The Empath's Survival Guide

Publisher's Summary

What Is the Difference Between Having Empathy and Being an Empath?

"Having empathy means our heart goes out to another person in joy or pain," says Dr. Judith Orloff. "But for empaths, it goes much further. We actually feel others' emotions, energy, and physical symptoms in our own bodies, without the usual defenses that most people have." The Empath's Survival Guide is an invaluable resource for empaths who want to develop coping skills in a high-stimulus world while embracing their gifts of intuition, compassion, creativity, and spiritual connection.

In this unabridged recording of The Empath's Survival Guide read by Pam Tierney, Dr. Orloff shares practical, empowering, and loving advice for supporting empaths through their unique challenges—and for loved ones to better understand an empath's needs and gifts. Here listeners will discover crucial practices, including:

• Exercises to identify where you are on the empathy spectrum
• Tools for protecting yourself from sensory overload, exhaustion, addictions, and compassion fatigue
• Effective strategies to stop absorbing stress and physical symptoms from others and protect yourself from narcissists and other energy vampires
• How to find the right work that feeds you
• How to navigate intimate relationships without feeling overwhelmed
• Guidance for parenting empathic children
• Awakening the empath’s gift of intuition and deepening your spiritual connection to all living beings

For any sensitive person who’s been told to "grow a thick skin," here is a guide for staying open while building resilience, exploring your singular gifts, and feeling welcomed by a world that desperately needs what you have to offer.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2017 Judith Orloff (P)2017 Sounds True

Great info.. Bad narration.

Great information but narration is not very inspiring. It sounds like the narrator is being forced to read this work and makes it difficult to continue on for long lengths of time, which is what I'd like to do, but the lackluster monotone timbre of the narrator makes this a chore. Is it really that hard to find good narrators? I guess I'll try just reading the book as this production is too painful to carry on.

31 of 33 people found this review helpful

Typically Fabulous Practical Info From Judith

I am an avid reader of Judith Orloff's writings, and listener of her speaking! I have always known I was an empath, but after experiencing an empathic illness last year when my friend had cancer, I was moved to attend Judith's workshop in Big Sur to try and find out how to deal with this 'gift' that has been given to me. At the time, it honestly did not feel like a gift.

I have read all of her other books and this is the latest and greatest. Everything that I've ever known and learned about being an empath was addressed in this book. This truly is a survival guide. It brings everything together into one place and sorts it all out with these wonderful how-to lists.

I tend to use food to build my armor, to keep me protected from the feelings of the world. After the death of my daughter almost 14 years ago, a couple of relationship fails, several other deaths of people I care about and most recently, my pending divorce, I've been flailing around for a while and feeling rudderless.

Most of the info in this book I knew instinctively, and from years of therapy and Al-Anon, but it's been hard for me to put it all together and pull myself together. Now I feel like my thoughts are more organized and I'm able to move forward.

I've been wanting to start a support group for years and I think it's time to do that.
If you are an empath you must read this book! Judith covers every issue I could have possibly thought of, and there were even some I hadn't thought of!!

This is by far my favorite, and it's always a pleasure, the way that Judith puts her own life experience into her works!!!

37 of 40 people found this review helpful

So very helpful

This is a complete guide to feel comfortable in your own skin if you are a sensitive and or insightful person. I am finally seeing and embracing my sensitivities as a gift after using some of the protection and energy release methods in this book. Thank you Dr. Orloff for helping me find peace!!

10 of 11 people found this review helpful

fair at best

there are some good nuggets here however, true empaths will find her simplistic. nearly all of her suggested affirmations contain the mistake of adding the word "will" as in "I will learn to be positive". even many who are new to affirmations understand the importance of it being in the now as in "I am positive". they also understand the balance between honoring one's true feeling and experience and an affirmation. this says she's lacking in some rudimentary skills. also, true empaths will feel her ego in her words. it will be clear it is the ego of the author and not the narrator. the author is likely somewhat empathic but not to the level she claims. a sense of boasting comes through occasionally. some of her suggestions in dealing with others are good but some are overtly condescending suggesting she herself may have some qualities which I won't have to explain to an empath. for those who are looking for assistance, not a reason to inflate a needy ego, you will find some good pieces to be plucked here, but you will soon tire of where they are coming from. in addition, she is childlike in her writing and methods. good for some, shallow and lack-luster for deeper or more cerebral types. ultimately, I am glad I made the purchase as I was able to gain some good things from it and that is a reason for thankfulness. not all gifts are perfect or come from completely pure sources, yes? good luck and take care.

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

Meh. Nothing New.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

As a long-time empath, I was looking for something new and I just didn't find it here. I felt like the author repeated herself over and over again. If you're new to the concept of being an empath, this book would be helpful to guide you through some strategies to help protect yourself (though I've never found them all that easy to apply in real life scenarios).

Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?

The concepts were easy to follow, but this is a very basic book on the types of empaths and some strategies to try to protect your energy. Since this is a "Guide" - I think it would probably be better in book form rather than audiobook as it would be easier to mark/tag any concepts or strategies that you wanted to remember and reference at a later time. It's hard to do that with an audiobook.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Very informative!

