What is Empathy?

The Definitions: Empathy: the capability to share and understand anothers emotion and feelings. It is often characterized as the ability to put oneself into anothers shoes, or in some way experience what the other person is feeling. Healer: one that heals or attempts to heal. A person skilled in a particular type of therapy. People who treat illness or suffering by calling forth divine help or by attempting to control the body with the mind spirit. Since prehistoric times healers have used such techniques as anointing with oil, the laying on of hands, prayer.

Empathy is the ability to read and understand people be in-tune with or resonate with others, voluntarily or involuntarily of one's empath capacity. Empaths have the ability to scan another's psyche for thoughts and feelings or for past, present, and future life occurrences. Many empaths are unaware of how this actually works, have long accepted that they were sensitive to others.

Empaths Sense Deep Emotions

Empathy is a feeling of another's true emotions to a point where an empath can relate to that person by sensing true feelings that run deeper than those portrayed on the surface. People commonly put on a show of expression. This is a learned trait of hiding authentic expression in an increasingly demanding society.

An empath can sense the truth behind the cover and will act compassionately to help that person express him/herself, thus making them feel at ease and not so desperately alone.

Empaths experience empathy towards family, children, friends, close associates, complete strangers, pets, plants and inanimate objects. Empathy is not held by time or space. Thus, an empath can feel the emotions of people and things at a distance. Some are empathic towards animals (ie: The Horse Whisperer), to nature, to the planetary system, to mechanical devices or to buildings etc. Others will have a combination of the above.

Empaths Have Deep Sense of Knowing

Empaths are highly sensitive. This is the term commonly used in describing one's abilities (sensitivity) to another's emotions and feelings. Empaths have a deep sense of knowing that accompanies empathy and are often compassionate, considerate, and understanding of others.

There are also varying levels of strength in empaths which may be related to the individuals awareness of self, understanding of the powers of empathy, and/or the acceptance or non-acceptance of empathy by those associated with them, including family and peers. Generally, those who are empathic grow up with these tendencies and do not learn about them until later in life.

Empathy is Inherited

Empathy is genetic, inherent in our DNA, and passed from generation to generation. It is studied both by traditional science and alternative healing practitioners. Empathy has both biological/genetic and spiritual aspects. Empaths often possess the ability to sense others on many different levels. From their position in observing what another is saying, feeling and thinking, they come to understand another. They can become very proficient at reading another persons body language and/or study intently the eye movements. While this in itself is not empathy, it is a side-shoot that comes from being observant of others. In a sense, empaths have a complete communication package.

How Empathy Works

While there is much we don't yet understand about how empathy works, we do have some information. Everything has an energetic vibration or frequency and an empath is able to sense these vibrations and recognize even the subtlest changes undetectable to the naked eye or the five senses.

Words of expression hold an energetic pattern that originates from the speaker. They have a specific meaning particular to the speaker. Behind that expression is a power or force-field, better known as energy. For example, hate often brings about an intense feeling that immediately accompanies the word. The word hate becomes strengthened with the speaker's feeling. It is that person's feelings (energy) that are picked up by empaths, whether the words are spoken, thought or just felt without verbal or bodily expression.

From Christel Broederlow

There are different types of empaths who employ different psychic empathic traits.

These are the 10 levels of the empath:

Psychometry - the empathic ability to receive energy, information and impressions from objects, photographs or places

Telepathy - the empathic ability to read people's thoughts

Mediumship - the empathic ability to feel the presence and energies of spirits

Physical Healing - the empathic ability to feel other people's physical symptoms in your own body (and often the ability to heal, transform or transmute them)

Emotional Healing - the empathic ability to feel another person's emotions

Animal Communication - the empathic ability to hear, feel and communicate with animals

Nature - the empathic ability to read, feel and communicate with nature and with plants

Geomancy - the empathic ability to read the energy of places and of the land - geomancers can feel the energies of the Earth, such as Ley lines. They can also get headaches, pain or anxiety before earthquakes or other disasters occur anywhere on the planet.

