Characteristics of Highly Sensitive People

Here are a few characteristics of empaths who have not learned to filter out other people’s emotions or manage their own energy:

• You constantly feel overwhelmed with emotions and you may cry a lot, feel sad, angry, or depressed for no good reason. You may be tempted to think you are crazy for having random mood swings and bouts of unexplained fatigue. If you are a woman, it’s like having PMS all the time!

Unrestrained empathy can cause a person to manifest symptoms similar to bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder.

• You drop by the store feeling great, but once you get in a crowd you start feeling down, angry, sad, or overwhelmed. You feel you must be coming down with something so you decide to go home and rest.

• If you’ve found that you can’t be in public without becoming overwhelmed you may start to live the life of a hermit. But, even at home, you get depressed when you watch the news and you cry while watching a movie. You feel horrible when a commercial for the Humane Society shows animals that need a home. You may rescue more animals than you can possibly care for.

• You feel sorry for people no matter who they are or what they have done. You feel the need to stop and help anyone in your path. You can’t pass by a homeless person without giving him money—even if you don’t have it to spare.

• Many empaths are overweight. When they absorb stressful emotions, it can trigger panic attacks, depression as well as food, sex, and drug binges. Some may overeat to cope with emotional stress or use their body weight as a shield or buffer. In Chapter 9 of my book, Whose Stuff Is This? ~ Finding Freedom from the Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You I show how to use light as protection.

• Most empaths have the ability to physically and emotionally heal others by drawing the pain or ailment out of the sick person and into their own bodies. For obvious reasons, this is not recommended unless you know how to keep from becoming ill in the process.

• From chest pains and stomach cramps to migraines and fever, you manifest symptoms without contracting an actual illness. Later, you learn that your “ailment” coincided with the onset of a friend or family member’s illness.

• No one can lie to you because you can see through their façade and know what they really mean. You may even know why they lied.

• People—even strangers—open up and start volunteering their personal information. You may be sitting in a waiting room minding your own business and waiting your turn when the person next to you starts sharing all kinds of personal information. You didn’t ask them to and they never considered that you might not want to hear about their drama. People may feel better after speaking with you, but you end up feeling worse because they have transferred their emotional pain to you.

• Some empaths don’t do well with intimate relationships. Constantly taking on their partner’s pain and emotions, they may easily get their feelings hurt, desire to spend time alone rather than with the partner, feel vulnerable when having sex, and feel that they have to continually retrieve their own energy when it gets jumbled with that of their partner. They may be so afraid of becoming engulfed by another person that they close up emotionally just to survive.

• The ill, the suffering, and those with weak boundaries are drawn to the unconditional understanding and compassion an empath emits without even being aware of it. Until you learn how to shut out the energy of others, you may have a pretty miserable existence in which you feel like you have to be entirely alone in order to survive.

It’s easy to see why being an empath is often very draining. No wonder that over time, some folks shut down their empathic ability. There is no need to build walls and shut down your awareness or intuition. Instead, you can shift from feeling the energy inside your body/emotions and begin to perceive it as external energetic impulses that have a message for you.

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PURCHASE the paperback book, Whose Stuff Is This? Finding Freedom from the Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You at http://tinyurl.com/EmpathAmazon.
The e-book version is now available for Kindle, iPhone, iPad, and other digital reading devices on Smashwords.com. Get the PDF on the author's website: WeAreOneinSpirit.com.
Why not have someone read the book to you? Check out the audio book MP3 file version.

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Characteristics of an Untrained Empath: Heart Palpitations, Anxiety, & Headaches

“What’s wrong with me, doc?” I asked as I sat on the examination table in the emergency room of a clinic. “My heart is pounding, my head is spinning, and I feel like I’m going to pass out. I haven’t done anything out of the norm.”

“I can’t find a thing wrong with you,” he said. “You must be having an anxiety attack or allergic reaction to something.”

“I had a root canal last week and nearly fainted. The dentist said I am allergic to Novocain. Could that be it?”

“Have you had these symptoms continuously since then?”

“No, they came up suddenly this afternoon.”

“Are you taking any kind of medication?”

“Nothing but Tylenol. I still have a headache.”

“What were you doing when the symptoms started?”

“Praying.”

The doctor had no explanation. He gave me some Benadryl and sent me home. I slept the rest of the day.

My symptoms were energetically related. Most medical doctors do not understand how the energy from one person can affect another person and cause physical pain or emotional distress.

Before I had a label to put on my empathetic ability, I called myself an intercessor or “surrogate” for carrying the burdens of others to the throne of grace—a noble and worthy cause. As I prayed for the entire city on a daily basis, I picked up on the energy of thousands of people and took on the suffering of many of them. However, I didn’t realize what was happening.

Emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies. Like a virus, you can potentially “catch” them from people without realizing it. Empathic people can be psychic sponges that absorb energy everywhere they go. I was so energy sensitive that if I heard an ambulance siren, I would feel instant panic. If I came upon an accident scene or a homeless person, I cried. If I saw an open wound, I would feel an electric shock all over my body. In traffic, I felt the anger and frustration of my fellow drivers so bad that my throat would close up and I could not swallow. When I was in my prayer closet, I would cry, groan, shake, and travail on behalf of others. These and similar scenarios were so common for me that I thought everyone felt this way. I had no idea that I was an empath. I had never heard of such a thing.

Since then, I’ve become a coach to those who are going through what I experienced in the 1990s. If you are interested in working with me, please contact me to set up a time that we can chat to see if coaching is right for you.

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PURCHASE the paperback book, Whose Stuff Is This? Finding Freedom from the Thoughts, Feelings, and Energy of Those Around You at http://tinyurl.com/EmpathAmazon.
The e-book version is now available for Kindle, iPhone, iPad, and other digital reading devices on Smashwords.com. Get the PDF on the author's website: WeAreOneinSpirit.com.
Why not have someone read the book to you? Check out the audio book MP3 file version.

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Characteristics of An Empath

Empaths are loving, caring, kind people who want to help others. They are often found doing volunteer work and may serve others through emotionally-demanding careers as childcare givers, medical professionals, hospice workers, midwives, and such. Most empaths came in with a mission to heal people, animals, plants, and the planet. As healers, many have taken on so much external energy that they spend most of their time trying to clear unwanted energy and recuperate from the last episode that “blew their doors off.”

Here are a few characteristics of empaths who have not learned to filter out other people’s emotions or manage their own energy:

• You constantly feel overwhelmed with emotions and you may cry a lot, feel sad, angry, or depressed for no good reason. You may be tempted to think you are crazy for having random mood swings and bouts of unexplained fatigue. If you are a woman, it’s like having PMS all the time! Unrestrained empathy can cause a person to manifest symptoms similar to bipolar (manic-depressive) disorder.
• You drop by the store feeling great, but once you get in a crowd you start feeling down, angry, sad, or overwhelmed. You feel you must be coming down with something so you decide to go home and rest.
• If you’ve found that you can’t be in public without becoming overwhelmed you may start to live the life of a hermit. But, even at home, you get depressed when you watch the news and you cry while watching a movie. You feel horrible when a commercial for the Humane Society shows animals that need a home. You may rescue more animals than you can possibly care for.
• You feel sorry for people no matter who they are or what they have done. You feel the need to stop and help anyone in your path. You can’t pass by a homeless person without giving him money—even if you don’t have it to spare.
• Many empaths are overweight. When they absorb stressful emotions, it can trigger panic attacks, depression as well as food, sex, and drug binges. Some may overeat to cope with emotional stress or use their body weight as a shield or buffer. In Chapter 9 of Yvonne Perry’s book, she shows how to use light as protection.
• • Most empaths have the ability to physically and emotionally heal others by drawing the pain or ailment out of the sick person and into their own bodies. For obvious reasons, this is not recommended unless you know how to keep from becoming ill in the process.
• From chest pains and stomach cramps to migraines and fever, you manifest symptoms without contracting an actual illness. Later, you learn that your “ailment” coincided with the onset of a friend or family member’s illness.
• No one can lie to you because you can see through their façade and know what they really mean. You may even know why they lied.
• People—even strangers—open up and start volunteering their personal information. You may be sitting in the waiting room minding your own business and waiting your turn when the person next to you starts sharing all kinds of personal information. You didn’t ask them to and they never considered that you might not want to hear about their drama. People may feel better after speaking with you, but you end up feeling worse because they have transferred their emotional pain to you.
• Some empaths don’t do well with intimate relationships. Constantly taking on their partner’s pain and emotions, they may easily get their feelings hurt, desire to spend time alone rather than with the partner, feel vulnerable when having sex, and feel that they have to continually retrieve their own energy when it gets jumbled with that of their partner. They may be so afraid of becoming engulfed by another person that they close up emotionally just to survive.
• The ill, the suffering, and those with weak boundaries are drawn to the unconditional understanding and compassion an empath emits without even being aware of it. Until you learn how to shut out the energy of others, you may have a pretty miserable existence in which you feel like you have to be entirely alone in order to survive.

It’s easy to see why being an empath is often very draining. No wonder that over time, some folks shut down their empathic ability. And, with that, they also shut down a vital part of their divine guidance system. Learn how to manage the amount of info-energy you receive and hear more of what is really important.

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PURCHASE paperback book, Whose Stuff Is This? Finding Freedom from the Thoughts, Feelings,and Energy of Those Around You at http://tinyurl.com/EmpathAmazon. The e-book version is now available for Kindle, iPhone, iPad, and other digital reading devices.