Being an empath

[atomheart]

I don’t like complaining, but I need to get this off my chest. Being an empath sucks! Perhaps it is my experience of it that is to blame, perhaps I am just a not very advanced empath and that’s why I am suffering a lot of times. See, the way I feel people’s emotions is like distortions in the atmosphere, the stronger the emotion and the more ‘base’ it is, the higher the distortion is. It doesn’t matter whether an emotion is “positive” or “negative” in the traditional sense, someone being very excited about something can be worse than someone being angry. It is all about the quality of the emotion, and from my experience when the emotion is self-centred, whatever that emotion may be, the lower its quality will be. On the other hand higher emotions (that are usually selfless) are felt as an absence of distortion, peacefulness, like everything is right. So when someone is feeling pure happiness or love (which is not very often) I feel happy myself not because of the actual emotion produced, but by the calm absence of distortion in the atmosphere. Now, with prolonged exposure to a person (typically after a minute or two) I am aware of the kind of emotion present, the way I am aware this is by feeling exactly what the other person is feeling in his energy body. This would typically be a sting on the navel chakra, but it can take part on all chakras. The most common ones after the navel is the solar plexus, heart and throat. At this point I am virtually feeling what they are feeling although I may not be able to describe it verbally. That’s because people’s emotions are usually so jumbled up and confused that they themselves may not be clear as to what they are feeling or why. I find a lot of times that I have a better grasp of people’s feelings than they have of their own. With even longer exposure (more than 6 hours) my energy body slowly absorbs these disturbances from the person completely healing them, and causing me to go through what they were going through with these emotions although they are discarded from me at a much more faster rate. One can say that I am an unwilling healer.

It’s been almost a year since my empathic abilities manifested and since then I have been trying to deal with it. I tried using a shield but found it useless in public places or with people I am close to. I tried just going with the flow and letting the distortion just pass through me, but that just made things worse. I have found that alcohol completely blocks the empathy, but that sort of block completely alienates me from people and plus I don’t like drinking! The best defence I’ve found against the distortion is creating an inner feeling of happiness and euphoria; this actively blocks my empathy senses as they are saturated by my own feelings. Like a shield this is very hard to keep up for a long time, it can be very tiring and then if I lose it the distortion attacks stronger than before. It is the best way I have found though for blocking people’s emotions in cases of public places and mobs in the streets. The worst thing is when I’m not feeling very well myself, if for example I’m depressed or a bit ill then I’m so sensitive to the distortions it almost becomes unbearable. Locking myself in the house is the only solution but I am still affected by my housemate, and if she happens to be in a bad mood… I’m screwed.

I wish people close to me would be more considerate of this, but not a lot of them really believe or can understand what it really means to be an empath. It is very hard to explain it in any case, reading back at what I wrote here I think I have failed to explicate the process, but I hope you guys understand. I know some of you are empaths so perhaps you could relate your experiences here.

One thing is for sure though, empathy has brought me closer to people, or more like accept everyone for what they are. Being able to read everyone like open books means that I can see beyond their layers of false personality and get a glimpse of their essence, which is beautiful in each and everyone.

[Alex]

I hear ya brother.

I got these funny fluttery heart sensations when reading that, which is a sure fire indicator that there are some strong emotions attached to what you're saying.

Want to talk about it?

[chrystalpaths]

Just seeing this, so sorry. Yes, being empathic can be a real pain in the buns. However in time you learn to focus and sheild. I picture a big old door with a neat huge skeleton key in the key hole of a big glass door knob fixture. First I picture the door open very clearly, then slam it shut and turn the key, remove the key and pocket it. It doesn't always work tho.

Yesterday I was so dizzy, sick to my stomach and tired tired. Couldn't figure it out until my daughter called me to tell me she had fallen in the shower and knocked herself out and found she had a concussion. Glacia can SEND and it is SO hard to block her! Even with the mental sheild exercise I can still feel her in the background. I hate that!

Another was when I went to Reiki a dog with a brain tumor in a feline rescue center houseing about 90 cats. Talk about overload, whew!

[atomheart]

I know what you mean about big senders... I live with one! I guess though the hard time she's putting me through is great practice for my shielding!
Cats calm me down

I will try the door trick and let you know how it works out.

