who on the board feels they are an empath?

[norral]

im curious to see who on the board feels they are an empath.
the reason i ask is that i just realized this morning that i am an
empath. i feel other peoples pain quite literally. now its clear to
me why i get so frustrated at times because people are doing and saying
things that cause pain to others and they dont have a clue and i
am feeling it lol. please describe some of your experiences and
feelings and when did it become clear to you that you are an empath.
ha it took me my whole life to realize it lol son of a gun


norral

[Ali Quadir]

I had the hunch back then, but the thing that really drove it into my mind was when I was attending a group therapy session as an intern. The group leader directed a few particularly accurate questions at one of the clients. She kept op a poker face. I felt a punch in my stomach, like it locked up I felt so uncomfortable I wanted to run away. And I was thinking, whoa, what happened? I have absolutely no reason to feel this. And then the client started to sob because the emotions were too strong for her to contain them...

At that point I realized, ok, this is undeniable. I better learn to recognize which emotions are mine.

[norral]

ali
i had a feeling you are an empath, no pun intended. your
patients are blessed my friend. i believe there are several others on this
board who quite possibly are not aware that they are

love and light
norral

[Peregrinus]

I'm the opposite. I barely have my own feelings.

[Phoenix]

I used to have experiences which became very real to me and generally distressed me when it was overbearing. Early teenage years.

Now, I am every bit the empath, but I am very busy and have moved on my energy field to be adaptive. Hope I don't sound poncy.

[Ali Quadir]

Heh, in all love and with the utmost respect Peregrinus, it shows They are there though, you're not wired to acknowledge them, that's all. Your parents were probably matter of fact people instead of going into every emotion that occurred in the house. Do you think you need to?

And Norral, if there's anything particular you want to discuss about dealing with it, now is the time

[Namaste]

I'm the opposite. I barely have my own feelings.

Out of interest brother, can you not feel love/Source when you view a beautiful sunset, a flower, or a couple laughing together? Does music not lift your soul?

[AppleSeed]

Empath/sensitive/non-clear personal boundaries? Yes, I've known that pretty much my whole life, but learning how to deal with it is still in process. As a child it was impossible for me not to cry when someone else was hurt, even knowing that I wasn't hurt. That was the first hint.

One difference between my feelings and those of others is that my own feelings I can work on and resolve, but I can't otherwise remove them from my space. The feelings of others I can't change or resolve, but I can 'wash' them out of my energy space. And I have to remember to keep doing this - it's helpful to know what other people are feeling, but not to keep it in my space.

Of course there are also the connections of joy, at the heart level and above, but that's never a 'problem'.

I'm not in a 'healing' business, but I think this lack of personal boundaries is a part of the make-up of the natural healer. It's good to learn how to use it in a sensitive and supportive way, and not just get bogged down by schlepping around other people's feelings.

[Ali Quadir]

It cost me some pain initially. But as soon as I figured out the emotion wasn't mine I stopped being bothered by it...

I can feel a fairly huge load of stress. But still be calm myself. Just like I can see something red without being red myself. Or I can hear music without actually playing it. So I think that's possible for empaths. Being sensitive doesn't mean being uncontrolled.

I've had an experience a long while back where due to an accident with fireworks which fortunately hurt no one but could have been devastating. Someone shot an illegal rocket which spiralled out of control and impacted a balcony in a highrise building. Me and 10 to 15 people were on the balcony above it. It was impossible to see with the trajectory of the rocket where the rocket would hit and it seemed like it was going to hit on our level. And it looked like a huge ball of fire as it came in.

People panicked and climbed over each other to get away through the only door available. The emotions in the air were very wild, anger, fear, shock, all kinds of drama. I felt totally calm, helped people get up, checked out bruises calmed people down and even had the sense to send someone to the floor below to check if everyone was allright there.

Get it? It's just perception. Emotions being there isn't a problem, the hardwired response to go into some kind of drama mode due to their presence however is...

