Prior to my spiritual awakening, I was busy, busy, busy. Never really felt much of anything, just hurried and harried through stress-filled days. Once I began to take stock of my life, began to cherish each moment, and find a deeper more meaningful connection with Spirit I began to feel overloaded. I would walk into a restaurant and as I passed each table or booth I would feel what each and every person was feeling. Angry, sad, hungry, full, lonely, frustrated, aching back, sore shoulder, headache, et. al. Dizzying to say the least!
I came to realize that I was an Empath. An Empath is one who heals by taking on the hurts and suffering of another to discharge or release. An Empath takes on the pain of another and once that pain is within them, they transform it, clear it, and dispose of it in some way. Without knowing how to release that energetic information could take me days to feel better.
An Empath is ENERGETICALLY PROGRAMMED to take pain and suffering from others. Empaths often cannot watch movies or TV shows or read books that portray betrayal, or criticism, or man's inhumanity to man. We just take it all in – we're just like an energetic Bounty paper towel - the quicker picker up-er! The paper towel sucks up the water because the dry part draws the wet into itself. It is its destiny. It is the destiny of an Empath is to create balance. We desire the sad to be happy or at least neutral. We desire the pain to be clear. We desire the suffering to be soothed. We draw anything out of balance into ourselves!
"But why me, God?! I don't want to be this way! I have other things that I want to do with my life. I want to let other people have their own stuff. Why do I take it on? Why?" Because you can. Not everyone can. You can - you do. Just like you can have blue eyes or curly hair or a green thumb or an ear for music. Trying to be what we are not only confounds the issue. Being the best of who and what we are will allow us to move through the energetic process more easily. So if you're ticked off at Spirit for being an Empath, you might want to have an Empath ease that away from you! ‘Cause baby you got it! That doesn't mean that you have to spend every waking minute processing the suffering of others. It does mean that you get to learn to use the process so you can call upon it when necessary.
"Can a person who is not an Empath become one?" I believe with intent we can do that. However, if you are not an Empath, you may have an easier way to do healings than taking it physically into your being. Being an Empath is not the easiest way to go, not the fastest form of healing, yet it can be the most profound way of healing. For, by really feeling what another person feels or what another
person is experiencing that allows us to be more compassionate and emotionally involved with the healing process.
When we share with someone that we hurt in our left knee and their left knee is hurting, the one being healed acknowledges and validates that YOUR left knee is hurting. By so doing the one being healed dis-associates themselves from their own pain and that is a root beginning of the healing process. As they sense that you feel their pain, they no longer have to carry it alone. They knowingly or unknowingly share their suffering. In that sharing they give themselves permission to let go of the suffering. The letting go process creates a pathway to healing. In our culture we are programmed to be on the defense of others dumping on us or expecting something from us. Getting the person being healed to allow you to suffer with and for them opens a connection, a doorway to surrender. With surrender, resistance drops. As resistance drops, healing energy can flow. That shared experience leads to an increase of the healing energetic flow. Healing begins.
"What about emotional pain? Does it go to the left knee?" A pain may be drawn into any part of the body or into an energy field just outside the area to which it corresponds. You've possibly seen me reach into someone's aura and remove something or move something around. I'm reshaping distorted energy or removing blocked energy in the auric/energetic field. For example: betrayal can lodge itself in a corresponding area in the 3rd eye or hover over the 3rd eye which discerns truth or in the back (stabbed in the back) or the heart space where trust abides or in the throat where speaking one's truth resides. Or hover over any of those areas. The energetic information regarding an emotional abuse can lodge in the muscle tissues as the muscles take action – in an abuse situation, often inaction is the only means of survival. Old energetic information locked in the muscles is the pathology of fibromyalgia - pain in the muscle tissue. I believe that the increase of so many people with fibromyalgia or CFIDS is a result of one's own issues and Empathic energy reception without a way to release it.
No shame or blame here. The person that is hurting may not intentionally be sending pain to an Empath. Remember, they (we) are programmed to pick it up. No shame or blame here for carrying that pain. Without the tools to release that energy, what else could one do with it, except store it?
"So, how do we release this Energetic Information?" There are probably as many ways to release this Energetic Information as there are Empaths. Every Empath learns in their own way to filter suffering and/or to release it. I'll share with you some techniques that have worked for me and for some other Empaths that I know. Try them all and see what works for you. After trying these suggestions, you may
find a way that works even better! Let me know and I'll add it to the list for others to try.
First, it is important to note that we can find it difficult to let go of this Energetic Information. We feel so RESPONSIBLE. That may be past life stuff or our history imposing itself upon us. We have to MAKE that healing happen. We are in charge of that person's healing . . . this is a V8 moment – reminds me of the old commercial where the guy slaps himself up-side-the-head and says, "I could have had a V8!"
We are the conduit - not the Source. We are the instrument - not the Musician. Here-in lies the rub. It can be difficult to allow Spirit to move through us. Our culture has the expectation "do it yourself!" The most powerful word in the spiritually awakened person's language is . . . ALLOW. I was struggling with the communion cups one Sunday, like I always struggled with the communion cups. They just stick together and once the get stuck it is really frustrating trying to rip them apart. It's kind of like those Chinese finger locks. Trying to hurry to set up for services, I became very impatient with myself and those cups! I took a deep breath and out loud said the word ALLOW. Those cups just popped apart! I don't know why that word came to me just then. I don't know why I said it out loud. All I know is the resistance within me came away from me and I was able to accomplish what was important for the moment. This same process will work for anything! My keys were jumbled together and I couldn't get to the one I wanted. Allow! The keys released. When we practice ALLOW! in our everyday life, then the ALLOW! becomes easy in the healing process.
