The Empath’s Guide to Grounding and Self-Care
By Kerry Biskelonis, LPC, RYT
Last Updated 02/16/2026
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The Empath’s Guide to Grounding and Self-Care
Grounding Ritual and Meditation for Empaths
Step 1: Notice your feelings and emotions.
Let’s begin by noticing what you are feeling. It could be obvious or more nuanced: a tightness in the chest, pressure behind the eyes, tension in the jaw, uneasiness in the gut. It could be a tight fist, hot head, throbbing headache, or tingling hands. Get curious and explore the sensations in your body.
Step 2: Welcome your emotions.
Meet your feelings with kindness. We often run from our feelings instead of confronting and feeling them. It’s vital that we honor how we are feeling, which is easy to avoid when we are so busy and tell ourselves it’s hard to take a moment. Oftentimes, it feels safer to avoid the feelings, even though they are seeping out and impacting everything - our moods, our responses, our relationships.
Step 3: Listen to your body.
Acknowledge what your feeling needs. What is it asking from you? Try tapping on your knees or across your chest as you sit with the feeling. Stay for at least 12 breaths, counting if it helps, continuing to stay with the feeling. After some time there (maybe 30 - 45 seconds), see if you can go deeper. Does it need movement? Intuitively, your body knows, so let it respond. There is no time limit here. Just be with it and let it express itself as it wants.
Step 4: Sit with the feeling until you feel a physical shift or release.
Empaths and big feelers, you might have strategies of numbing, running away from, and suppressing your feelings. Perhaps you’ve been told you’re dramatic, “too much”, and it was unsafe to express feelings because when you did, people rejected you, dismissed you, and abandoned you.
It’s easier to stay busy and in service to others because when we sit in silence with ourselves and our own feelings, we may confront painful memories, anxieties, uncertainties, and shame. The thing is, though, that we must welcome the uncomfortable feelings to feel the joyful ones.
So, as you sit with the feeling and let it express itself, ask - what beliefs come forward about myself here? Hold that while then layering on top the opposite - a positive belief, a hopeful belief. Now, be prepared for grief to arise - grief for what could have been, what’s been lost, grief for the pain/hurt we’ve caused or we have witnessed. Go ahead and hold the hard feeling while also offering yourself love, grace, tenderness and the care you deserve. Give back to yourself what you so freely give to others. You matter too. Stay with this until you notice a shift in your body, a lightness, a physical letting go, an alchemy.
Step 5: Hold onto your strengths. Embody your power.
To alchemize is to transmute, and for big feelings, part of your purpose is to turn darkness into light. This is what it means to be a light worker, to use your power to be an instrument of change. With the power to alchemize, you can always be in control of yourself, no matter what comes up. Your big feelings are part of your superpower - so slow down, acknowledge what arises, and you have the power to decide what to do with it.
Begin to embody the power you hold as a lightworker - as someone who can transmute darkness into light; take a challenge and layer it with hope. This is a demonstration of resilience. Your big feelings and all the pain, grief, hurt, and fear you feel are not here to harden you, but to soften you - that you can be strong enough to be with those feelings and still be a loving, soft, illuminating place for others. You are here with love and light. Feel into the power. You are illuminating.
Finally, to close this powerful grounding ritual, is there an image, symbol, or sensation that anchors you to this feeling? Let it form before you and use this as a reminder of your power and your light. Deep breath here. Now, return to the here and now.
How an Empathetic Leader Deals with Challenging Times
Staying Informed
This week, I hit a wall. I could feel the pressure mounting internally as more and more piled on. I was consuming a lot of information - some, it felt out of necessity to stay informed, to ensure I could be a leader, and some out of pure anxiety. If I read the things, then maybe I’d be prepared - a worst-case, catastrophic type of reaction.
Reading and Researching
I kept reading, telling myself I’m responsible and better be prepared, but it was too much. For me, anytime I read that I need to prepare a go bag, I shut down. Go where? If the world goes upside down, where will I go? I imagine jammed highways and frantic people… to what end? One book told me to start getting a firearm license and practice at the range. Full-stop. That’s when I closed it down and hid the book in the back of my bookshelf.
Preparing for the Worst
Dr. Seuss has a favorite line of mine, “Prepare for the best, expect the worst, life is a play, we live unrehearsed”. I was leaning really hard into expecting the worst, barely noticing that perhaps I could prepare for the best. As someone who feels deeply, and since a pretty profound “dark night of the soul” in 2019 and again in 2021, I’ve constantly found myself teetering on the edge of “I feel something, and it feels real and scary, and it feels like I need to do something radical to prepare,” and feeling like I am totally crazy. I find myself getting wrapped up in doomsdayers because it validates the panic I’ve felt for years, even as I want to stay in trust and optimism.
How to Cope with Big Emotions
Stay curious.
I’ve always joked that despite my allergy, I’m like a cat - always curious, always getting killed by that curiosity. Killed, of course, metaphorically, since it’s really just my emotions gutting me each time I dive deeply into things. If I weren’t more well-adjusted, I could totally be a conspiracy theory person. I think that’s why I wanted to be in the CIA - trying to find answers to all the perplexing and big feelings, confusion, and fear.
