Life is difficult enough on its own without our taking on other people's emotional challenges as our own. 

We need boundaries. 

This is not easy, however, if we are naturally empathetic. 

That is, if our own emotional natures tend to be porous, we will find ourselves easily influenced by feelings, both positive and negative, of the people around us. 

As a result, our internal lives are made better or worse simply by association. 

If this is the case, we may need to be extremely particular about the people with whom we associate and the degree to which we associate with them. 

If not, we will have trouble distinguishing between our feelings and the feelings of others, especially if the people we are around have particularly intense emotional natures of their own. 

Unless we are able to establish strict standards and boundaries for our relationships, we may lose ourselves in the emotional turmoil of our friends, families, and associates. 

For this reason, if we are particularly sensitive, it is imperative that we do our best to limit our relationships to people whose emotional natures positively compliment our own or, at least, people who are respectful with regards to how they express their feelings in our presence. 

We should be working to improve each others' lives after all. 

Mutual benefit and improvement should be the goal of all of our relationships whenever possible. 

Obviously, this is not always possible, but we can at least strive for this ideal.