Once we've got ALLOW, we can go to the next step. Be the observer and see where the energy comes in to your energy field. You can control its entry point with your intent once you can observe and be aware. Until then it may be impossible to know where the stuff comes in - we just know it's there and it's got to go! So here are a few ways to release energetic information from the body or the energy field.
*Here's one of my favorites: "The Psychic Flush"
Rub your hands together and once the energy has built up, touch an inanimate object like a chair or a table or a wall. Just like when we were kids shuffling across a rug and zapping an unsuspecting sibling, this process discharges energetic static from our energy field. You'll feel a whoosh of energy and a release of clutter/static from your body. You can do this at work without anyone really knowing what you're doing. Try it in a meeting when things are getting "thick." Whoosh! All the discomfort will clear! It's a cool trick!
*Here's another favorite: "The Psychic Drain"
Try putting your hands out away from your body, shaking them gently and ALLOW the energy to drain out of your fingertips into the earth where it can be healed, changed, transformed, and renewed by the Earth/Spirit into usable energy.
*For energy stuck deeply into the body - "Pull & Release"
Grab into your energy field with your hand and imagine that you are grabbing all the pain and stuck energy. Once you have a grip on it, give it a little tug to loosen it. Then yank it out of there. You'll feel it release. Let it fall away or float away from your hands or do the "Psychic Drain."
*Powerful tool for energy stuck deeply into the body - "Transmute & Clear"
Look into yourself to see the energy that is blocked. You may be able to do this by actually looking into yourself, or you may do this in your imagination. However that energy looks to you, be aware of it. Ask for Spiritual energy to come to you and transmute that energy block into a release-able form. You may have an idea of what form you would like it to transform into or you may just allow Spirit to transform it as required. I imagine the energy transmuting into energetic spirals of energy that carry the clutter as tiny particles. Those spirals of energy then exit the body with the outermost point of light escaping first and the rest spiraling out and spinning away into the universe.
*Transmute Color & Clear
Often Empaths will work in a helping or service environment. The compassionate heart of the Empath will slurp up any negative, hurtful, or harmful energy into the body. The Empath is programmed to do so. The key is to release it, let it go. I’ve found that by seeing the energy that I’ve slurped up as a color, I can more easily let the energy go. If the energy seems dark or gray or smoky or shadowy or dim, I can transform the energy into a brighter, clearer color and then it is very easy to just see that color moving out of my body. It is also easier to sweep away a happy yellow than it is a muddy tan. The happy yellow is light and moves easily in response to my will – my direction. The muddy, or cloudy color is sticky and resistant. So envision any energy that you may have picked up along the way. See what color it is. See where it might be residing in your physical form. Ask Spirit, the angels or your guides to change its color into something lighter and brighter. Then you can mentally or physically sweep yourself and the color will sweep away effortlessly. Transmute the color of the unwanted energy into a brighter color or one of higher vibration. Once the color has brightened, brush it out of your body or breathe it out of your energy field, or sweep it away from you, or ground it out into the Earth. Find the way that works best for you.
Know this!! As you are transmuting the color within your own form, the similar energy that resides within the person that carried it previously is also being changed. They will experience a healing as a result of your efforts.
The process in a nutshell: see the dense, hurting color; ask for assistance in changing the color; sweep the color away out of your physical form. It’s just energy and cannot stick to anyone in its transmuted form. The energy can then be usable energy. It can assist plants in growing and children in playing and be useful in any number of ways. Try it!
*Another powerful tool for release - "Lay it at Jesus Feet"
Whether on a conscious level or not, some Empaths feel that God / Spirit / Source / The Universe doesn't deserve that pain so unknowingly attempt to protect Spirit from that pain and continue to hang on to the energetic block. It's what we do - absorb pain! The Christian faith can be really helpful in this instance. The Christian belief system holds that Jesus suffered and died once for all beings and in those moments of suffering he carried the suffering of everyone for all time. Hence the thought form, "By his stripes (suffering) we are healed." This allows the Empath the opportunity to take any and all pain and suffering to that point in time and attach it on the cross, or lay it at Jesus' feet. This can be done a couple of ways.
A.) In the imagination, allow yourself to travel back in time. While standing at the foot of the cross, allow Jesus to take the pain/blocked energy from you. See the kindness in his eyes. Feel the compassion. Know that you are doing the right thing. This is His destiny. This is what he came to do. He is the Ultimate Empath.
B.) Take that same mental journey back in time. Hold the energy out towards Him, and let it be absorbed by Jesus.
C.) Take that same mental journey and place your hands on the cross just below Jesus' feet. Similar to a psychic flush, you will feel the whoosh of the release.
Along those same lines, you can take the energy to another time and place of spiritual significance for you and leave it there. Take care to not take energy to another dimension as they have their own stuff to deal with. Choose a place and time before you began the journey.
It can take concerted conscious effort to release the Energetic Information we take on when it parallels our own personal experiences. Those energies find familiar territory and attempt to take up residence. If you are susceptible to a backache and are healing someone with a backache, it could take concerted effort to not let the energy get to your own back before you can release it. With your intent, keep it
in your hands or hold it in your aura or energy field. If that blocked energy finds its way to the common suffering point, you get to do another healing on yourself! Perhaps we have not healed ourselves of an injury or an injustice. The other's healing may be a way in which we create our own healing - perhaps it’s just the healing we’ve been waiting for.
Here is a big "Ooooops up side the head" - that other person's suffering may be because Spirit feels it is time for YOU to be healed. Your paths have crossed at just this right time so you can be free of some pain. What a blessing! We deal with our own betrayal when we can take on and release someone else's betrayal.
There is sooooooo much more I could share on this subject, yet I feel this is enough (maybe more than enough) to digest at this point in time. Learning to FILTER the energetic information before taking it on can be useful - another topic for another day. It is my sincere hope that this information helps your journey as an Empath.