Written by a F.A.B.U Contributor

Do you consider yourself to be an empathetic person?

Someone who's empathetic is a person who is highly aware of the emotions of the people around them, to the point of feeling those emotions themselves.

Empathetic people are fully present and have an understanding of what someone is going through.  They celebrate your accomplishments and feel sad during the heartbreaks.  They can take your side when you have problems or hardships.  They also can give advice by putting themselves in your shoes to give perspective on your situation.

They pretty much absorb emotions like a sponge, and their mood can change based on the energy of a crowd.

Absorbing other people's emotions by being an empath can be positive, but unfortunately, this can also be emotionally draining.

If you are an empath, not only are you feeling your own emotions, but other people's emotions are also amplifying your feelings as well.  This can be exhausting at times, especially when it comes to negative energy.

Even if you don’t consider yourself to be an empath, someone’s negative mood can still affect how you feel. You can't change how you are, but there are ways to channel those amplified emotions, so you don’t feel overwhelmed. This way, you can continue living your life without someone’s bad day always bringing you down.

Remember not to overwhelm yourself
This is a matter of self-awareness and logical thinking.  Remember to separate yourself and the different emotions you are picking up on. 

Remember to refocus on yourself and detach. 
It's good to be sensitive to other people, but remember that your wellness should come first.  Try a moment of meditation or give yourself a pep talk to think logically about a situation to detach yourself from the effect of someone else’s emotions. You can also try going for a walk or taking up a hobby you enjoy in order to clear your head and ground yourself.


When it comes to empathy, the best you can do is listen and give a helping hand when needed, but don't forget to refocus and reconnect with yourself.  Remember to set personal boundaries in order to detach yourself from absorbing unwanted energy.

Written by Julianna Bonnett

Let’s talk about body hair. We’ve all got it, in fact, if you really think about it, the only part of your body that doesn’t have body hair is your palms, soles of your feet, back of your ears and lips. Take a second to think about that. With about 97 percent of your body being covered in hair, it’s bizarre to think there’s the perception that body hair is unacceptable and gross.
 
While body hair is more acceptable on a male, for females having body hair is looked down upon. Let’s start with a little bit of history, the norm to remove body hair wasn’t really a thing until the mid 1940s and to be specific, it moved from a fad to becoming more of a normal routine for women within just of few months of the 1940s. By 1964, a survey showed that around 98 percent of American women shaved their legs routinely. From then on, the surface area of objectionable hair grew in line with whatever fashionable, desirable and sexy trends were important during that time.

Now that we are caught up on the basic history of body hair, let’s talk about it in today’s society.
As a woman myself, I have seen so many stories, articles and comments about if a woman having body hair is ok or not. I guess this won’t be very different from those articles but does body hair on a female really matter that much?

As a European woman, I used to treat my body horribly because of the norms and standards you must obtain to be considered desirable.

Growing up, having any type of body hair including arm, leg and facial hair was definitely not a trend. I used to cover my arms and legs up during the summer, take small scissors to my face to cut off any unwanted hairs and even going as far as to taking tape to my face and trying to rip off any tip of facial hair. After constantly torturing myself for years and years trying to fit into what was normal and acceptable in society, I came to one realization, nobody really cared about my body hair, it was me that cared about my body hair. I had the idea that if I had any type of hair on my body, I wasn’t beautiful like the rest of the girls my age.

Oh, was I ever wrong. The most beautiful thing about this whole journey was that I was able to be ok and love my body hair, regardless of what society told me I should look like. Making that change, I have been able to love and accept myself more, while also embracing what my ethnicity is and being proud of it.

Now, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with getting rid of your body hair, I know there are women who choose to remove their body hair because it’s what they are comfortable with - that’s their personal choice. But there are other women who feel the need to remove their hair due to society and to be desirable to other people.

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Do you think we need to start normalizing female body hair? Comment below.