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Old Mar 29, 2017, 03:13 PM
Eleny Eleny is offline
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Member Since: May 2015
Location: Europe
Posts: 287
Quote:
Originally Posted by subtle lights View Post
This has happened to me as well lots of times. Losing myself in others, taking on their personality, values, likes, dislikes. Especially when spending a lot of time with someone. The thing is that it doesn't happen on a conscious level, you feel like everything is fine, you think you actually like x thing, just to later realise that all this wasn't you and it leaves you confused, but you cannot control it and the next time you are with someone you lose yourself again.

You could be a highly sensitive person or as some call it, an empath, who picks up other peoples feelings and basically their whole personality sometimes, unconsciously, like a sponge. There are a lot of articles on this, though science is still not clear about how this works. But there are many people who experience similar stuff, and many resources online. If this resonates with you, there are also various things you could do, like mindfulness, grounding practices, body awareness-type meditations or exercises, where you connect to yourself to how you feel in your body so it will be easier for you not to drift away into other people's "worlds".
Hope this made sense, and I'm here if you'd like to talk.
Thank you so much for this, it was really reassuring to read and know I'm not alone. I will definitely try mindfulness. Have you tried it in these situations yourself?

A little off topic now, but do you think Mindfulness is a good way to gradually become your own self? I work in a homeless hostel and sometimes the chaos around me can cause me to lose touch with myself completely. I become absorbed in the problems of others. I was actually thinking today maybe I should start grounding myself and paying attention to how I feel in my body, just as you've said above. Do you think it would be a good method to not allow myself to become emotionally drained as well as establish my own sense of self?

Thanks again.