Fear converts to avoidance. Anger converts to violence. Depression converts to stagnation.Those sort of hardwired links. We consider them normal and natural. And people who suffer from them cannot help themselves. They're not, they're learned responses. So we're really doing a strong disservice to those experiencing those emotions. We're reinforcing their drama mode which in the end is their worst enemy.

[norral]

Thanks Ali for the offer. i just actually realized it this morning as i was
praying and then reflecting on some things. it just hit me right between
the shoulders and all of a sudden i could understand a lot of things about
myself. one of the reasons i get so angry when i see people inflict pain
on others is that i actually feel the pain they went thru. and it is also
clear to me that a lot of people really dont have a clue about the pain
they are inflicting on others they dont feel their own pain they are
definitely not going to feel someone elses. and things that people have
said to me make sense such as youre too sensitive , dont let things get
to you ha easy for them to say lol. im cool with it it just helps me
understand both myself and others more makes me more compassionate
for myself and more understanding of others. the other day we had an
emergency medical situation in our family and i was sobbing uncontrollably but i wasnt out of control but now it just makes sense.
ah life eternal and incredible i look forward to having a beer someday with the creator and looking back over all these things

peace and love
norral

[Ali Quadir]

I see what you're saying Norral. Can you tell more about the sensation hitting you between the shoulders? I don't know that one. I usually get affected on the larger chakras. The heart, the stomach the throat, very occasionally the sex chakra. Fortunately the last one doesn't trigger often. Usually it's the heart and after that the stomach.

Realize please that sensing emotions and responding to them are two different things. Most people consider them automatic and one and the same. But this is not the case. You have this partly when you were sobbing. But remaining in control and able to act effectively is like 80% of the business. And there's two ways of going about it, first you could repress. But that locks the energy and causes blockages. It's installing dikes with the risk of them bursting. Secondly, you can feel and allow without changing your behavior. You may see it on the outside, but it really doesn't bother people as long as you're clearly in control.

I know a beautiful 70 something year old woman who was talking at a certain moment about her ex husband who was not the nicest person. She was crying and people started to comfort her. And she pushed them away saying I feel, but I don't need to be comforted because I am in control. That was a lesson to me.

I hope all is well with you and your loved ones now.

[spero]

Thanks for the comments Ali. Confusing how I feel with how I should act has been a recurring issue for me and your perspective makes a lot of sense.

[norral]

ali
the energy hits me in the back slightly below the bottom of the neck
squarely between the shoulders. its an actual physical feeling of
being not struck, but touched by something. what chakra if it is a chakra
i dont know but it has to do with revelation as far as im concerned.
ive felt it before in certain instances and it it never wrong

norral

[Ali Quadir]

Wow, awesome Norral, I found some references to that spot. I learned something today. Maybe it'll help you as well.
http://www.kheper.net/topics/chakras/Back_of_Neck.html

Spero, I know how you feel. Empaths tend to adopt other peoples perspectives along with emotions and so we slow down our own development of personality and perspective. I used to have many different friend groups. Who were totally incompatible with each other. And I literally was a different person within a different group. And they all liked me... (Who wouldn't like another version of themselves?) In spite of that I got terribly confused about who I was supposed to be. And no one could give me advice because aside from me no one else actually knew who I was either.

I was like an obsessive compulsive chameleon I could not help myself. If I saw a color I was the color.

[norral]

thanks for that info Ali . very nice !

chameleon yes i relate 100 %. boundaries are a problem for us.
ive learned the hard way but im much better now than i was.
im much more careful who i associate with as i will take on the energy
of the group im with
on the flip side though i have a strong connection with children
and animals which makes sense . their innocence and purity
are life affirming

norral

[Ali Quadir]

I hear that too more often. Just the other day this guy who was just starting to ask questions about the occult started asking all kind of questions indicating he might be an empath. He also had this huge thing with animals. They would just trust him. I'm not that spectacular with animals. But they do tend to like me.