I knew I was an Empath, but didn't realize the extreme extent of all of the different types one could be blessed with at all! I am a bit overwhelmed to have learned I am a highly sensitive empath, with so many traits that it will take me some time to assimilate it all. I appreciate the many tools provided and explained by the author. At least I have a base to start with to help me with many situations and people and my own personal feelings, to keep myself healthy. This book answered questions about myself as a child too! It gave me a sense of "belonging" to a group of unknown friends and some that I do know who are apaths. I would like to start a group but not sure if I know enough people in my circle to do so. I will check out Judith's website for help with that.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

WOW! Thank you. This should be mandatory Reading

I 've listened to over 200 self help books. I just wish this was the 1st one. It should be mandatory Reading for DOCTORS understanding EMPATHs would illuminate Years of wrong diagnoses and suffering. ENERGY medicine is the hope of the future. Bless you Doctor for sharing this. Teachers should understand this instead of ADHD labeling and medicating. This could replace the broken mental health system if people could grasp the EVERYTHING is vibrations and learn to feel them.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Too many sweeping generalizations and judgements

Living as an empath is a very important topic and I was really excited to find a book written by a medical doctor about it! There are many great tools and affirmations here. However I think Dr. Orloff personalized this story too much, making sweeping generalizations about empath that I don't believe apply to the majority of us. It seems like she spends way too much time talking about how to avoid human interaction instead of offering tools to allow us to really work with the world.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

''How to shove your problem onto someone''

What disappointed you about The Empath's Survival Guide?

This example from the book quickly demonstrates the overal idea: ''A friend of mine got a phone call that distressed her. Because I am such a sensitive empath, I felt my friend's anger and got distressed myself. After she got off the phone, I had to immediately ask her to never get distressed in my prescence again because I was now very upset''. ARE YOU SERIOUS? This book is a one-way-ticket to ''everything-is-about-me''-world. And if it isn't about you, you MAKE it about you. This writer encourages people to spread out their sensitive toes all over the place and make their problem everyone else's problem. Don't think about other people's feelings, just leave their birthday party early because big groups distress you! Or better yet, don't go at all! You just tell them how hard life is on you because you are sooooooo sensitive as an empath and BAM, you are off the hook for everything. Heck, you should aks a pay raise from your boss because you have still managed to come to work even though you have to deal with all of your 20 000 complicated feelings all day every day!

What character would you cut from The Empath's Survival Guide?

I think this book went way too far and is NOT a good solution for any empath, including myself. Sure it is a good idea to rest and distress, but who doesn't need that? I think it is much too simplistic and even a bit childish to entitle yourself to write other people off as ''emotional vampires''. NOBODY is just an ''emotional vampire'' and definitely not for their own amusement. This society has build up a zero tolerance to any kind of negative emotion and immediately has to run away from it out of fear for ''not feeling good'' 24/7. Guess what? Life is hard and is full of unpleasant surprises and the unpleasant feelings that come along with it. Don't get this book to try and start dealing with it, unless YOU want to become the emotional vampire yourself that will drain everyone else of their fun and glory because you couldn't deal with your own problems and thus had to make them someone else's.

13 of 18 people found this review helpful

I learned some great things from this book!

Although I appreciated learning more about being an empath, I felt the author suggested that empaths must be understood as "special" and treated differently than others. I am an empath, but I don't have a prima donna complex, nor do I expect others to make exceptions for my sensitivities. The author could have used other people as examples more and herself less.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

A Truly Life-Changing Book.

This book will repay over and over, the effort of reading it... and if it makes sense to you, that's exactly what you will do, read it again and again.
I am 66 years old and only recently have I come across the concept of an empath as a description for a person. Now, for the first time in my life I feel there's someone out there who knows exactly what it's like to carry the burden of other people's pain.

At last, a blueprint for a way of being that helps me deal with the ups and downs of daily life.

Three books have taught me how to live on a practical level. The first, "How to win friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. I found it when I was ten years old and being bullied in school. It was a revelation to me that social skills, were just that, skills that could be learned. This book showed me how to mask the pain and how to stop others picking on me.

The second book, it was on my bedside table for three decades, was "The Language of Letting go" by Melody Beatty. It helped me to rise above the pain and put it in a loving context. Finally, this book expains it all to me.

Thank you Judith.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Disappointed

I was turned off by the angels, rose water, non local intuition. I did not find it intelligent credible or useful.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

insightful

a lot of what is in this book really spoke to me. thanks so much.

A useful book but a lot of repetition

Having read the book, some of it seems to be common sense which will resonate with most readers. Some of the content though is a bit "out there" unless you are open to more "spiritualist" ideas. Personally, I found the last few chapters a regurgitation of what had already been covered in earlier chapters and "fast forwarded" for most of the last 2 chapters.

I thought I was an empath

Until I heard this book! I couldn’t relate the most of it, only small parts. I wondered whether the narrator was putting me off the content, she has a very monotone voice. I wish I had bought the actual book.

I MAKE SENSE - Yay

I love love love this book. For years, especially now, I felt like I'm in the middle of a nervous breakdown - for real. As I felt my current life experiences along with all the things happening in the world to-date, seem to be impacting me more than everyone else. Even my loved ones were telling me 'to pull myself together' and 'stop being so sensitive'. They even attempted to overgeneralise my reactions by saying they too hear of bad news but don't take it on board 'cos its life. And all I wanted to do was SCREAM 'leave me alone, 'cos I don't know what is happening to me'. Then I came across this book - Thank you, Thank you Thank you. Every word spoken in this book makes sense to me - now I can breath without feeling I need to justify myself because I am an EMPATH. I now accept this and immediately pray my shield of protection into activity daily. This book provides great insight into experiences that non-empath's take for granted. If you have every been called over-sensitive or a Drama Queen - Read &/or listen to this book, it will save your mental-health & well-being. A must read - Thanks again Judith for sharing this amazing insight - Blessings xXx