Precognition - the empathic ability to feel when something important is about to happen (often this can be a feeling of inexplicable dread or doom)

Claircognizance or Knowing - the empathic ability to feel what needs to be done in any given circumstance, often accompanied by a feeling of peace and calm, even in the midst of a crisis

Psychic empathic traits not only involve the ability to receive energy, but also include the ability to heal in many cases. For this reason, an empath's life path is best suited to the healing arts, whether it is in the field of healthcare or counseling, or working with children, plants, animals, or even healing places through design and renovation. There are many different paths for how to become an empathic energy healer - you just need to determine which characteristics and levels of an empath resonate with you most. When you have a positive outlet for the psychic abilities of being empathic, you can experience peace and fulfillment. This allows you to overcome the overwhelming feelings of why an empath feels anxiety.

Meditation can be helpful for anyone to achieve a state of peace, but what is even more important for those with psychic empathic traits is to maintain constant grounding and protection. You must visualize yourself surrounded by a bubble or blanket of white light that shields and protects you from external energies. If you are extremely sensitive, you may want to increase these boundaries of protection by imagining a rainbow of layers around you, starting with a bubble of red light surrounding your body, followed by a layer of orange light, then yellow around that, then green, then blue, then indigo, then a layer of violet light, and finally a layer of white light around them all. It is also important to envision yourself grounded and connected to the Earth so you can remain balanced, stable and secure. It is helpful to use the affirmation "I am willing to receive all that is for the highest and best good of all for me to know, and I am protected and shielded from all else at all times".

Remember that those with psychic empathic traits are not only able to receive and pick up energy, but they can also project healing energy. The reason that empaths pick up on energy and information in the first place is because they have the power to do something about it.

One of the easiest methods for how to become an empathic energy healer is simply by using your intention. When you receive feelings from others, or even from the whole world, you can reverse the polarity and send out healing energy. Close your eyes, imagine that there is a vast sun above you that is sending down a beam of light into your heart and down into your hands. With all of your will and intent, send that light out from your heart and your hands, and direct it to wherever it needs to go for the highest and best good of all.

This is what will give you peace. The future is not set in stone and we are not victims. We have the gift of free will and the power to change, so we must not be afraid, even when it seems overwhelming.

Source Grace Grace Associates Consulting, Inc

Overcoming Being Unconsciously Empathic in Favor of Being Intentionally Multi-Dimensionally Connected

At birth we have a tendency to be energetically like little amoebas. We have unstructured borders. We move our energy fields in and around the energy fields of other people in order to check out how they are feeling. We do this instinctively in order to know how to get what we want, in order to be safe, or in order to understand that which is around us. As we grow older some people learn other methods of defense, understanding verbally, or methods of getting information. Some people do not learn other methods and continue to be empathic, being sponge-like in soaking up energy, information and emotions from other people. These people find it very difficult to understand where they stop and another person begins. They have a tendency to allow their boundaries to be invaded by other people. They do not understand the concept of personal boundaries. When a person is empathic it is difficult for them to have a good self image that is not controlled by the thoughts of other people about them. They do not have a clear impression of self hood and "others." This gift of being able to read other people empathically becomes more of a curse than a gift.

It is a time to give up being empathic and to rather get information for and about other people by communication directly with their Oversoul. In being empathic we are picking up information from others and carrying it for them, or acting it out for them, unconsciously. It is difficult to differentiate between what are our feelings and emotions and the emotions of others. Being empathic causes many people to be overweight and to be excessively emotional. We can cease to practice being unconsciously empathic by installing intentional balloons of cushion energy around ourselves, and by having an intention to communicate telepathically (rather than empathically) with the Oversouls of those we encounter. Recommendation: Always remember, what I write are my opinions and experiences. Trust only your own intuition. Trust only what resonates with your own truth - BJ King (originally published in Namaste, Inc. Newsletter)

16 common traits of an Empath.

