The Anatomy of an Empath

By Timothy Kamuzu Phiri

The empath is a human being that has an in-depth sense who they are in relation to the universe, the world, nature and the community in which they live and exist. The empath sees interconnectedness and relationships between self and all that surrounds them.

Some are lucky to be born empaths. The love and propensity towards nature and other beings is somehow wired in their genes and DNA. Most on the other hand have to learn to love and value all around them through social interaction and their encounters in life whilst growing up or going about their daily lives.

The empath is blessed to have that parent, guardian or role model who early in life instills that care and affection for life through little acts of kindness and guidance. That mum that finds you torching ants with a burning plastic bag, and sits you down to see the cruelty and absence of humanity in that act. That schoolteacher that takes you out on field trips into nature and for the first time helps you listen to the flow of the stream, whistling of the wind and whisper of trees in the stillness of a forest. That auntie that buys you your first nature book as a birthday gift. All these are examples of people who bless the empath and open doors to a lifetime adventure in nature.

Then there is that sudden awakening some empaths experience. That one day you witness how a chicken is slaughtered and want to have nothing to do with it. The one time a video of an animal that suffers cruelty scrolls down your timeline and makes the hair on your skin stand up! Moments that force the empath to take a stand and unknowingly make him or her choose an environmental ideological path.

We live in a world today where the lives we live move at the speed of technology, and success and happiness are more and more defined by parameters that take and keep people away from nature, community and family. The virtues that kept us safe through millennia are taken over by vices that breed greed and destruction for quick profit. We must now be that parent, guardian or role model that offers the next generation the gift and blessing of being an empath-a guardian of the earth.

*The author is Director and co-founder for Mizu Eco-Care, a Zambian environmental conservation NGO promoting environmental sustainability, wildlife conservation and agroecology in Zambia.