Yeah, I'm gonna be reading Judith Orloff's book as well.
Tbh, I'm reasonably good at spotting narcissists now. But the videos also gave me a lot of insight into my own psychological makeup and how I can learn to protect myself when I get stressed out by crappy people and negative energy.
I've been trying some of the suggestions out recently with an ongoing work situation and I think it's been really working for me. I previously would have just soaked up all the negative energy, gotten really upset about it, then really stressed about it, which would have resulted in a whole series of physical stress (insomnia, pounding heart/panic attack type reactions, IBS, TMJ) and then illness because my immune system was down.
Instead, I've been blocking the negative energy by not letting the person get physically close to me and not looking her in the eye. Making sure I don't go into the stress type response, and telling myself that I'm going to protect myself and keep myself safe (if you've watched the video about the four states of the empath that last bit will make more sense).
I've always been able to walk into a room and know exactly where everyone is at emotionally. More recently, in the past few years, I've been able to tell with physical stuff that's going on with people too- even total strangers. Last summer there was an ambulance at the end of the road, and even without seeing who was inside or knowing what was happening (it was facing the wrong way for me to be able to see in), I knew it was a woman that had had a heart attack and they were using the defibrillator on her. I could feel actually the physical sensations in my chest...it was really weird. I was totally exhausted afterwards, that night, utterly drained. I've had loads of instances like that over the past few years.
I'm now at the point where I want to protect myself a bit, not feel constantly overloaded, and have a bit more control as to what I let through.