Remember that these are generalisations and they may not always be obvious.

1. Empaths are quiet achievers but expressive in area's of emotional connection. They find that talking about emotional issues is a great outlet that aids in undertanding themselves and others.

2. Some empaths can be the opposite of what an empath 'should' be because they are overwhelmed or unable to handle emotion and what they feel in the world around them so they block their feelings.

3. They can be focused outward, toward what others feel, rather than themselves. This is a common trait to many people who have not gone through a process of self development.

4. They avoid disharmony caused by emotionally turbulent situations. This type of situation can easily create an uncomfortable feeling because an empath feels this emotion.

5. Empaths are emotionally sensitive to violence and general chaos.

6. Empaths are sensitive to loud noise and televison. In particular, television programs that depict emotional drama like the news and police shows.

7. Thery struggle to comprehend acts of cruelty and crime that involves hurting others.

8. They struggle to comprehend suffering in the world and are often idealists who theorise about fixing the worlds problems.

9. Are often found working as volunteers, with people, animals or the environment.

10. They are expressive so they can often be found in areas of music or the arts.

11. They often have the ability to draw others to them. This includes children and animals as they have a warmth and compassion that is beyond normal You may find that strangers always talk to you if you are an empath.

12. They can be good listeners as they generally have an interest in other people.

13. Empaths can be moody or have large mood swings due to overwhelming thoughts, feelings and emotion.

14. They are likely to have had, other paranormal experiences in their life. This could be astral projection, psychic ability or a variety of other experiences.

15. Empaths are daydreamers that have difficulty keeping focused. This is common with people who deal more IN emotion and neglect other area's of their mind.

16. Like many people on a spiritual path Empaths frequently experience dj vu and synchronicities. This is something that occurs to everyone however empaths are often more aware and therefore 'look out' for it.

By Aymen Fares

An Empath Discovers Healing Abilities: Hands-on Healing

I am an empath who got started down the path of hands-on-healing by myself. It began with a strong desire to help my children with their various sicknesses and that was how it started for me. I had been going to see someone for my health problem, she does hair analysis along with homeopathic remedies. I told her how helpless I felt about not being able to help my young children, and because she knew me and my history, she told me she knew I could do hands-on-healing.

White Light Protection

First she gave me something to say before I started, to protection myself and to channel the white light, and then she told me to position my hands above the problem area.

I begin by kneeling next to the person laying down on the floor and hold my hands upwards with my first finger and thumb touching each other. I take 3 deep breaths to get myself focused on what I am going to do. At that point I begin to feel the energy flowing through my hands and body. For some reason the kneeling position creates the strongest energy for me, not that I can't do it any position, but I believe in the kneeling position all your chakras are aligned.

Inviting Spirit Helpers

I picture a white light swirling around me starting from my feet and going up to my head. I say to myself "Divine Light of the Highest Order under the Protection of Archangel Michael" 3 times. It brings in the "good light" and Archangel Michael to protect you. I invite my spirit guides and guardian angels into the session, and then I invite the persons spirit guides and guardian angels into the healing session (I say it just that simply).

Energetically Sensing Auric Field

I work on the aura level, which means that I can sense with my hands, where the energy field is a few inches above the persons body. I start by passing my hands over the body several times (sweeping motion), starting from the head and moving to the feet. I believe this smoothes out the aura, and relaxes the person who is being worked on.

I then begin by placing my hands above the head and slowly move towards the person's feet, making only one pass of the hands. I will stop only when my hands "feel" a spot where there is energy. I stay in that spot until I feel like it has "cleared" or that I get the feeling that I am done for now. When I get the sensation that the energy spot or chakra has "cleared" it's almost as if a breeze has blown between my hands and the person. Other times, the energy spot or chakra may not be "cleared" but I get the feeling that that is enough for now and move on. You don't want to "push" the person beyond what they are capable of handling. I end at the soles of the feet.

