who on the board feels they are an empath?

[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.