What exactly does the term “empath” mean? You may be hearing it a lot lately as people get in touch with their Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine sides. Intuitive types use this term often to help describe someone who gets overwhelmed with their emotion or who is highly sensitive. Taken from Dictionary.com, an Empath, from the root Empathic or Empathy, is the psychological identification with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others. Yep, being an empath involves more than simply feeling empathic towards someone. Think of it as more of an absorption of emotion, positive or negative.
Here’s how you can identify with being an empath:
-senses the energy of a person or a crowd
-has trouble being in highly crowded places
-deeply impacted by violence in movies, TV shows, or the News.
-can feel what someone feels without the other person saying.
-does not like drama
-strangers talk to them like a best friend would.
-feels drained, even with ample sleep
-needs solitude and alone time
There are various types of empaths, just as there are many different intuitives. Here are a few:
-feeling others emotions-individuals, groups, or collective nation
-feeling others physical ailments, like back pain, arthritis, muscle soreness, headaches, congestion, heaviness around the heart, gut issues, tight neck or shoulders, foot pain.
-feeling the energy of plants “horticultural empath” who can sense the needs of plants.
-feeling the energy of animals
-sensing energy of food-if someone made something from love or anger, the energetic vitality of the quality of food: organic vs. conventional or quick food.
Empathic people can easily get overwhelmed, and I’m sure you can see why. If you are a sponge and all these energies are coming toward you, the amount of energetic smog that you need to sift through and release can get incredibly tiresome.
Empowering yourself to handle anything that comes into your field serves as the greatest defense against the energy vampires or other things that may come your way. You must have the tools to ground, release, and recharge your batteries.
Empaths tend to drain themselves easily. They are great listeners and so everyone, including strangers, loves talking to them, telling them their life story or dumping crisis after crisis. Setting boundaries becomes fundamental as you explore your way through the energies coming at you. Differentiating between your feelings and the feelings of someone else can also get problematic if there lacks a strong system for standing up for what you need. Grounding and recharging becomes critical. Then, managing what comes into your space-TV, music, news, friends, etc becomes just as important. You can control what comes in, at least most of the time.
GROUNDING
Grounding activities include hiking, walking, dancing, yoga, Tai Chi, Capoera, Karate, pranayama, acupuncture and deep tissue massage. Basically, anything to get the energy flowing with your feet touching a surface constitutes a grounding activity. When you ground your energy you have the foundation for your light to surround you and firmly hold that auric space. Instead of holding space or others you now have the power to hold your own space. That can change everything!
I often use a grounding visual meditation that I call “Charged to the Earth’s Matrix.” Start seated or standing with your feet completely planted to the ground. Barefoot is preferred, but not required. Feel your sit bones connected to the chair if you are seated. Sit or stand up very tall, feeling the crown of your head pulling upward to the heavens as your feet press firmly into the Earth. Start to pull white light down from the cosmos through the crown of your head, through each chakra points, forehead, throat, heart, belly, lower belly, base of pelvis, feet and down into the core of the Earth. Keep breathing deeply while at the same time drawing the light through each point and into the center of the earth. It might take some time to get through each body part and into the Earths’ core, but just breathe with it. Once you hit the center you will know. Then, take the Earths’ light and bring it back up pulling up around your body like a tubular curtain, all the way up to the cosmos, once it hits the toppest point, bring the light back down and allow it to travel down your body once more to the center of the Earth. Repeat 2 more times for a total of 3-5 times. This exercise is intensly powerful and effective for grounding and shielding at the same time.
BUBBLE OF LIGHT
Once you are grounded you can start to amplify your own energetic source. One useful way to use light as a form of protection involves the bubble of light. Imagine your white light coming from the back of your belly and bringing itself forward out of your body and enveloping your entire form. You have the power to expand that light outward when you see fit. You can also envision your body or even someone else’s body, wrapped in white cotton balls or pink cotton candy.
CALLING UPON YOUR TEAM
Your team, comprised of ancestors, archangels, guardian angels, spirit guides, spirit animals, gods or goddesses, Divine source, and your higher power are there whenever you need them. How do you call upon your team? Ask them to help you guard and to help you release.
RELEASING ENERGY THAT DOES NOT BELONG TO YOU
My number one method for releasing emotional blocks or someone else’s stuff that I don’t want to hold onto anymore is always soaking in salt. I do this at least once a week. If it works for athletes’ sore muscles, I’m sure it helps with pulling out energies that are in my auric field.
Sage is another tool you can use on a daily basis or if you’re feeling drained and need to clear away some heaviness. Light a small piece and wave it around your body, hands, and feet.
Using essential oils is also useful, in particular, Rosemary, Sandlewood, Cedarwood, PaloSanto, and Patchouli.
Crystals that are great for protection include Black Tourmaline, Obsidian, Jet, Hematite, and Tigers Eye.
Stones that are critical for releasing include selentite and kyanite.
Remember, empaths need solitude and alone time to recharge. Remove yourself from a situation if you gut is telling you to get out. No explanation is necessary.
As you release energy set a clear affirmation: I release all energies that don’t belong to me, making space for light and love. I am strong in my foundation and only allow for what’s good and best for myself and the collective whole.
Lastly, as you release the energy that you are not wanting, like anger or jealousy, make sure that as you let that energy go it’s also being transmutted and transformed into positive light. You can use your minds eye to imagine the energy dissipate into purple healing light to travel back to Mother Earth or back to the Cosmic Council.
You have the ability to empower yourself with anything that gets thrown your way. Empaths will always pick up energy from others and we have the capability and intuitive adaptability to ground ourselves, move that energy through us, and then fully release and clear our spaces to start anew. The potential rests within each of us.
With love,
Monica