Meet other empaths, and be the best that I can be for the higher good.

& also hadn’t realized how many people in my close circle are also

Here’s something I came across that got my attention.

Becoming an Intuitive - based on the Intuitive training seminars and courses run by Colleen-Joy Page

www.transformationpages.co.za

Here are some things you should know and work on practicing to develop your Intuitive skills – the likes of which are offered through Colleen-Joy Page’s Intuitive Training

AWARENESS – Awareness is what you have your conscious attention on at any given moment. While reading these words notice that you can become aware (conscious) of anything you place your ATTENTION on. Continue to read, but also place your attention on your left foot, imagining that you can feel your left foot completely and totally – not needing to see your foot, but just knowing and sensing that it is there. Got it? Simple – just being aware! The more time you give to placing your awareness on something the more information you would get about it – for e.g. you would know whether your foot felt comfortable or not, warm or cool?

DIRECTING AWARENESS – With very little practice you can manipulate your awareness to move it from place to place, from small areas like a fingernail to large, like your entire body. Experiment with this with a playful, mindful and relaxed attitude.

AWARENESS IS NOT BASED ON SIGHT OR HEARING – Your awareness is not entirely dependant on whether you can see or hear. If someone where standing behind you now, and you could not see or hear them, how else could you KNOW that they were there? Many people have had the experience of sensing someone looking at them – this is not a co-incidence to be dismissed as unimportant, it is just a commonplace example of the fact that your awareness is not dependant on the primary senses of sight and hearing, it goes beyond them.

NOT LOCKED INTO YOUR BODY – What is also not commonly known is that your awareness does not have to be confined to your body, which means that you can direct your awareness beyond your physical body’s boundaries. You are not confined to the borders of your skin, you can place your awareness on an object in the room, on the room itself, on another person, in fact on anything thing, anywhere.

READING INFORMATION INSIDE YOU – Here is possibly the most important Empath insight I could offer you – when connecting intuitively to another, don’t expect to receive impressions, feelings, thoughts or insights in a way that is external to your own body – it is not like reading a book, or watching a movie and seeing the information outside of you. When practicing Empath skills, know that you will always read the information INSIDE of YOUR own body! This means that you will get feelings, thoughts and impressions inside of YOU, that may seem to be just like your own thoughts and feelings. What makes this fact so tricky is that Empaths are picking up information from others all the time (though mostly subtle), but have never questioned whether the feelings are theirs or not! You may be feeling the feelings of others and never have realized it until now. The same mechanism that allows you to hear your own thoughts, feel your own feelings and have an inner awareness of your own internal world, character and life experience – is capable of being used to “tune in” to the feelings, thoughts, inner awareness, character and life experience of ANY other. Because you are like the radio receiver – you will feel the feelings and pick up on the impressions INSIDE OF YOU – you presume the feelings are your own because you are feeling them, when all the while they may not be.

BOUNDARIES AND DISCERNMENT – It might be a little frightening to think that you are picking up the emotions and inner realities of others, in fact many particularly sensitive Empaths become so overwhelmed by the impact of other’s emotions in their childhoods that they shut down their feelings to try to defend themselves from having to feel so much. Some choose to live above their shoulders and in their heads for fear of the murky waters of a heart without boundaries, others become tough and thick skinned. Those that fail to wall off their emotional vulnerability withdraw from real connections to people – they become introverts or loners. If your greatest weakness has been your sensitivity, big heart or emotions – it can now become your greatest strength; it can become your path to being an Empath. What is required is to open you heart and feel feelings, BUT to learn to discern whose emotions belong to whom and consciously pull your attention away from and release from what is not yours!