Remember you’re not alone.
I know there are other big feelers out there. The ones who feel the room and can read the energies, can wake up wondering if it’s their own feelings or perhaps other people’s feelings impacting their mood. The ones who can get moody, irritable, and exhausted, not because anything is directly wrong for them, but simply for knowing there is a lot of pain and suffering in the world.
Be realistic about you have the capacity can handle.
I had a bit of an adult temper tantrum at the start of the week, as I acknowledged my capacity dwindling. It was an evening I solo-parented, and while the kids weren’t any more than usual, my weariness kept me from showing up compassionately. I vented out loud all the things I was tired of- cleaning, cooking, taking care of, holding it all together while trying to compartmentalize, not feeling appreciated, the monotony of chores and responsibilities… to the point my eldest son replied, “it sounds like you’re tired of life.” Yes, dear, sweet one, you’re right. How am I supposed to COOK DINNER when I feel the sky is falling?
Offer yourself compassion instead of judgement.
So while it may be commonplace to judge myself for getting caught up in all this overwhelm, the more mindful and compassionate part of me can respond lovingly, telling myself, “I feel this because I care. It’d be weirder if I didn’t feel it.”
Self Care Practices for the Empath
Why is self-care necessary for empaths?
As I navigated a lower-energy week, I was reminded of how important it is to recharge. The world needs alchemizers to stay energized, and now, more than ever, we cannot let our light extinguish.
When should I engage in self-care?
After moving through difficult emotions, I return to what sustains me. It’s essential to ask yourself - What fuels my light? I actually have a list that I reference often, but some inspirations from my own practice are listed below.
What are some self-care practices and activities that energize empaths?
Facing up towards the moonlight or sunlight for a 2-minute power-up
Asking for help and prayer - from ancestors, spirit guides, angels, and teachers
Meaningful work
Being of service
Hugs
Smiling
Counting my blessings
Creating something
Nature - walks and hikes, listening to the birds, watching the animals out my window
Cooking and eating fresh foods
Connecting to family and friends with laughter
Handwritten cards - given or received
Catching a sunrise or sunset
Music - Lady Bri for pumping me up, Jon Batiste for beauty, Satsang for inspiration
Journaling, writing, (especially my messy poetry)
Sleep
Reminders for Empaths
The thing about light is that it is eternal. Like the sun and moonlight, we can always count on the light to return. It always takes away the darkness; it always wins.
How Americans Can Stay Hopeful in Anxious Times
Reflect on what is inspiring to you.
My younger son’s name is Ellis. I named him because it’s Welsh in origin (my heritage) and means “benevolent.” He’s a wild child, but damn, is he illuminating. I like that I think of a great American symbol of light when I look at him - the beacon of welcoming from Lady Liberty, holding her light, as she says, “Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, / I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”.
Remember your history.
We are Americans. We know what it means to revolutionize, to be change makers and illuminators. We know how to turn darkness into good - hope, freedom, opportunity. Although I can choose to be tired and beaten down, I can also choose to be uplifted by who I am - and I’m proud to be an American.
Remember our values.
No matter what dark forces come our way and who tries to steal our light, there is power in us remembering our values - life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and a common goodness around us. There is more light than dark, more good than evil, more love than hate. Before the divisions we face today, before social media and big tech pulled us apart, we were freedom warriors, change-makers, holding the torch - welcoming and loving all.
Remember who you are.
Let’s not lose who we are and succumb to the darkness. Big feelers - this is your superpower.
May the love and light in me, honor the love and light in you.
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Conscious Transparency: This newsletter was edited by AI for grammar, spelling, and sentence structure, but every idea, tone of voice, perspective, and word choice was my own. This newsletter is imperfect because a human wrote it. Thank you for your graciousness.
This week’s Tools, Gratitude, Innovation, Feels
Tools: I’ve talked about it a lot here, but it feels like the idea that Joy is resistance is catching on. I love seeing this being shared more mainstream. Just like a “what fuels my light” list, create a joy list with things that are free and accessible to you. Pin it on your desk, fridge, and bathroom mirror. Also, forcing yourself to smile at yourself helps. Fake it till you make it ;)
Gratitude: Oh my, I walked into the office on Wednesday and was overjoyed to be at my place of work. I walked into the space, taking in the smells and soothing colors. I get to work here, with these people! Then, to take it further, there were two handwritten cards on my desk. Just beautiful artwork to inspire. Good people doing good things for others. That’s how we keep going, all.
Innovation: If you didn’t feel joy watching Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, then you missed the point entirely. I loved what he did, and having Lady Gaga there was not on my Bingo card. The performance was sending big light energy, celebration, and a “don’t steal my vibe” test. I loved it. More of that.
Feels: I’m choosing to focus on all the good I’m seeing, all the people coming together, all the optimism and hope from big groups. I’m choosing to feel into the joy of being here, of getting to life each day, despite what gloom I could settle on. Look for the good. Trust the good in others. There is more light than dark. Finding it, then being it yourself - that’s the difference maker.