Surrendering to our empathy gives us a secret power as both humans and spiritual beings in a physical world. It allows us to find common ground and understanding with others in an otherwise rigid and logical world while gifting us a break from the zoomed-in view of our own life and personally-focused points of view. It is our healing elixir for when the ego and life become too large of a presence, casting shadows over our true nature. Not only does our understanding expand when we connect through empathy, but so does our ability to connect to others. It gives us the space to back up and experience life from a much more important place: our spirits.
When it comes to defining what it means to be an empath, we must first look at what it means to experience empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand what the other is feeling on a vulnerable, emotional level. It is the ability to connect to and share an emotional feeling or experience with another, something that the ego might often make difficult for us to do comfortably. Empathy is to internally bear witness to the rawness of another living being's emotional experience, presence, and existence without judgment and with a truckload of understanding.
Empathy, to me, is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary phenomenons to experience naturally in this world and in life. Empathy means we are not alone. Not even the ugliest or most painful of experiences can isolate us from the living because it is those very deep and shredding emotions we feel that bonds us to every other living being and what it means to be alive. Somewhere in this life, there is another who has felt the same sensations and frustrations that once moved through your systems or left you hanging on by a thread. There is somebody that has been through a very similar emotional state. There is somebody that understands.
While empathy gives us the support we need as beings of love to move forward when life gets hard, it also gives us the gift of sharing the bright, big, and wonderful things with others as well! It links our experiences with one another; the good, the bad, and the entire in-between. Empathy connects us. It connects us to other humans, other beings, and to our very own soul. It transports us closer to our home frequency of love and connection by giving us the experience of both our own emotions and the emotions of others. It shows us how to relate, how to understand, and how to love. Through connection. Deep, authentic emotional connection.
The term "Empath" is tossed around quite a bit, out in the world but more specifically in the metaphysical/spiritual communities. I have pondered what it means to be an empath for quite some time now and through my practices with mediumship and energy reading, I have discovered many different perspectives of what it means to be an empath. There are many subjective meanings and a whole lot of different ideas attached, so here I will share with you my own personal understanding thus far. Feel free to take what fits and leave what doesn't, as we all have unique and personal experiences/beliefs and every single one is true and valid!
I have learned that you cannot experience real, honest, pure love without empathy. Whether it's love you have for your dog, for a stranger, for your mom, or for your partner, empathy is the main ingredient. Without empathy, your love is not coming from a place of common understanding, from connection and relation, it is coming from a wound or from a conditioned belief. Empathy is how you experience Big Love (the term I coined to describe divine love which is the nature of the existence of the universe). Big Love is the feeling that you are one with the universe. It is the connection to all that is and the balance that surrounds us, somehow connecting all the right dots and doing it all in our highest good. Big Love is the purpose for which we experience hardship and growth, it is the understanding that we are beautiful, meaningful beings in whatever state we vibrate in and that healing can occur if we welcome it. It is also the promise that lives in the light and beckons us through our own healing journeys. The promise that if we seek to heal ourselves through love, we will endlessly multiply it in all the moments we have ahead.
Empathy holds space for love to exist in its purest and most authentic form. The kind that makes your entire body vibrate with warmth and softness, that lifts you up and leaves you tap-dancing lightly on air, the kind that holds your hand and says, "I am here. You are safe". Empathy is the room that births the most beautiful array of creations that life has to offer. Empathy is important stuff when it comes to our interactions, connections, and relationships with others. It connects us to our truest, most vulnerable self, and it is also the key to getting in touch with our spiritual nature and abilities (the metaphysical and energetic senses that come naturally to humans the higher we vibrate energetically).
The metaphysical/spiritual communities often use the word "Empath" to describe one who has particular sensitivities related to experiencing the thoughts, emotions, and states of others. While I am certainly someone who uses it in that form, I am beginning to realize that that is just a short way of explaining it. An empath is someone who experiences deep and sometimes powerful psychic empathy BECAUSE they are sensitive to energy or a specific vibration of energy (emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, etc.). Because their heart is open to empathy and connection. All of us have the capacity to be empathic, just as all of us have the ability to experience empathy. All of us also have the capacity to be sensitive to the energies that exist within us, around us, and throughout the entire infinite universe. Some of our souls may have chosen to be unconscious of these sensitivities, some of us subconsciously or actively choose to block them or suppress them. Some of us (like psychics, mediums, and intuitives) have chosen to live fully sensitive and aware of the energies that surround and/or affect them. Whether we choose to practice this ability as a career is also up to us. The world needs sensitive, empathic ones in every position and corner, not just as practicing metaphysical messengers. At any point in your life you can certainly become aware of or turn off your abilities, as a spiritual being in a physical body/world, to sense the energy within and around you. The energy that makes up your world, reality and the universe around you is constantly there, detectable to those of us that choose (on a conscious or subconscious level) to sense and experience it.
Those who are sensitive to the world of energy will be sensitive to the emotions of others. Those who are sensitive to the emotions of others are already open to sensing the world of energy. Read that one more time! We are all capable of being "empaths" if you roll with the theme of empathy and connection to others on emotional levels. When you consider the connotations of "empath" that comes with the spiritual/metaphysical version of things, you would be talking about those who are currently energetically sensitive. Some may only be open (again, on a conscious or subconscious level) to experience energy grounded in humans, such as in the form of the thoughts and emotions of others ( I call this psychic). Compare this to people like mediums who are open to experiencing and sensing the energy that surrounds them in all forms (thoughts, emotions, memories, experiences, spirits, spiritual beings, the energy that exists outside of our bodies, etc).
There are many different levels and forms of experiencing and sensing energy in this physical world and considering yourself an Empath means that you are aware of and accepting of the fact that you are sensitive to perceiving that which is not physically tangible (energy, i.e. emotions). That in itself requires a certain degree of faith that some may struggle to discover within themselves. We are all on our own, unique journeys moving at a pace and intensity that we designed for ourselves and continue to create.
No matter what you are sensitive to, be it nothing, the thoughts and emotions of others or spirits and the energies of the universe, you can turn it up or turn it down! You can grow it or shrink it if you wish. You can choose to stop it at the psychic level (experiencing other human's experiences) or kick it up a notch and sense the universe at large and all it contains. You can also choose to experience none of it, although, I highly recommend being connected in some form to anything larger than the physical experience. It gives life meaning beyond comprehension and sometimes that is what carries me through the tough days.
To conclude this long and informative piece, I offer you a nugget of wisdom: it all starts with empathy. If you are lost or feeling overwhelmed, unsure of how to define what being an empath means for you personally, start with your ability to feel empathy for others as a human. Start with the emotions and the vulnerability, with the trust and the presentness. There you will discover your own unique definition of what it means to consider yourself an empath, and from there you can discover what it is you are curious to learn more about. I can promise you this, being empathic, being sensitive in whichever degree and form you are, is at its root an incredibly beautiful and honest experience. The key to balancing your empathic nature and your physical experience -and the topic for my next piece- is to understand the world of energy and the ways in which you are sensitive to it and experience it. This also includes how you can step into your power and become in charge of your energy and energetic experience!
There is a whole invisible world that we live in but sometimes all we think to see is the physical world that lies before us. Solid and dependable. Until it's not! Learning how to navigate and understand our energetic nature puts us in control of the experience we work to create and sets us free. So, tune in next week for a Ponderer's take on THE GREAT WORLD OF ENERGY! Until then my loves, I offer you a slice of Empath Pie. May you treat yourself to the same sweetness that you bake out in the world, tirelessly! You are loved and supported through each and every moment. Stay beautiful! XOXO
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