TRANSLATING INFORMATION – In the early stages you may discover that the real depth of Empath work comes from being able to translate subtle feelings and impressions into words and concepts. Your body is literally in a sea of intuitive data all the time and now its up to you to tune in, receive, and then translate the raw data into words from your vocabulary and concepts from the library of your life knowledge. This brings a literal slant to becoming more “open minded”. To practice this, start pushing yourself to describe in more detail each of the following levels of awareness. First explore these levels of your self and then focus your attention on a willing target subject and explore impressions you get in your own body and mind while imagining that you can FEEL what it is to BE the other person on each of these levels -

a. Physical Awareness (Discern the difference between various body sensations, energy fluctuations, fullness or emptiness associated with various emotions, the feeling of fear and peace, lightness and heaviness, etc.)

b. Emotional Awareness (Discern the difference between various emotions and their affect on your body – compare feelings of grief, shame, guilt, joy, freedom, peace, bliss, etc.)

c. Mental Awareness (after building awareness of your physical and emotional experiences – push your mind to add more words and descriptions as you ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this?” and explore in thoughts and ideas a deeper understanding of your feelings to get answers to questions.

IT’S NOT HOLLYWOOD – Don’t expect intuitive knowledge to come to you with bells and whistles, or flashing lights and booming voices in the sky. The most incredible and deeply insightful, intuitive knowledge can be as subtle as an inner whisper – ready to dismiss if you are not paying attention!

FROM VAGUE TO SPECIFIC – Start with the broad strokes and then let detail come to you without forcing it. By feeling for and opening to general, vague impressions first and then allowing the generalities to take you deeper to more detail you set yourself up for the best shot at accuracy. Trying to immediately jump in with impressive and specific personal detail places too much fear in your body, is likely driven by a need to prove yourself and does not really help you. Get into the flow first. For example – Start with general questions to direct your awareness like, “When I am connecting to this person by imagining that I can feel what it is like to be them, does my body feel more expanded and lighter, or more contracted and dense? Do I feel any emotions and if so what emotions?” Then when you start to get subtle senses of these things grab onto one impression and ask for more information about the subtle impression, like, “What is the cause of the heaviness and sad feeling?”. Don’t jump to logical conclusions – let ideas come to you – not be created by you! Check that it is not your emotion by disconnecting and reconnecting to double check the responses.

SOUL AND WISDOM – The same Intuitive Empath skills that allow people to connect emotionally, physically and mentally can allow for a connection to you as a soul, where your soul’s wisdom lies in wait. A true Empath connection to Soul reveals that soul brings peace, wisdom, unconditional love and support to the body. Wherever your awareness is placed, is what you are “in intuitive dialogue” with – so after exploring the physical, emotional and mental, place your attention on the inner compass of your soul, your peace.

Though it is a delight to be able to validate Intuitive skills with a display of impressively accurate, intuitively sought detail; because it reveals to the world that at the heart of every human lies an Intuitive; yet the ultimate reward for the Intuitive is not to impress with psychic party tricks but rather it is to be able to walk this physical world awake, with a heart open enough that it can tune in to the inner duet that plays through us all, the song of body and soul.

- can pick up on others emotions without that person saying a word

-does not shock easily

-is not embarrassed by your tears

-is warm and affectionate with you

-reminds you of your strengths when you forget that you have them

-recognizes that you are growing

-trusts you to survive a difficult time

-treats you like an adult who can make your own decisions

-acknowledges that s/he, too, has strong feelings and shares some of them with you

-may become impatient or angry with you but does not attack you personally when telling you so

-is not afraid to question you directly concerning your feelings of loss

-respects your courage and sense of determination to survive

-understands that grief is not a disease

-can easily share with you his/her own troublesome times

-tries to understand what your feelings mean to you, even though s/he may be personally uncomfortable with them, e.g., sexual feelings, rage, etc.

-tells you honestly when s/he can not be available because of problems of his/her own

-keeps promises and commitments

This is sooooo true!!! I do it all the time. :)

They have a broad interest in music to suit their many expressive temperaments, and others can query how empaths can listen to one style of music, and within minutes, change to something entirely different.

But, this is true also.

