Do you feel exhausted during work?

We all have them... those patients names we see on our schedule and then dread the whole day until they have come and gone. Its horrible to say it, I know, but isn't it the truth?

OR

those patients that we get so excited to see because they are so upbeat and happy every time they are in our chair! They make our day worth it right?!

It was years before I realized I am an empath and then it ALL made sense and

my hope for you 

is that after you read this article it will help you understand yourself and your environment more too.

So, what is an empath?

We've all heard the word empathy before. To have empathy for another person means our own ability to feel and experience what another person is feeling (and sometimes thinking). This is different than sympathy, in that sympathy means to understand someone's feelings, to be able to relate.

An empath is someone who is highly aware of other's emotions, the vibes in the room, 

and can easily read others body language and intentions quickly.

The following 5 signs will help you understand if you are an empathic RDH

1. You literally take on your patient's feelings or emotions as your own.

Your patient comes into the office and appears to be in a hurry. Right away you begin to feel your heartbeat speed up a bit, you feel the need to move quickly, your mind is a bit flustered...

Or maybe, your patient is very apprehensive and dislikes coming in for treatment, and you begin to feel anxious and tense.

What about your team? Can you tell when a coworker has something going on with them emotionally and you automatically ask them what's wrong and they look at you like "how did you know to ask"? Or the DDS comes in and right away you think "oh stay away from him/her today". 

How do you know this and why do you experience these feelings? Maybe you are an empath.

2. Your operatory needs to be and feel a certain way for you to be able to work.

Do you share your operatory with another RDH or do you temp in different offices and it takes ALL day to adjust to the vibe in that room? Being able to read the vibe in the room is another sign you may be an empath.

I have decided to stop temping altogether because its just too much for me mentally and emotionally. It isn't because I have to learn where everything is, although I dislike that, but its more about feeling the energy in that operatory, almost like I am intruding on another's energetic space that they have already imprinted on. Also, occasionally on Monday mornings I walk into my room and right away I'm like "who has been in my room?" and then later I find out another hygienist worked in my room over the weekend treating their family members.

3. You are easily relatable to your patients - you understand them and they know it!

When speaking with your patients, you are able to give them a sense that you do truly understand where they are coming from. They even ask you for your advice not only with dental recommendations and treatment, but also with personal things they share with you. Why is this? Because empaths know how to listen.

Jokingly I've been asked by patients if they need to pay for my counseling services up front too :)

4. You have the ability to calm your patients, and some of them even fall asleep during treatment with you!

Patients don't understand how you do it, but even the nervous ones feel calmer when they are in your presence. You easily make them feel relaxed just by being you, and this is why they keep coming back! They don't want to see any other hygienist in the office - THEY WANT YOU!

5. Without even thinking about it, you can read your patient's body language and act accordingly. 

We all have these patients- the attorney who is on his lunch break and having his teeth cleaned with no time to spare, so you move efficiently through the appointment without talking much, paying attention to accomplishing what needs to be done. 

Or the sweet elderly patient who lives alone and doesn't have much interaction with people, so you take your time with her, asking questions about how she is doing and what's new in her life, which usually leads to the first 20 minutes of the appointment being taken up by conversation, but hey, you intuitively know this is what she really needs.

Do you relate to this list?

If you answered YES to all 5 of these, you are an empathic Dental Hygienist. So now what...

Being empathic in this profession can be severely draining unless you know how to handle your gift - because that truly is what it is - a gift.

When I began learning the traits of an empath, it was a light bulb moment for me that shifted my entire way of working, and personal way of living too.

How to handle being an empathic RDH

If we don't know we are an empath then there could possibly be quite a bit of suffering happening. You may feel drained after work, and suffer from burn out. So recognize your own sensitivity to people and your surroundings. Understand that you have an ability that all humans have but most unconsciously repress.

• Recognize that you have a gift
•  in this world of sensitivity and awareness and learn to work with it not against it.
• At the beginning of the day 
• set an intention in your mind of maintaining your own space and separation of other's energy from yours.  You can do this at home or when you get to work. 
• If you begin to feel anxious or tense while working with a patient, quietly repeat in your mind - "this is their space and this is my space" 

setting up an energetic barrier between you two.  In our profession we have to invade another person's personal space, which in turn they invade ours too.  Our energies can begin to mesh together if we are not conscious and clear about protecting our invisible boundaries. 

• At the end of the day, 

brush it off! Seriously!  Again because we work so closely with a number of patients, we as empaths have the ability to absorb other people's energy and then take it home with us.  So when you leave work, (and even do this at lunch), take a few minutes to be present with your body and mind, and then begin to brush off what is not yours.  Start at the top of your head, moving to your shoulders, arms, chest, stomach, hips, and down your legs and out your feet, using each hand to "brush off" what you don't want to take home with you.  It may feel silly at first but I promise you that you will notice a huge difference in how you feel when you leave work. 

I hope you enjoyed this article and

I hope that it provided you with insights into your own natural abilities