I would not advocate withdrawing into a safe circle of friends with good energy. Sure don't hang out with people who are clearly not good for you. But I think it's wise to keep subjecting ourselves to energy good and bad to avoid becoming too sensitive to it.

Is like the immune system. If you keep kids in a sterile environment they'll get sick quickly, if you throw them in the ditch behind your house on a regular basis they probably won't be sick very often.

[AppleSeed]

Yes, I can relate to the group experiences as well, even though I to the most part avoid groups. We like to have the group vibrating at the same level, and so we adjust.

Get it? It's just perception. Emotions being there isn't a problem, the hardwired response to go into some kind of drama mode due to their presence however is...

Interesting! I had to think about this for a while, because for me the hardwired response to strong emotion is self-control. But as you say it's all learned responses, it just feels hardwired. But I guess one can upgrade the hardware as well! :-)

Fear converts to avoidance. Anger converts to violence. Depression converts to stagnation.Those sort of hardwired links. We consider them normal and natural. And people who suffer from them cannot help themselves. They're not, they're learned responses. So we're really doing a strong disservice to those experiencing those emotions. We're reinforcing their drama mode which in the end is their worst enemy.

I agree, and I think we're also doing a disservice to those experiencing the emotions even if there is no outwards drama, if we hold on to the external emotion for long. The key is to quickly read the situation for what it is, and bounce back with love and compassion, which is why it's so important in the first place to find out who I am, and I AM, and to keep tuning....

[Ali Quadir]

You get it Appleseed

However, I did mean a nonjudgmental attitude rather than a bouncing away from emotions we consider wrong for some reason. We can teach anyone to be allergic to the color blue. Provided we get access to them early in life and are allowed to inflict trauma. I'm sure you can imagine what I mean. In the same way we have strong biasses towards emotions. This bad, that good. Thus we get hooked on emotions. They stimulate our consciousness and we get snared by them. They're so alluring, though not necessarily positive. It's such a strong existence in our life, it's virtually non existent that people do not get hooked on them.

I was hooked on some negative emotions for a long time. I didn't understand what was wrong with me with the empathy and all how would a protestant kid know? And got hooked on other peoples emotions often without knowing they belonged to other people.

It made me much more dependent on other people than I think I should be. A healthier approach would be, it's your choice, not my problem, if you want to change it, sure I'll help, but it is and will always be your problem and not mine. My own emotions are something I do, and not something that happens to me.

They are important they have a strong effect in the body. You can't be depressed for a long time without suffering in some way. Even if your soul is free your freedom is not putting you in the right place where it is reflected in the quality of your life.

[Phoenix]

That thing about something between the shoulders. I had that for years, it started like a small breeze but then felt pressurising at the back of my neck. Eventually, I summoned up the courage to allow an entity in, with a LOT of protection. The channeling only happened once or maybe twice and the information was incredibly loving and stayed with me til this day.

If an entity wanted to communicate with you your extra sensory skills would be automatically enhanced.

[colorado]

I consider myself to be a "weak" empath. I can relate 100% to feeling like you don't have your own personality, and you just morph into the personality that is the group. I have done this my entire life. I have realized I do this only in the past few years. I have never associated it with empathic abilities until just now though, Ali!

I don't however, feel other people's physical pain or emotional pain in the same way that I would feel my own physical pain or emotional pain. I can sense what other's are probably thinking or feeling, but its more of an intuitive knowledge rather than me actually experiencing the pain or emotion, if that makes sense. One thing I do feel that I am sensitive to is the "vibe" of the environment. For instance, I can only stay in Las Vegas for a few days at a time. If I stay there any longer, the negative "vibe" of the environment wears on me far too much. I live in Boulder, CO and I can sense sort of the superposition of the different levels of vibration of this place. It is an absolutely gorgeous city with the mountains right on top of it, which adds a kind of natural love to the vibration of the city. There are also a lot of "hippies" that love everyone, which adds a human loving touch to the city. However, this is a party town with a lot of very insensitive college kids, which brings down the vibration. I can sense the superposition of these "vibes", which creates sort of a neutral feeling to the place. However, I can walk outside and see the mountains and that neutrality turns to pure love, if only for a moment

[AppleSeed]

You get it Appleseed

Nope, I'm just working on it.