Lyrics within a song can have adverse, powerful effects on empaths, especially if it is relevant to a recent experience. In these moments, it is advisable for empaths to listen to music without lyrics, to avoid playing havoc with their emotions!

http://healing.about.com/library/quiz/hsp/blhspquiz.htm

http://healing.about.com/cs/empathic/a/uc_empathtraits_2.htm

http://mysilentecho.com/

http://www.lightnews.org/9911/empath.htm

http://www.beyondthedoor.co.uk/empathreport.htm

Who Is An Empath?

Empaths are often poets in motion. They are the born writers, singers, and artists with a high degree of creativity and imagination. They are known for many talents as their interests are varied, broad and continual, loving, loyal and humorous. They often have interests in many cultures and view them with a broad-minded perspective. They are mother, father, child, friend, nurse, caregiver, teacher, doctor, sales people… to psychic, clairvoyant, healer, etc. (That is not to say that any of these categories are all empaths.) The list is extensive and really unimportant. It is more important to notice that empaths are everywhere—in every culture and throughout the world.

Empaths are often very affectionate in personality and expression, great listeners and counselors (and not just in the professional area).

They will find themselves helping others and often putting their own needs aside to do so. In the same breath, they can be much the opposite. They may be quiet, withdrawn from the outside world, loners, depressed, neurotic, lifeís daydreamers, or even narcissistic.

They are most often passionate towards nature and respect its bountiful beauty. One will often find empaths enjoying the outdoors, beaches, walking, etc. Empaths may find themselves continually drawn to nature as a form of release. It is the opportune place to recapture their senses and gain a sense of peace in the hectic lives they may live. The time to get away from it all and unwind with nature becomes essential to the empath. Animals are often dear to the heart of empaths, not as a power object, but as a natural love. It is not uncommon for empaths to have more than one pet in their homes.

Traits of an Empath

Empaths are often quiet and can take a while to handle a compliment for they’re more inclined to point out another’s positive attributes. They are highly expressive in all areas of emotional connection, and talk openly, and, at times, quite frankly in respect to themselves. They may have few problems talking about their feelings.

However, they can be the exact opposite: reclusive and apparently unresponsive at the best of times. They may even appear ignorant. Some are very good at blocking out others and that’s not always a bad thing, at least for the learning empath struggling with a barrage of emotions from others, as well as their own feelings.

Empaths have a tendency to openly feel what is outside of them more so than what is inside of them. This can cause empaths to ignore their own needs. In general an empath is non-violent, non-aggressive and leans more towards being the peacemaker. Any area filled with disharmony creates an uncomfortable feeling in an empath. If they find themselves in the middle of a confrontation, they will endeavor to settle the situation as quickly as possible, if not avoid it all together. If any harsh words are expressed in defending themselves, they will likely resent their lack of self-control, and have a preference to peacefully resolve the problem quickly.

Empaths are sensitive to TV, videos, movies, news and broadcasts. Violence or emotional dramas depicting shocking scenes of physical or emotional pain inflicted on adults, children or animals can bring an empath easily to tears. At times, they may feel physically ill or choke back the tears. Some empaths will struggle to comprehend any such cruelty, and will have grave difficulty in expressing themselves in the face of another’s ignorance, closed-mindedness and obvious lack of compassion. They simply cannot justify the suffering they feel and see.

People of all walks of life and animals are attracted to the warmth and genuine compassion of empaths. Regardless of whether others are aware of one being empathic, people are drawn to them as a metal object is to a magnet! They are like beacons of light.

Even complete strangers find it easy to talk to empaths about the most personal things, and before they know it, they have poured out their hearts and souls without intending to do so consciously. It is as though on a sub-conscious level that person knows instinctively that empaths would listen with compassionate understanding.

Here are the listeners of life. Empaths are often problem solvers, thinkers, and studiers of many things. As far as empaths are concerned, where a problem is, so too is the answer. They often will search until they find one—if only for peace of mind.