Empathy and how to deal with our feelings

Founder Posts : 144 Join date : 2012-06-16

Empathy is a feeling different from sympathy. When we are sympathetic, we feel pity but maintain a distance from another person’s feelings.

Empathy is more a sense that we can truly understand or imagine the depth of another person’s feelings.
It implies feeling with a person, rather than feeling sorry for a person.

Do you ever feel yourself in company… happy one minute and the next feeling sad?
Could you walk into a shop and start feeling anxious very quickly?
Do you find yourself talking to a friend online and feeling happy and the next thing a sense of sadness surrounds your entire being?
If you are well and a friend comes round to your home and your friend isn’t feeling well, do you suddenly feel pain somewhere in your body and didn’t have it before your friend came?
Are you overly sensitive?
Do you find it hard to say no?

If you have answered “Yes” to most if not all of these questions then you most certainly are empathic… which is when you pick up and feel happiness, sadness, anxiety, any pain at all from another person… t

This is a very special gift however it can be very hard when you don’t realise that you have this gift of being empathic…
You don’t have to be in front of a person to pick up and feel what they are feeling, you could be thousands of miles away from each other and still pick up on them.

You feel what they are feeling and also feel these emotions and pain etc much worse than the actual person suffering them.
You may also find yourself finishing what a person is saying, this has happened many times with me, if I don’t actually come out with the words I think them.

There are 3 types of Empathy which include… emotional, physical and also intellectual shape shifting…

Emotional Empathy, is when you actually pick up the feelings of someone, who could be a total stranger, and feel their emotions, for example, feeling suddenly sad or on the other hand feel uplifted and happy in their presence

Physical Empathy, is when we suddenly feel pain, which can be quite severe, this is you picking up someone else’s pain… also you may feel this before the other person too.

Intellectual Empathy or shape shifting, is when you tend to finish off what someone is saying to you… this just happens and happens a lot with us Empaths.

Empathic shapeshifting is the ability to read a person’s emotions, physical pain, and see through their eyes, and take on their characteristics to better understand them as you work to heal them.

In understanding them to such deep levels, you are able to, without conscious thought, change your own personality to fit any given situation or problem.

You simply know, without rhyme or reason, what to do or say to help the person you are working with.
It can be very hard to deal with being an Empath… especially if you feel you are on your own!!
Please never feel you are on your own as we have thousands of fellow Empaths in this world.
I do strongly advise that you do ground & protect each day and put extra protection up also as with being empathic, we can be as open as a book!

We can also get drained very easily, which again is why it is so important to ground & protect!
Grounding and Protecting was of great benefit to myself when I was nursing, in a caring roll, we meet emotion, anger, sadness on a day to day basis, this can be very draining

To enable me to cope with this on a daily basis I added extra protection, my personal protection was to ask AA Michael to add another cloak.
Another method is to try to visualise either yourself in a bubble or visualise each time you protect… golden swirls all around you.

In protecting yourself you’re building a wall of protection all over yourself… this will not stop you from feeling others emotions and pain etc however it will help.
There has been a fair amount of discussion about Grounding & Protecting on site recently.

I would just like to clarify the site’s ethos on this matter, as circle guides we feel responsible for the members attending our circles.
We all agree that at the beginning of your spiritual awareness, G & P does help you, I religiously G & P’d before I signed into chat, this helped me immensely to protect against any feelings of negativity, sadness, despair and in some cases anger.

We have to be aware here, that many come to us for help, they are often in a very “Dark Place” in their lives, I know I certainly was, I wanted answers, I wanted to ‘talk’ with my deceased father and sister, I felt depressed, very alone and desperate at that time.

When we sit in chat, as an empath we pick up on these feelings, and G & P certainly helps, you will know yourself as you advance on your spiritual path, when you no longer feel you need G & P.
Many have chronic illnesses as well, when it is a ‘bad’ day healthwise, we feel drained enough coping with our physical stress, let alone picking up on others in a supermarket situation.

I do protect before I go shopping, I started to recommence my protection after being in a supermarket and feeling ill and experiencing acute anxiety, unable to breathe and in a cold sweat, this resulted in me leaving my trolley where I had stopped and having to make a speedy exit.

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Member Posts : 39 Join date : 2012-03-18 Location : Canada

agree with all you have said there hun, i also find supermarkets hard to deal with, malls, hospitals, funerals etc...are also tough places for an empath. G and P has certianly helped me in those situations, there are many different methods of doing this, and what is right for one, wont be for another, so is best to find a method that works for you, and make it part of your daily routine, much like brushing your teeth, do it at a specific time of day and for myself, i did feel a difference in being out in public. Thanks for sharing the info hun xxx

Subject: Re: Empathy and how to deal with our feelings Thu Aug 02, 2012 8:53 pm

Thank you for sharing this great information, I am sorry I missed it before I guess It was when I was taking time out, or maybe I'm just half asleep, the more likely option haha.

Empathy can be hard to deal with especially when you don't realize you are Empathic or know nothing about it as was in my case. For many years I had chronic Severe Depression. Little did I know that some of them horrible Emotions i was feeling may well have been me picking up on others feelings and thoughts. Even the suicidal thoughts were magnified when i was In- patient in the mental Hospital which was my case at least 5 times.

Eventually I started my Spiritual Journey and hey presto discovered i was Empathic just by reading about it and attending a short course online which dealt with it and taught me how to adapt my life, and protect myself. I must say it was a light bulb moment.

Yes I still have times when I find it hard to deal with but also times when I can help when I am sending healing to people, if someone is in a low mood I know straight away about it but as long as i realize its not my own mood its easier to deal with and help to lift the friends mood either by sending healing but often a hugs and a listening ear can do wonders for someone who feels low and sad. Of course that person may well be Empathic as well, if you can help to explain if you feel that is the case then that will help them as well, same way it helped me hopefully. Love x Aurora x