A Guide To Empathy

[Empath0609]

Chapter One: Defining Empathy

First off, I would like to state that this article has not been written to apply to all people, though it will surely be interesting to all. This article was written to apply specifically to those who have an ability known as Empathy, in order to educate and explain what one may not have come to realize just yet or may simply be used as a guide on how to live with Empathy. If you aren't sure that you are an Empath then i'm sorry to tell you, but you most likely just aren't one. Everyone, however, is capable of having spurious moments of Empathy towards others in cases of great emotion, but this is simply another part of human nature and does not necessarily mean you are an Empath.

Living with Empathy can be extremely stressful and difficult throughout different points in an Empath's life. The easiest way to describe the feeling many Empaths have at earlier parts of their life is the feeling that you are bearing the worlds problems on your shoulders. At times this feeling is extremely overwhelming and causes much stress for the Empath, but this is something that can be learned to be controlled. Every single person on this planet that is Empathic KNOWS they are different but many just don’t know what it is. It's very difficult trying to talk to those without strong Empathy about Empathic distresses in everyday life simply because that person does not have that extra part to them, so they can't truly understand what it is like. Empathic people are everywhere though, whether they are developed in their ability or whether they have chosen to block it out, they are all around us. Meeting other Empaths early on in life can prove to be quite useful as one matures in his or her empathic ability because it helps to have someone there who can truly understand what you are dealing with, in which case, Empaths are the ideal choice.

So what exactly is Empathy? Empathy is the ability to not only know or detect what others are feeling, but to also experience that emotion yourself. For those of you who are Empathic this book simply puts into words what you have learned through different experiences in your life. Empaths pick up on what I refer to as "energies" that are produced by other people. These energies have moods to them that can either be positive or negative, though they come in many varieties of each category. Empaths feel these energies emitted from most everyone they meet and react to the energies as well as the person producing them when they are speaking to the individual. Empaths learn quite early in life that because of their natural ability, it is much easier to manipulate situations in any way they feel necessary, though this does not mean that Empaths are manipulative people in a negative sense. The thing most non empathic people don’t understand is the burden Empaths carry because of their ability to truly understand and feel the pain of most everyone around them, and it is natural for Empaths to seek to turn the negative energies they come across into positive ones, not only to help out the person they are encountering, but also to keep stress off of the Empath himself.

As your empathic abilities develop you learn to pick up on much more than just moods people are in. More developed Empaths, such as myself, are able to read what I call the "true nature" of someone, in which we understand someone’s true personality, not just what they choose to reveal to society. Because of this advantage, some of the nicest and most accepting group of friends one can find is that of an Empath.

Chapter Two: Dealing with Empathy

As previously stated, Empathy can be very burdening at times and dealing with it at younger ages becomes quite difficult. This is because children tend to have much more powerful and uncontrolled emotions during their pre-pubescent era. Empathy starts to develop at a young age for most people and it is a very confusing time for those going through the process, mostly because of the lack of information given to the youth on the subject. This can cause a lot of emotional strain on young kids who have yet to learn to develop emotional barriers between themselves and those around them. Once puberty kicks in Empathy starts to rapidly develop and becomes extremely overwhelming for the person dealing with it. I remember times during my empathic development that I would become so overburdened by the pain of others that I shut off all emotion, mine as well as others. This is something you must please try to avoid at all costs, because once you shut it off, it becomes extremely hard to turn back on. Something that I would suggest for anyone that has Empathy to do is meditation. It is extremely important to set a strong personal emotional foundation before trying to deal with everyone else’s emotions as well. The technique I use for meditation is quite easy to learn and, through time, will show amazing results.

When first starting meditation it is best to do so in a completely quiet place. It is easy to break concentration when first learning to meditate so you want to make sure there will be no changes in the sounds around you while meditating. The most common posture for meditation is sitting with legs crossed, back straight, looking straight ahead and forming O’s with both hands and placing them on your knees. This suits many people but the most important factor to remember when trying to find your meditation posture is comfort and always keep your back straight in order to keep the energy throughout your body steady and constant. When you have found your posture and are ready to start meditating, close your eyes and take a deep breath in through your nose, hold it for a few seconds, and release it through your mouth. As you inhale envision the air coming in through your nose, down to your lungs, and back out. Continue focusing on your breathing for a while and just relax. One major point of meditation is to free your mind of all thoughts, but you don’t do this by focusing on pushing away the thoughts that come, simply let them come and go and do not dwell on what they were, you will have plenty of time for reflection when you have finished. When meditating, it is normal to feel a build up of energy at some part of your body, for Empaths this energy will most likely be located in your third eye chakra, located in the center of your forehead. Focus on this energy as it comes and see if you are able to transfer it down to any other parts of your body, such as the fingertips. If done correctly you will feel a tingling sensation in your fingertips. Meditating is a great exercise to promote relaxation and rid one of their anxiety but it also teaches you more about yourself as an individual and will provide more self awareness.

