Have you ever been overwhelmed and emotionally drained while attempting to bear another person's grief or suffering? If such was the case, you were probably suffering from compassion fatigue. But what exactly is compassion exhaustion?
While you may not have heard this statement before, you have most likely felt it at some time in your life.
Compassion fatigue is the expense of caring for people who are experiencing emotional distress. It occurs when you try to take on another person's pain as your own or give assistance that goes beyond mere empathy, and it may become draining.
But have no fear! There are ways to be a loving person without always putting yourself in danger.
Do you ever wake up feeling emotionally spent from worrying about a friend or family member's well-being and then attempting to come up with solutions to help? This might be a symptom that you're suffering from compassion fatigue.
It's normal to feel concerned about the health of someone you care about. However, it is better to take a step back if you are unable to focus on anything else and feel compelled to text or phone that person to check in on a regular basis.
It's easy to become fixated on trying to help someone else through a difficult moment, but if their troubles are always on your mind, you'll experience compassion fatigue and a sensation of weight.
Consider these tips the next time you're worried about someone else's suffering and wondering what you can do to make their day better:
1. Take a Break
2. Take a Breath, Literally or Figuratively
3. Shift Your Focus
If you find that you are overly irritable and easily annoyed with others, you are likely feeling the exhaustion of focusing too much on your friend’s problems.
Remember this: Signs of compassion fatigue reveal themselves in how you treat the people in your life who are not going through a difficult time.
When you are constantly scared or worried about a friend in need, you can feel burned out. You might find yourself overreacting or being rash towards family or coworkers. Neglecting the other people in your life who care about you or treating them poorly stems from having pent up frustration and stress. It takes a lot of strength to be experiencing compassion fatigue while still going through the motions of life.
By finding outlets to release bottled up grievances and anxiety, whether it is physical activity or deep conversations, you will find you are less emotionally volatile and will treat others with care.
Those with compassion fatigue find the following suggestions helpful in keeping them from lashing out:
1. Don’t Lash Out. Work Out!
2. Talk It Out
3. Write It Out
When you have compassion fatigue, there are days where you are so upset over your friend’s suffering that you lack the energy to do anything and operate at a low vibration. These negative feelings are amplified because you really want to help this person and steer them toward a solution, but you actually have no decision-making power
Think about it this way: When you are dealing with your own stresses, you are able to take action, but when it comes to someone else’s difficulties, you cannot force them to make any choices. This is what leads to feeling emotionally hopeless and drained, but there are solutions to this too:
1. Let Go of Control
2. Give Yourself Room to Feel
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