Anita Moorjani had a NDE (near death experience) – actually, she literally died – and came back. She wrote a book about that called “Dying to be Me” and is a sought after speaker. Now she has written this book about being an empath. Honestly, there’s a lot out there on empaths these days, but I haven’t seen anything exactly like this, which is pretty much a definitive guide.
Moorjani is Indian and grew up in Hong Kong; so her perspective is from the Eastern traditions and you should know that there are words here like “aura”, “nirvana”, “life force energy” and so on. I feel like this book is so valuable if you are an empath, though, that hopefully you can just translate these into your own tradition, or other language, if it doesn’t fit for you.
Moorjani starts with defining what an empath is and how they are (or really, we all are) six-sense beings. There is a 35 question quiz to help you determine where you are on a continuum of being one. Then she goes into some of the problems with being an empath and some of the “superpowers”.
Moorjani covers things such as how to deal with overwhelm; what to be wary of in spiritual communities; the body and healing; our intersection with money and success; how to say no; our filters; and gender norms.
Two very interesting things about this book for me: Moorjani discusses the “ego” and our thoughts. It’s common in yoga and eastern traditions to hear about letting go of the ego. Moorjani says that this is damaging for empaths; they already struggle with doing too much for others, giving too much, and feeling too much of others’ pain. Empaths actually need their ego dial turned UP, not down. Also, she talks a bit about our thoughts and specifically attraction theory. As a therapist, I often have people become more aware of their negative self-talk, and Moorjani claims that this only makes us think more about the negativity. The key is not to try to change our thoughts, or to make vision boards to change our lives, but more so to ask “how can I support myself better in this moment”, and just keep doing that every moment.
This book is out March 16, 2021 and I encourage you to buy it. First, so many therapists I know would at least classify themselves as highly sensitive; and some are definitely empaths. So this book is going to be handy for the therapist, just in managing their own empathic choices. But also, it would be a great book to have around for clients as well.
Disclaimer: The Amazon link above is an affiliate link and I receive a small compensation for purchases made through this link. Summaries are NOT intended to replace the purchase of the book but simply to save you time reading!