Yes, I did in fact mean bouncing away from the emotion with a nonjudgmental attitude. There's a time for everything, and usually when an emotion hits we have the choice of acting out of the emotion, or stepping aside to get a clear head, like you did at the balcony/rocket event. Later, one can think/feel back and analyze. Sometimes there really is the need to head straight into the center of a 'dark' emotion, abandoning all thought, in order to get to the other side of it.

I'm reminded of a story about the Dalai Lama, where he saw an image of suffering, and his face twisted with immense sadness for a moment, before he was back to his usual. He would be someone whose emotional circuits are clear. He doesn't stick to emotions, but that doesn't mean he won't feel them.

I however have lots of bumps in my circuits, and still need to subdivide and analyze. I used to get hooked on emotions, too. I would wallow in them and end up depressed, because I had no idea where these irrational emotions came from. These days I'm much quicker to follow the emotion back to the trigger point, and will find either some 'nugget of pain', in Quo's words, or I will simply find that the emotion wasn't mine to begin with, and indeed not my problem unless I choose to make it so.

[Whitefeather]

Hi, Thank you for your posts, friends. Quite an interresting thread here and, one I can relate to 100 per cent. Good comments too! I am totally empath; have been all my life.

I may even sense not only feelings but also very precise thoughts coming from people. Along the years, I learnt to keep discreet and not to listen. In that sense I feel connected with everything and everyone around me, with the wholeness of life in its infinite intricate depths and connections. I am thus never separated from anything or anyone ever. This allows me to be a healer at all time, that is if the people around me accept my balanced bouncing back energy which I automatically send back into the equation of the data I receive. It is not a thinking process, more a natural automated one as a gift would be.

I never experience separation (or fear); I would term my closest experience of such, as 'respect for all life and free will and differences and a kind of awe I always feel when sensing the wonders of the richness of diversity in people and other forms of life and light.' I see life as a wonderful assembly of pieces of a puzzle put together to perfection at all time, to venture a definition, for each life and direction of the light has a clear definition of its own and has a function to accomplish.

I think that it is perfectly fine to feel and sense all these emotions around; I do not feel the need to be so much 'protected' and 'separated' from it. After all we are each and all; we are the sorrows around, the joice of every corner and above all, the love which lives in every thing and when I say 'every thing', I really mean that.

We are in these deep waters of atmosphere on Earth together as the human family - linked with the horizontal energies which are the others in three Density life and, verticaly connected with ALL densities from 1D, minerals, plants, animals to 8th Density and probably, I dare say to the octave above which is the Earth and the planets of our solar system. I can feel the whole connection at all time. It is often overwhelming and, sensations of illness occur often. I sense the toxicity of the Earth in my body and, when I am physicaly in front of someone in pain, I may sense the pain in my body. However, these are not illnesses but rather the gathered impressions arriving all the time and, having to be delt with on a constant manner. These bring me wonderful opportunities to heal others with the simple awareness bouncing back in a natural not intended manner, very close to the way in which the water always balances its level.

Often, people 'see' me the way they are themselves and not the way I am. It is true for everyone but far stronger and more definite for empath. People with certain problems 'see' their own problems very strongly in me. I know why that is so. Actually that occurs at the exact moment when I receive the 'info/feeling/thoughts' from a person in front of me and, that person would look at me and see their own image. But I know who I am. As an empath, I am one! My deep self is as joyful and peaceful as a clear river, as colorful as a rainbow, as enthousiastic as a singing bird, as strong as the sea, as infinite as the universe and, I breath these out at every instant, I give these back all the time without people even noticing it. For me, this is the true nature of the STO work; there is nothing to do forcibly to try to be STO; when STO, we are just STO by our own nature.

