Are You An Empath or Just Overly Sensitive?

If the question of whether you are an Empath or just overly sensitive has crossed your mind, then there is a reason you are reading this right now. That question is one I’ve asked myself many times. I really didn’t understand what it meant to be an Empath until I started studying the characteristics, and talking with experts who truly believe there is a difference.  I’ve been made fun of, and ridiculed at times, for my sensitivity. Now I understand what my reactions to people, situations, and even buildings mean.

In the next few blogs, I would like to discuss the characteristics of being an Empath, and how it relates to who we are in the lives of other people. In understanding ourselves better we can help those around us. Developing our insights and intuition is a very important step to everyone’s growth, whether being an Empath or not. Take a journey with me to discover the empathic way of life, with ways to enhance or manage this mysterious side of life.

There is a definite difference in being an Empath versus having empathetic feelings toward another human or other living being. Everyone has the ability to encompass empathy into their field of understanding, although putting it into practice is a different thing altogether.

The heart and soul of an Empath is geared around feelings, and everything an Empath does and feels is not unrelated to their empathic self.

Have you ever been sensitive to seen and unseen signs of a person’s true feelings? Being sensitive to the following could be a sign you are an Empath:

• Body Language
• Tone of Voice
• Body Movements
• Choice of Words
• Words they Avoid
• Logic they Use

In Raven Digitalis’ book Esoteric Empathy, a combined majority of the signs below would indicate you could be considered an Empath.

• Absorbing and becoming the emotion of others.
• Can relate to a wide range of people and their perspectives.
• Have a difficult time in distinguishing your own emotions from others.
• Unusual and sometimes unconventional emotional depth.
• Natural inclination to all things mystical, spiritual & multicultural.
• Kind, easy going and gentle in nature.
• Can communicate with anyone on their level.
• Mirroring other people’s mannerisms, expressions and accents unknowingly.
• Friends and even strangers feel they can tell you anything.
• Fatigue, anxiety, headaches in large public situations.
• Perceiving emotional exchanges better than intellectual ones.
• Need for solitude, or small breaks from society.
• Sensitivity toward sensory input – sounds, lights, scents, textures and tastes.
• Steps into the emotional energy of a person, place or situation.
• Avoids anger, aggression or confrontation of any kind.
• Desires to alleviate suffering and help others in need.
• Feeling alien to the world at large.
• Ability to see beyond people’s facades and social posturing.
• Seeing beauty and art or love in things where others don’t.
• Inherent disposition toward anxiety, depression and introspection.
• Sees everyone and everything as valid and valuable.
• Senses that everyone and everything is interconnected as “one”.
• Deep connection with innocence.
• Tendency to take things too seriously. Doesn’t understand some types of humor.
• Contemplates how things work or come into being.
• Difficulty in understanding other people’s boundaries or reading social cues.
• Desire to cause as little harm or conflict as humanly possible.
• Touchy-Feely personality/Generally warm demeanor.
• Extremely generous, thoughtful and forgiving.
• Sensitive nervous system, high sensitivity to pain.
• Ability to fully engage in a focused activity or project (creative/artistic/problem solving/expression.)

If you have difficulty with people understanding why you are so emotional, perhaps it is time to look into your empathic characteristics as being something that is unique and a gift to be cherished and used for the good, rather than something to be pushed aside as unimportant.  Just as Suzanna did in The Healing Touch, I’ve discovered I’m not so unusual at all. I’m learning how to handle the mass of emotions flooding my passage, and use them to help myself as well as others.

Some of the uses for stones I’ve suggested in previous blogs apply here as well.  If you would like to enhance your intuitive side, look into getting some of these: Agate, Alexandrite, Sodalite, Lavender Jade, Benitoite, and Rhodizite Quartz. For needing some help in an emotional balance, you may want to carry with you some of the following: Adularia, Green Jasper, Calcite, Red Malachite, and Rainbow Moonstone.

Follow with me as I delve into a deeper review of being an Empath in my upcoming Blogs.