You may or may not have heard of an Empath, an Empaths is a person who is known for their highly developed ability to sense the emotions and thoughts of the people surrounding them.
I guess then for those who have heard of Empaths, would have heard of all the symptoms for an Empath. Symptoms like:
Finding public places overwhelming.
Confusing other peoples emotions with your own and absorbing them like an "emotional sponge".
Finding films and images of cruelty and violence unbearable.
Feeling other people's physical pains
You're a great listener.
You suffer from fatique.
You need solitude to recharge and even experience the emotions of loved ones who are far away.
And the list goes on...
Being an Empath myself, I have been struggling with all the above especially because I am an Extrovert Empath.
Most articles can't even come close as to answer why this occurs.
Did you know, that Empaths only account for about 5% of the worlds population, despite this they are much more mentally predominant, these people who we identify as being Old Souls. Highly Sensitive People covers larger %, yes Empath and Highly Sensitive People has similar qualities, however they are different.
Highly sensitive people are typically introverts whereas empaths can be introverts or extroverts, (though most are introverts). Empaths share a highly sensitive person’s love of nature, quiet environments, desire to help others, and a rich inner life.
However, empaths take the experience of the highly sensitive person much further. We can sense subtle energy, which is called shakti or prana in Eastern healing traditions, and actually absorb it from other people and different environments into our own bodies. Highly sensitive people do not typically do that. This capacity allows us to experience the energies around us in extremely deep ways. Since everything is made of subtle energy, including emotions and physical sensations, we energetically internalise the feelings and pain of others. We often have trouble distinguishing someone else’s discomfort from our own. Also, some empaths have profound spiritual and intuitive experiences which are not usually associated with highly sensitive people. Some are able to communicate with animals, nature, and their inner guides.
During my early discovery into my spiritual path, a book "The Empath's Survival Guide" by Dr Judith Orloff, MD given by my bestie awakens me leading me into self discovery, metaphysics, theosophy and into the healing world...and the discoveries and experiences still continues to date and many times I will experience dozens of 'WOW' moments.
Do you know, the most powerful Empaths are the Heyoka.
Heyoka is a Native American term ironically meaning "fool" or "sacred clown". Which seems like an odd terminology for what we now estimate to be the most powerful type of Empath.
The translation of heyoka gives us a little clue into the true meaning that the Native Americans tried to put behind the words. In English, it would be more appropriate to describe a Heyoka Empath as someone who sees the world differently and acts in a way that is the opposite of normal.
The Old Souls - Empaths
We all have experienced some degree of empathy in our lives. However For an Empath, they struggle to distinguish their own emotions from those of other people.
Highly Sensitive People are born with a physical sensitivity, that is when their brain is overly sensitive to thoughts, activities and even stimuli of emotions. Frequently, these Highly Sensitive People end up so sensitive to quality of their state of being within their environments that they can feel the emotional changes within other people as well as themselves. However, not all people who are Highly Sensitive are Empaths.
With these Old Souls there's a difference; their sensitivity is not physical in relation to the brain, but in spirituality, or it is in relation to their souls. This doesn't mean that all Old Souls are Empaths, but it does mean that many can easily become spiritually attuned to the living energy around them.
This spiritual attune-meant experienced by the Old Soul is enhanced by their "Old" energy, that is the energy that they have possessed since the very creation of matter, which is the exact energy that they have been reborn with many times. The more an energy comes into consciousness and then returns back to its origins, the thinner the veil of identity between "I" and "That" is, and the more it is then purified.
As our individual egos become less defined, our unconscious intuitive receptors are left open to not only experience our own emotions, but the emotional vibrations or frequencies of others around us.
The closes I can get to explaining this scientifically is that somewhere within the frontal lobe of the brain, there is an area responsible for Echopraxia, which not only allows us to involuntary repeat others actions or experiences, but when activated in Empaths, can also allow for emotions of the surrounding environment to be involuntarily absorbed. Although, there are not enough studies conducted to determine any of these conclusively.
HOW TO FIND YOUR EMOTIONAL CENTER
Being an Empath, you can be a great asset..However only if you learn how to centre yourself by grounding your emotions within your own being and refraining from baring the unhappiness and suffering of your entire surroundings. If you do not learn how to centre yourself, you will just live like a slave to your emotions rather than to master them.
Once you learn how to master these emotions, you will not feel so much burden by your empathy, but instead you will be freed by it. You will have the ability to control when you want to feel other people's emotions, only if you wanted, and purposefully understand them. Or you can learn when and how to tune them off, allowing you the space and clarity to act accordingly. I know this is not easy and I, sometimes failed to do so too, however I believe that we can with practise and time.
But first, you need to learn how to do this..
1. IDENTIFY THE ORIGIN
The emotions you feel will not always be from other people; they can be your own too. It is easy to think all negative emotions are coming from other people, so in order to get things straight try to constantly analyse whether there is something that may have caused the negative emotion you are feeling, or not.
2. APPLY MINDFULNESS TO GROUND YOURSELF
The emotional energies that you absorb and experience from others are usually processed through your unconscious intuitive receptors. When you focus your mind with attention to a specific action, it forces your unconscious mind to tune out of those emotional frequencies and focus conscious attention on something else in its stead. Examples of grounding exercises include focusing on your breathing, visualising a protective shield around you, and/or focusing on the spot between your eyes where your "third eye" is located.
For healers, be mindful not to build a protective shield around yourself when you are conducting healing sessions, as when we are healing, we are energetically connected to the healee.
3. SEEK SOLITUDE AND DISTANCE YOURSELF
After you have grounded yourself using one of these techniques of the mind, try to leave the area where that persons energy bubble might be affecting (for example, leave for a different room or for a physically distance between yourself and others by few meters). This will allow you to see whether it is really was the person's emotional energy that was influencing you or not. After that, try to make some alone time for yourself to centre yourself again..
YOUR EMOTIONAL WELL BEING, MATTER
Have you ever noticed how some people always seem to fall on their feet while others are plagued by struggle and “bad luck”? Dr David Hawkins MD, PhD has been working extensively in the field of personal energy and has discovered a direct link between a person’s emotional well being, their energetic frequency and their life experience. Although we live in the same world, Dr Hawkins discovered that our experience of this world, our view of life, depends on our energetic vibration.
In effect, people with a higher vibration enjoy a more empowered and positive outlook on life, and tend to work on a more love-based emotional level. These people can often see solutions to life’s challenges with complete clarity and recognise opportunity when it knocks. Those that vibrate on a lower level, experience more negative emotions. Sadly, their vibrational level ensures that they experience mainly struggle and strife. They may be blind to healthy choices and options or be unaware of life’s miraculous solutions.
Regardless whether you are an Empath or not, your emotional well being is very important.
Therefore, it matters greatly that you actively pursue emotional health and well being in order to enjoy the energetic benefits of love, happiness and optimism.
I hope you find this information helpful, or at least enlightening to some degree, and please share with your friends as this knowledge might help them to find their centre and manifest towards a healthy lifestyle and be able to enjoy life to the fullest.
Peace and Love to all 💞
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