{"id":5229,"date":"2018-12-31T17:28:47","date_gmt":"2019-01-01T01:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5229"},"modified":"2018-12-31T17:28:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-01T01:28:47","slug":"spongey-san-juan-puerto-rico-12-31-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/?p=5229","title":{"rendered":"Spongey \u2013 San Juan, Puerto Rico \u2013 [12\/31\/2018]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Have you ever wondered? Well I have, about how when I say, say red; for example there\u2019s no way of knowing if \u201cred\u201d means the same thing in your head as red means in my head when someone says \u201cred\u201d<\/p>\n

~ Matilda, the Musical \u201cQuiet\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Explaining to people that there is a difference between being \u201cempathetic\u201d (which can be kind of paralleled to \u201csympathetic\u201d) or \u201cshowing empathy\u201d and being<\/em> an empath\u2026is sometimes a bit like trying to explain colour to someone who is colour-blind.<\/p>\n

How do you explain something that is so intrinsic to yourself and yet nearly impossible to understand, let alone to prove?<\/p>\n

Being an empath is kind of like being an\u2026emotional sponge. Put me around an outpouring of happiness \u2013 I will feel happy! Put me around a huge overpouring of high level emotion in general and I will kind of go a bit numb. But, put me around a bunch of negativity? I become the worst negative Nellie you\u2019ll ever meet. And I hate<\/em> getting like that. There are a lot of times when I honestly don\u2019t know if what I\u2019m feeling is mine\u2026or someone else\u2019s. It also has a tendency to make me\u2026approachable? Because I \u2013 to a certain extent \u2013 feel what other people are feeling \u2013 it means that people come to me to tell<\/em> me what they are feeling; and I have difficulty remembering that it is not my job to fix them<\/em>. I can listen, but I cannot fix.<\/p>\n

And unfortunately, the ship is perhaps not the easiest place to be an emotional sponge. There has been a lot of drama here; none of which has directly to do with me. But the thing is all of it has to do with everyone around<\/em> me; and negativity tends to be catching. The sensation of pressure can be catching. It spirals in on itself; and it feeds on itself, and before you know it you kind of find yourself teetering on the edge of a very strange and sometimes frightening precipice. You want people to help you, but you also want more than anything for just people to leave you alone \u2013 for the overwhelming pressure in your head from all the outside emotion to just stop<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I know, that sounds kind of bizarre, perhaps even insane. As I said, it\u2019s kind of like trying to explain red to someone who has never seen red before. A concept that goes even beyond abstract; right into the completely unexplained.<\/p>\n

I guess I\u2019ve just been feeling a little too spongey lately\u2026<\/p>\n

And I suppose I\u2019m a little bit sorry that that got<\/em> to be a bit difficult to understand\u2026but it\u2019s just kind of part of the package of being me. A little odd, a little strange, a little off kilter\u2026a little spongey, but ultimately loveable. Weird, but loveable.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever wondered? Well I have, about how when I say, say red; for example there\u2019s no way of knowing if \u201cred\u201d means the same thing in your head as red means in my head when someone says \u201cred\u201d … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-below-the-waterline","category-reflections-below-the-waterline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3GtNE-1ml","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5231,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5229\/revisions\/5231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bloodinyoursaltwater.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}