mean the other person has a dislike for themselves, and they simply want another to like them. They put on a fake charm in order to appear nicer than they feel they naturally are.

Which, as you can see, is quite harmless. But still, it can put an Empath on high alert and trigger a Shutdown.

Deceit speaks for itself. If another person is being deceitful, because they are either manipulative or untruthful, it has a dark vibe. If an Empath has had a bad experience with someone like this, in their past, they will recognise the energy pattern of deceit, if even subconsciously, and shut down. Again, as a form of protection.

However, there is also a third reason for the Empath Shutdown…

Hiding from one’s own truth.

Just because an Empath feels fakery and untruths in another, it does not mean they do not pretend to themselves or live a lie.

For some Empaths, when they feel bad around a faker it may mean they are picking up a trait they do not like about themselves and they too hide from the world.

If this is your case, you will probably be quite badly affected when around any type of inauthenticity. It’s almost as though it is a message from the higher self, showing you the damage that living a lie has on your body and mind.

We all put on a face and act fake at some point in our lives.

We may act upbeat and happy when we feel sad or depressed, we may play annoyed when we are actually indifferent, or we may have to pretend to love a job we actually detest. In some cases, faking it can get us through difficult situations. But living it daily is not healthy, and it feels horrible.

For this reason, it is important for the Empath to uncover any hidden traits and stored painful emotions, because whilst we bury a side of us, we do not like, we will never be truly happy or feel complete.

The problem, however, is that many of us do not know the root cause of our inner-pains.

One of the biggest causes of unhappiness on this planet is people not knowing themselves. When we hide a side of ourselves from others, without knowing the reason, it causes a general dissatisfaction with life.

The thing is, many Empaths bury traits we consider to be negative because we know how destructive they are. But burying them does not lose them. They still impact our lives in detrimental ways.

Hate, anger, jealousy and fear of rejection are four traits most often buried.

For example, we may hate someone for the way they have behaved towards us, anger may have been inherited from an angry parent, praise and attention being bestowed on a childhood friend or sibling may have led to a jealous streak, and being rejected as a child, by an unknowing parent, may have built up inside as an intense fear of rejection.

Sometimes, it is a simple as unbalanced hormones that play with our mind, making us feel insecure, and creating a dislike of self (A subject for a future post.).

All of the above are very simple and innocent triggers, but all of which can snowball and lead us to have deep-set insecurities that we feel have to remain hidden.

Wherever they originated, it is important to uncover buried fears and true personality traits, and if they can’t be changed (some traits are hard-wired), accept and learn to live with them.

Being true and authentic is emotionally freeing. Once we recognize and accept any negative traits we have buried, they tend to lose their hold.

Sadly, until you face your truth, you will always be adversely affected when in the face of inauthenticity, and Shutdowns will be a regular part of life.

Luckily, we are living in a time where truths are naturally rising to the surface. Yes, they always cause discomfort when they arise (you only need to look out in the world to see this). But when seen for what they are, they lose their power over us.

To finish, when you have experienced an Empath Shutdown, a simple way to reset is to ground yourself. This post has 15 ways to do that.

But 3 quick ways are: drink some fresh water, get your bare feet on the earth, and/or get some natural daylight in your eyes.

Hope this helps on your journey.

Until next time.

Diane.

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Diane lives in Manchester, UK. She spent the past twenty years researching everything from human anatomy to the law of attraction. She is a qualified colour and crystal therapist, massage therapist, reflexologist, aromatherapist, healing practitioner, yoga and meditation teacher, and has done in-depth research into diet and nutrition and how it affects Sensitive people.. ©Diane Kathrine