[KAT]

Dear Atomheart, it's very interesting experience, please keep the post. In fact I don't know how to face this when have this problem. So if you have any effective solution, it's very useful for us (many people here beside me) to learn. ;D

In my humble opinion, you are in very high level of spirit development. In Tibet Tantra, or Buddhism, being deeply empathizing as you is one of the big milestone in the way to enlightment. From this milestone, one will be very deeply mericful automatically (like the Holy Mary, or the Avalokitesvara). He could use it to love, empathize with everybody, healing or simple transfer the mass love energy. With this ability, he will get the very great Merit automatically. With this Merit, his karma will be removed very quickly, and he will become the Saint very quickly also. Or his energy will become higher very much. It require him open the heart, open the mind, think for everybody, even try to sacrify to everybody.

But from this stone, it really make me little confuse. Some of my friends or my teachers here, when go to this ability, with highly sensitive and empathizing, (of course highly balance), try go to high mountain, avoid the city. One person who keep to live in the city always complain that he couldn't bear it anymore when feeling badly everywhere. Only one person my friend (name Thanhan, 36 years old) trying to use this ability to healing people. He open the healing office here (where the patients are very high government officers). Of course he always get ill, feeling badly.. but he said that after trying to healing all the people in this physical plane and other astral plane, now all the old Karma of him have been removed completely. He claimed now he is the Siddhi. :o

Just some stories I would like to share, but have no conclusion or solution for this problem. Myself always feeling have head ache (some right, some left) when thinking or standing beside any one who so exciting or angry, (not balanced) or even beside people have badly characters. But I am still not sensitive or empathy deeply like you. So I "happier" maybe ;D

[chrystalpaths]

KAT, anytime a person does a healing, they must sheild and ground. If your friend is getting ill healing, he is not doing this and runs great risk. Even the great healers of centuries past didn't get sick if they healed. Please suggest he uses some form of protection. All of us with empathic, claivoyant, or healing abilities must be stronger than others and also more wary and careful. Just trying to help.

Atom, use your stone to sheild and protect. You are one who would benefit from wearing a stone amulet.

[atomheart]

Thanks for ur stories KAT... I can understand why these people flee the city and go up the mountains, a lot of times I feel the same way... it is the love I feel for everyone around me that keeps me from leaving though. I try not to see this as "problem" but as a gift, but yea a lot of times it really gets in the way. The worst is when you feel someone remotely, from far away, and you are not sure whether you are just going crazy or someone is actually in trouble! I had a remote empathic connection the other day (similar to crystalpath's with her daughter) and I can say it was very frustrating!

The headaches you mention on the left or right hemisphere are definitely a sign of some empathic ability.

As for your friend, crystalpaths is right in what she is saying about the shielding and may I add that healing does not necessarily burn Karma and might even create more. I have known a very powerful healer who could heal paralysis, cancer and the like, who was bragging about exactly the same thing and towards the end of his life manifested all the illnesses that he had healed in the past. It is a very touchy subject, whether a healer should heal or not, Aivanhov says that all illnesses are part of the life experience and shouldn't be removed, others say that only neg-related problems should be healed while some say that even neg problems are karmic! Who knows? I let things go with the flow, if a person comes my way and the circumstances bring it as such that I heal them then it's fine, but I never heal on my own iniative.

[chrystalpaths]

Originally Posted by atomheart

As for your friend, crystalpaths is right in what she is saying about the shielding and may I add that healing does not necessarily burn Karma and might even create more. I have known a very powerful healer who could heal paralysis, cancer and the like, who was bragging about exactly the same thing and towards the end of his life manifested all the illnesses that he had healed in the past. It is a very touchy subject, whether a healer should heal or not, Aivanhov says that all illnesses are part of the life experience and shouldn't be removed, others say that only neg-related problems should be healed while some say that even neg problems are karmic! Who knows? I let things go with the flow, if a person comes my way and the circumstances bring it as such that I heal them then it's fine, but I never heal on my own iniative.

This is very very true Atom. One should never randomly heal or help without permission or informing the reciever of your intent. When I "heal" I really am working with the body's own healing abilities within the person recieving, stimulating their immune system and jump starting their own ability to heal along with my ability to help. Life is already mapped when we are born but being free thought beings, life it not written in stone so we are allowed other thoughts, ideas and pathways to walk thru this journey we call life in our efforts to reach the other side...

[oath]

Anyone wanna know what I think? :-X

[Alex]

Oath, your views are just as valid as anyone else's here, so no need to ask permission to speak...

As for me, I will read this with interest: I have a similar empathy problem resulting in my feeling other people's emotions all too easily. In a conversation I can quickly be overcome by the other person's real attitude. It makes it easy to spot a liar but I still don't quite know how to deal with it (being direct about it never seems to work - no matter what a person truly thinks or feels they will generally never admit it unless they are close friends)