Anxiety and depression seem to be more prominent in Empaths more so than those without Empathy and for this reason many people despise the ability. My message to you is that Empathy is a gift of nature that you were fortunate enough to be born with, not a curse that stalks you throughout your life. This is why it is so important to learn control over your Empathic powers in times of despair. Meditation is very useful for this, but many times when you are emotionally conflicted your energy flow is blocked at certain chakras throughout your body and this can cause meditation to be quite difficult to achieve. At times like this there is a technique called grounding that helps rid you of the negative energies throughout your body and create internal balance. As with meditation, it is good to be in a quiet place or a place of relaxation for grounding. Everyone develops their own techniques after a while of using this practice but for now lets start with the basic way of doing it. To start, close your eyes, feel yourself, your anxiety, all of your negative energies, and get a good grasp on them. Imagine yourself as a tree, feel the ground with your feet, imagine that roots are spreading out of your feet and into the earth. Now let all of those negative energies flow down your body, through your feet, and back into nature with every exhalation of breath. As you inhale visualize the earth sending back positive energy, I like to visualize the color of the positive energy as either white or green and negative as black. After you have completed the exercise you should feel relaxed and positive. The key factor to being an Empath is surrounding yourself with as much positive energy as possible while keeping the negative energy at bay.

Chapter Three: Interacting With Other Energies

The energies, or emotions, that we pick up on as Empaths can come in different varieties of strength and feel. Sometimes they can be so powerful that we confuse them as our own emotions and when this happens it can cause much confusion for the Empath. Most of the time this will only happen when you are in close proximity of the person emitting the emotion so when you are suddenly overcome by an emotion that you do not believe is your own, step away from whoever you are talking to or in close proximity of and see if the emotion dissipates, if it is someone else’s emotion, it will, if it’s your emotion, it should stick with you. This is very important to keep in mind when counseling someone who is going through a difficult time because, as Empaths, we feel the pain they feel and it can be just as traumatizing for us as it is the person we are dealing with. When dealing with these sorts of situations it is good to keep the meeting fairly short, so as not to leave a lasting emotional scar. Keep in mind that you are still just one person, though you can do so much, there is still a limit to how much emotional trauma you can handle. Don’t let the emotion build and build until you have a breakdown, talk to someone about it, it will help.

I am sure some of you reading this have wondered why you tend to feel the emotions of another person stronger when you’re closer to them and though the answer is not definite, it is speculated that the reason for this is the close proximity between your aura and the aura of the person near you. The aura is the electromagnetic field that surrounds the human body (Human Energy Field-HEF) and every organism and object in the Universe.

The Human Energy Field as a collection of electro - magnetic energies of varying densities that permeate through and emit or exit from the physical body of a living person. These particles of energy are suspended around the healthy human body in an oval shaped field. This "auric egg" emits out from the body approximately 2-3 feet on all sides. It extends above the head and below the feet into the ground. The aura consist of seven layers. Each one of the layers that exist around the physical body, has its own unique frequency. They are interrelated, and affect one another and the person's feelings, emotions, thinking, behavior, and health as well. As Empaths we unknowingly interact with these fields and receive knowledge of one’s emotion. It is also believed and proven to a extent that it is possible to interact with auras in order to transfer energy that’s built up through the method I explained earlier. This energy can be used to provide healing effects on another’s body but it isn’t easy to do, and not everyone can do it. Whether or not Empaths are more inclined to be able to do this, I do not know, I do have my own experience with healing by these means but am far from being a strong healer. What I can say is that most anything is possible through meditation and it is up to you to break the boundaries. I hope this article has helped you feel a little more secure about being an Empath and if you have any questions feel free to contact me!