Sometimes I get a pulsing sensation going between my two hands, sometimes it is just a warm sensation, other times, the energy feels "stuck" and so I will move my hands in a circular motion above the area to get the energy moving and then will stop and hold my hands still again. I am also able to "see" things sometimes when working on people and ask for their permission to tell them what I see.

Sweeping the Aura

When I am done with the one pass of my hands-on-healing from head to toe, I will go back to the head and brush down the aura a few inches above the body by using a sweeping motion towards to feet, approximately 3 times picturing a white protection light as I finish.

Energy Healing's Learning Curve

In the beginning, I did not have anyone to help me, so I read a few books, one of them is Healing with Gemstones and Crystals written by Diane Stein. I learned to use healing crystals for a layout along with the hands-on-healing. What the book could not tell me, I had to learn by doing. Fortunately there were a few enlightened souls who could tell me what I was doing wrong and who could help correct themselves. One the first two people who let me do a hands-on-healing I made 3 passes over the body, and that was just too much energy for them to handle, it opened up the energy or chakra spot too much. At first I would also "push the energy" instead of letting myself be the vessel and let the energy flow, and that is not a good thing to do either.

It is still sometimes hard for me to totally protect myself enough so I don't "take in" their energy. I try to make a mental note before I start that I will not take on this persons feelings or energy, to sort of disassociate myself from what is going to take place. I will usually let cold water wash over my hands when I am done or let my hands go through dry sea salt to get the "energy" out of my hands.

I have been doing this for about 10 years, and I feel I must have done this in another life, because it came to me so naturally. The people I work on tell me they feel very relaxed afterwards, but I know that something more has happened.

By Linda Foltyn

How to Cope with Spiritually-Based Hypersensitivity

Neva J Howell, All Rights Reserved

When the body is stressed, from either physical, mental or emotional challenge, very often the breathing becomes shallow. This is part of the fight or flight syndrome. Avoid it if you want to integrate the sensations faster and with more completeness.

Breathe deeply, center yourself, and ask Spirit for balance.

Even in situations where you feel you can't retreat, it is almost always possible to go to the bathroom, or just be silent and breathe deeply for a few minutes.

Ask for what you need if others are involved. Take whatever break you can from the energies and do something to renew yourself.

If needed, retreat from whatever is over-stimulating you until you can integrate what is being felt.

Use spiritual healing tools such as crystals, aromatherapy blends of essential oils and flower essences. A dab of flower essence over the third eye can restore balance and calm as can essential oils if used with intent. Calming essential oils include chamomile and lavender but really, any oil you find particularly soothing can provide assistance.

Muscle-test or have a kinestheologist muscle-test you if you are like me and have trouble testing yourself. If your system responds better to crystals than flower essences or oils, find someone knowledgeable in the use of specific crystals and ask for one to help with your symptoms.

The Balancing Power of Water: Regardless of the spiritual awakening symptoms you might be experiencing, water is one of your strongest allies.

Use water for balance and healing during times of hyper-sensitivity. In fact, water should be the first thing you reach for because of the inner alignment it can provide if sipped with consciousness.

Applying a drop of water to your third eye area can help balance incoming energies. This simple practice is even more powerful when you apply energized water. Energizing water is easy. Just pray with it or put a word on the bottle with the intent to infuse the frequency of the word, such as peace, calmness, or healing, into the water.

Or you can use energized water that has been potentialized by others for spiritual purpose.

Hot showers are also wonderful for cleansing the aura and restoring energetic balance.

Address Anxiety, the result of fear of the unknown: One hidden cause of hypersensitivity is anxiety. If we consciously or unconsciously resist vibrational shifts, or we go into fear about them, we become anxious and causes what could have just been a very intense integration to become a hypersensitive nightmare.

Check in to see if anxiety may be a factor and, if it is, consider a natural anxiety remedy to help calm the senses until you can walk in a more grounded way with whatever new information is coming into your field.

Being hyper-sensitive almost always has a component of anxiety to it, especially if we find ourselves going into fear about what is happening or about the unknown.

