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"LIVING AS AN EMPATH"

Question: "Having recently discovered I'm an empath, I also discovered that I've been blocking since childhood as a survival mechanism. I smashed my shield into smithereens but I'm still not receiving. Have you any suggestions on exercises or meditations I can do to start receiving please?"

Psychic Advice:
Living as an empath can be challenging. Many people learn to block or cut off their emotions and empathic abilities to protect themselves from being "too sensitive". This is especially true for children who get overwhelmed by feeling everyone else's feelings all the time. Empaths are often extremely caring and nurturing, and tend to become pleasers in order to try to make other people feel good.

Empathic children are often called "too sensitive" because they feel and react to everyone and everything around them. If this gift is not nurtured and supported, empathic children will feel a need to somehow protect themselves. Many empathic children either become overweight to create a bit of a shield around them, or they become numb and retreat into their head.

Empaths learn to block, ignore or cut off from their sensitivity for a number of reasons. If an empathic child asks their parents "What is wrong?" and is told that nothing is wrong, that child will get confused and stop trusting his/her own feelings. Intense personal or family trauma can also cause an empath to shut down emotionally and withdraw into the mind.

Our present society does not honor or value emotions (not to mention intuition), and tends to judge emotions as being a sign of weakness, rather than a source of strength and depth. Therefore, being called "too sensitive" is almost an insult, and is often treated like there is something terribly wrong with that. Sensitive and empathic people may even be shamed for their sensitivity and start to see themselves as being somehow "abnormal", so they cut off from their emotions in order to conform and be like everyone else.

Most people are in denial of their own feelings and emotions, so empaths who do not protect themselves will tend to pick up on other people's denied emotions everywhere they go. You must learn to trust what you are sensing, even if others deny it, and you must learn to differentiate and discern between what is yours and what is not.

The best way to protect yourself is to visualize a bubble of light as a forcefield all around the body - do this every morning and every night, and as necessary throughout the day. It is not a good idea for you to have "smashed your shield" because this is a vital form of protection for you.

There is a great difference between putting up a shield, which protects your energy field, versus putting up walls of protection or wearing emotional armor. A shield or forcefield of light will protect you from negative energies, but it will still allow you to give and receive love and joy, and it will still allow you to feel and connect with other people. Putting up walls or wearing armor will protect you, but it will also prevent you from feeling anything, including love and joy, because walls are designed so nothing can get in or out.

When sensitive and empathic people do not have a shield around them, they will tend to retreat into their head to avoid feeling. Once this happens, it can be challenging to begin to feel again, but there are things you can do to open the lines of communication between your mind and your heart, reconnecting your rational mind and your intuitive mind so they can work together to guide you to your greatest joy.

We are all born with innate intuitive and empathic abilities, because these are tools for our survival and wellbeing. We can learn to become comfortable and proficient at working with these skills. Remember that a key aspect of intuition depends on what you feel or sense in any given situation, and requires the heart to communicate with the mind so the mind can make informed decisions - they must work together.

In order to begin receiving intuitive and empathic messages again, first you must learn to trust yourself and to feel safe. Therefore, it is absolutely vital that you visualize a shield of light all around yourself first thing in the morning. Once you have that shield around you, take a few moments to get a sense of how you feel in your body and how you feel emotionally. As you go through your day, keep checking in with yourself to see how you feel. Be aware of how you feel in your body and in your emotions as you encounter different people and places during the day.

If you suddenly feel sad or depressed for no reason after speaking with someone, you have probably picked up on their emotions. If you suddenly feel uncomfortable when you walk into a place, you are probably picking up negative energy in that place. Make sure that your bubble of light is always strong and intact around you, then you can imagine that place filled with light to clear the energy, or imagine that other person filled with light and surrounded by light for healing.

Empaths are often healers; they are great bodyworkers, feng shui practitioners, massage therapists, nurses, child care workers, therapists, interior designers, animal caretakers, etc. The reason empaths can feel other people's emotions or the energies in places is because they have a gift of being able to help in shifting those energies, if there is willingness on all sides to do so. Remember, you cannot help someone heal unless they want to be helped or healed. It is not up to you to take on this responsibility, but you can facilitate the healing of people and spaces because of your awareness of energy.

Living as an empath requires you to be aware of your energy and feelings in your heart and in your body at all times. You can do exercises to strengthen your awareness, such as picking up objects and closing your eyes, trusting whatever you feel from that object. You can do the same with plants and animals, being aware of feeling their energy - often it is easiest to pick up this type of energy through your hands by touching, or by simply holding the palms of your hands near something.

You can make it an exercise to walk into various rooms in your house, or other places, and become keenly aware of what you feel in your body and in your emotions. In your home, get a sense of where the energy feels good and where it doesn't, where the energy is flowing positively and where it is blocked. Try moving furniture and removing items, and then get a sense of how the energy shifts and changes. Do this slowly and gradually so you can really feel the energy shifting, and keep doing it until you feel all the energy in your home flowing peacefully and harmoniously, so you feel good everywhere.

When opening up to your empathic gifts, proceed slowly, gently and carefully. You don't want to overload and overwhelm yourself, or that may cause you to shut down your feelings and go numb again. Remember to always, ALWAYS, keep your shield of light around you at all times, because this will let you feel safe living as an empath.


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