Because of being an empath, I am often ill in the presence of unclear people or people negatively orientated or not polarized yet. I sense punches in my stomac whenever I am around badly intentioned people or if I enter a room where something had happened. Through the years, I developped serious stomac problems on account of this and still have not fully recovered my third chakra activity and healed this ailment for after a lifetime in this crazy world, i am struggling to eat on account of severe and extented so called 'food-allergies' that the repetition of the punches have created.
Recently, I have been unable to step outside the house at all for as soon as I find myself in the street or in a room with people, my muscles would give way and I would collapse onto the floor or the tarmacadam, unable to get up or to even move, my muscles totally weakened. This happens in kinesiology when doing an arm test and, the arm tests 'weak' when faced with a question which requires a 'no' as an answer. So, in short, I collapse because people around me are having the wrong thoughts, so to say. I never collapse on my own or when I am with friends. That says a lot! There is a quantum aspect to this, of course; this being only a scientific way of explaining the 'non-separate' world energy field.

There is so much to say about this empath thing. I would like to say that it is rather a good thing. After all empathy expands the awareness of everything, immensly. I also would like to advise not to get into the habit of wanting it to 'go away', it is too good a gift! Rather, I would suggest other empaths out there, to reinforce their own electromagnetic field. Doing so will reinforce also the chakra system. I spent my whole life looking for solutions on my own and I found several on my path. There exist breathing exercises, Tai Chi practices, Qi gong, etc.
Do not give up such beautiful gift!

There is so much more to say but this is already a long post.
Do not hesitate to ask me questions about it; I 'll answer with great pleasure and heart.

Keep well friends,
L/L
W

[Ali Quadir]

Yes, I did in fact mean bouncing away from the emotion with a nonjudgmental attitude. There's a time for everything, and usually when an emotion hits we have the choice of acting out of the emotion, or stepping aside to get a clear head, like you did at the balcony/rocket event. Later, one can think/feel back and analyze. Sometimes there really is the need to head straight into the center of a 'dark' emotion, abandoning all thought, in order to get to the other side of it.

I agree, the avoidance of emotions is not the answer. Often working through an emotion is a proper choice. It's dependent on the situation our personal strengths and what we expect to find. Just before joining a public gathering is a bad time to think about what's bugging us because it puts our energy on a level that people around us will avoid.

I'm reminded of a story about the Dalai Lama, where he saw an image of suffering, and his face twisted with immense sadness for a moment, before he was back to his usual. He would be someone whose emotional circuits are clear. He doesn't stick to emotions, but that doesn't mean he won't feel them.

That's exactly what I mean. If the emotional circuit isn't functional then the individual is not complete. But if the emotional circuit causes problems then it's also imbalanced.

In compassion we accept each others good bad but also each others suffering. It's okay to suffer, it's okay to be happy. It's not okay to not have a choice in the matter.

I however have lots of bumps in my circuits, and still need to subdivide and analyze. I used to get hooked on emotions, too. I would wallow in them and end up depressed, because I had no idea where these irrational emotions came from. These days I'm much quicker to follow the emotion back to the trigger point, and will find either some 'nugget of pain', in Quo's words, or I will simply find that the emotion wasn't mine to begin with, and indeed not my problem unless I choose to make it so.

Good job It helps a great deal to know what's going on inside of us, why it is going on. And when it's going on that we actually do have a choice in the matter.
I said this before, but it's so important that I'll say it again What we feel and how we respond to what we feel are two entirely different things. We are conditioned to respond in very stereotypical ways to events.

It's important to manage our emotions none the less. Continued exposure to negative emotions causes many physical problems. So don't sit around wallowing in your negative emotions. Only go into them with the intention of finding their source, and keep managing your emotions.

It's a matter of psychological hygiene. Not taught in school but just as responsible for physical and mental illness as lacking a physical hygiene. Perhaps even more so.