How intense can hypersensitivity get? Well, sometimes I hear people talking two rooms away from me, and it feels like they are yelling in my ear. Sometimes, I can hear a Spider walking on the wall. There have been heart connections so strongly with someone in pain that I have lost all sense of my own body and felt only theirs.

When hypersensitivity response is primarily anger, there are anger management techniques that can help

So I'm not losing my mind then? I get that question a lot from folks who are on an active spiritual path. I can't say for sure whether you are losing your mind or not (sometimes, I've pondered my own sanity) but I can say with certainty that all these symptoms can be part of a very sane but very intense spiritual acceleration and awakening process.

In time, you will learn to function in this new awareness although the more you accelerate, the more intense these "hyper-sensitive" periods may temporarily become.

Intuition Divine Guidance by Natasha Dern

The soul uses a variety of methods for communicating with us but the most direct route is the way of intuition. Again, it is not a verbal language, but a language of feelings. For example: If you are dating someone and there is an uneasy feeling about him/her -- your intuition is speaking up. If you choose to ignore it then you are responsible for the consequences that might come about. The more we ignore our intuition the more we will be made to see the folly of our ways. When intuition is ignored or by passed, a deep sense of anxiety sets in.

When you begin to operate from the realm of intuition, you automatically move to the next level in your development -- self authority. This quality is dependent on the ability to listen to the guidance springing from within. The ability to listen and trust in your power (intuition) enables you to move with ease and freedom in the world. You realize that by listening to your intuition you protect yourself from unnecessary pain or harm. Just remember that whenever the element of frustration enters any area of your life -- you are not listening to the wisdom of your intuition. The way to eliminate the frustration is by getting quiet, closing your eyes, breathing, calming yourself down and tuning in to your intuition. Trust the guidance that's transferred to you.

What is this Guidance? It is actually the universe guiding you via your intuition. It is constantly guiding you whether you are conscious of it or not. Because the language of the universe is not literal, your cultivation and understanding of how the universe speaks to you and guides you is crucial. By remaining receptive, being aware of the signs, signals and messages of Guidance, your life will take on a completely new dimension and meaning.

For example: You've been thinking about leaving your job but don't know how to go about it. One day, on the way to work (despite being late) you feel like grabbing a coffee from Starbucks and as you wait for your order, you begin talking with the woman next to you and the next thing you know she is a top recruiter in your field. Coincidence? Not all. You followed your natural impulse and ended up being in the right place at the right time in order to meet the person who could help take your career to the next level. You could have resisted the urge to pick up the coffee because you were running late, but instead you were mindful and therefore benefited greatly.

Besides your intuition, what you read, see or hear throughout your day that captures your attention are also clues of how this Guidance manifests or tries to impart information to you about your life. It comes in many forms and below are some examples:

Media, Music, Movies, Newspapers, Magazines

A telephone call

Strange encounter

Chance meeting with someone from the past

Dreams

Books

Teachers

Sudden insights about a person, situation or obstacle

Clarity about your path, your life, your future

Lightness of being

Feeling joy in the pit of your stomach

A feeling of being loved and protected

Inspiration

Energy

Psychic flashes

People you admire and look up to

Desires

Tingling sensation

The universe has its own ways of communicating with humans and humans need to understand the ways of the universe. We need universal guidance and the universe needs our cooperation in implementing its guidance in the world. We are always communicating, but for most of us, we are not aware of it. Be alert. Be discerning with the information you receive. One of the ways you know the universe has passed guidance to you is the by way you feel -- you will feel whole, safe, contented and completely at ease. If none of these feelings are present then its not Divine Guidance but your own ego or personal desires. Pay attention!

Once you get in the flow, you will trust your intuition more and be receptive to the signs and signals of Divine Guidance. You will feel more comfortable and secure in the world. You will feel like you belong here and that somehow despite everything things will work out in your best interests -- because your intuition and Divine Guidance will make sure of it.

Information provided by Mojan