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Empathy is the ability to feel the feelings of others. This doesn’t just mean you can sense what they are feeling it means you are literally feeling the other person’s emotions. If you are in a room with someone who is happy, angry, sad, even suicidal you may end up picking up on that feeling, and start feeling what they feel even though you are not really feeing that way. You may not even understand why you are feeling that way.
Empathy can intensify if you have a strong emotional or spiritual connection with someone. Perhaps a boyfriend, girlfriend or a family member. It can also intensify if you have gone through extreme emotional experiences. When you are younger you have your play friends, but the emotional intensity usually isn’t there because children usually haven’t fully developed emotionally. You mature emotionally as you get older, the same as you do physically. As you develop physically and emotionally your empathic abilities increase along with it.
Empathy can feel like a curse sometimes, it can be a nightmare, but it can also be a huge blessing. You have the ability to understand people in ways that others may not. You could bring someone out of a pit of despair, because you genuinely do know how that person is feeling. It can also be an excellent guide in phycic abilities. Because empathy and phycic abilities are tied in together. If you are just starting to explore your phycic abilities, feeling what the other person is feeling can guide you in the right direction of reading someone, and can make your reading full of emotion and compassion. It’s like you are the universes natural therapists.
Empathy also makes people more sensitive to energies in the environment. Mediums for example, who go into old buildings, can sense the feelings in the house from months to hundreds of years ago. Memories and feelings that are imprinted on the walls radiate and are picked up by the Medium/Empath. If there is a spirit in the house a medium/empath can feel what that spirit is feeling, and it can guide them to why the spirit is there and what it may need. Emapthy can eliminate fear from seemingly dark situations.
Empathy tends to start out fairly mild but does increase with age. When I was younger I would feel the feelings of others mildly, basically sensing it. It wasn’t overwhelming, but when I turned 16 it exploded. I couldn’t be in large groups without feeling extremely overwhelmed
While empathy can have many drawbacks as well as benefits. It can bring on general stress from the emotional overload. Insomnia can definitely be one of them. Insomnia is usually caused by emotional stress. It can be very stressful to feel all of your own feelings on top of the feelings of others. That in and of itself would make it not so surprising that it would be difficult to fall asleep at nighttime. A lack of sleep can make an already stressful situation that much more difficult to deal with. It’s a vicious cycle. Of course empathic overload is not always the main cause of insomnia, there are usually many other factors at play. There could also be some things on your mind at a subconscious level that are bothering you more than you realize. A good night sleep is imperative to dealing with stressful situations more effectively.
I would like to share an example of an empathic experience I had when I was 17. I was in a coffee shop with my friends and I was feeling great. Within 5 minutes I felt like I was going insane. Like the fabric of my mind was falling apart. I felt utterly depressed. I looked around the room and saw a girl I knew, who looked like she was very upset. I was too stressed out to talk to her, so my friend went over to talk to her instead. After about 15 minutes I started feeling better again. I looked across the room and the girl was laughing. She was happy again! My other friend came back to the table and I asked her what was wrong with the other girl, and she described the exact feelings I was feeling. The exact same thing! I was feeling better so I went over and talked to the girl and she started going up and down. From happy to sad and my emotions went up and down as well. That's when I realized that it wasn’t my feelings I was feeling it was her's. As soon as I realized that I re-gained control over my emotions. Things like that would happen to me all the time. Everywhere I went it was very difficult to deal with.
Emotions are not always received many times they are projected. Some do it intentionally while others do it unknowingly. In situations like that, especially if you are feeling a million feelings at once, can make it difficult for others to be around you. As frustrating as it may be. They can also sense your emotional overload, and may find it difficult to be around someone who is on an emotional roller coaster. Emotions do give off an energy. You know the expression Laughter is contagious... and if someone is depressed it can make others depressed. Perhaps they are not empathic but can sense the overload of different emotions running through you, they may find it hard to deal with. It’s hard to say, as each individual is different. It is hard going through all of that stuff then having your friends abandon you on top of it. Many people don’t understand certain types of energies. They may not even know why they feel like backing off.
If you are not sure that you are empathic, one of the ways to test it is to realize that the emotion you are feeling might not actually be yours. As time goes on you may be able to tell the difference between your emotions and the emotions of others. If you want to test it out, the next time you feel a certain way. Look around the room and try and find a person who looks like they are feeling the same way you are. Try to comfort that person and see if you start feeling better as they do. Although this may be hard if the feeling is intense. But it may be a good way to at least test it out.
Protection with empathy can be imperative. To many emotions coming at you at once can cause extreme emotional stress. Most empaths have instinctual ways of putting up natural shields, like an energy barrier. Although it doesn’t always happen if they have no idea that it’s someone else’s emotions they are feeling.
A basic shielding technique is:
Visualizing yourself surrounded by a protective circle of white light, or you can envision yourself encompassed by a cone of white light. When you are able to hold the vision solidly, your shield is up.
An advanced shielding technique is:
Visualize yourself surrounded by 4 mirrors (with the reflective sides facing away from you). They should all be touching, forming a solid box. Once you are able to clearly hold this add 2 more mirrors. One above and one below, also facing away from you. You should now be unable to see yourself at all. Only a complete "box" of mirrors. Once you are able to clearly hold this visualization, your shield will be up. This is a bit harder to hold and should be practiced to achieve its full effect. Practice the shields; play with it a bit until you find what’s right for you. Be careful not to put one up so strong for so long that it becomes a wall.
I think back to when my empathic abilities first became really activated. I wish I had, someone to really help me through it. I ended up putting up a shield so strong that sometimes I don’t know how to take it down. At first I was relived, but then over time it felt like a part of me was missing. A part I realized I really missed. It’s a part of who I am, and I work all the time on getting it back in full swing
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Many people wonder if they can stop being an empath. Generally if you are empathic it’s a part of who you are. It would be like removing a limb. You would probably miss it. But you can put up shield’s to protect yourself from picking up on people's emotions. I know the feeling of feeling that its bad enough that I have my own problems, but now I have to feel other people's problems. AHH! If you push it all away for long enough it may go dormant, but it wont be gone completely. Sometimes you just want to scream and pray to be normal again. I know the feeling well, but I’ve learned that "normal" is a cycle on a washing machine.
Learn as much as you can about empathy. Find other empathic people to connect with and learn from. It can enrich your life more than you may realize. And don’t worry about how the emotional roller coasters are going to affect others. You will figure out how to deal with it in time. Respect your feelings the way you would someone else’s and you may find yourself a bit calmer from time to time.
I hope I have been able to help someone out there.
The Lucifer Rebellion and the History of Misogyny
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