Have you ever heard someone describe themselves as an Empath? Have you wondered if you are one? Let’s take a closer look at just what it means to be an empath, and the difference between that and “just” being empathetic. If you look up the word “empath,” you will likely be referred to the word “empathetic” or “empathy.”
If you dig a bit deeper you will often find this definition:
em·path
noun
noun: empath; plural noun: empaths
• (chiefly in science fiction) a person with the paranormal ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual.
See those parentheses around the first four words? That is exactly how it appears in most dictionaries – “chiefly in science fiction.” So, at the most basic definition level, “empath” is described as a fictional thing, a thing of fantasy. That is where most of the difficulty in being understood as an empath originates. Most people are taught that we end where our skin ends, and anything past that boundary is the ‘other’ and not connected to us in any physical manner. That is certainly not the experience of the empath!
Some of us empaths have been very fortunate to have people in our lives who believe that they do have an understanding of our sensitivities to, well, just about everything. With an earnest and sincere desire to ‘help’ us, they will describe our capacity to be aware of every type of energy around us as a “psychic gift” or “hyper-awareness” or even use terms like Claire Empathy and Claire Sentience. Many of these folks may even consider themselves an Empath, and they just might be. But treating our awareness as an empath as a psychic gift means they teach us tools and practices intended for a very different type of awareness. They may teach us to shield our energy, ground ourselves, or create a cocoon of white light to protect ourselves from unwanted emotions and the energy of others.
For the empath, these tools seldom work well, or for very long, or even at all. The limited relief we sometimes receive may be short-lived and when it fails, we are overwhelmed by everything we are trying to avoid.
No empath – you are not doing it wrong, you are not ungrounded, too weak, over-sensitive, imagining things, or seeking attention. These tools fail us because our empathy is NOT a psychic gift. Our empathic abilities are a function of our body. Unlike sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell, our empathic sensitivity is not limited to what enters our bodies. Our empathic abilities are a physical/energetic sense that is dynamic and expands and contracts based on where you place your attention!
As we move forward in this blog, we will discuss exactly what this means for you as an empath, how this knowledge may change your experience of the world, and practical and pragmatic tools and processes you may use to mitigate and manage the energetic overwhelm that defines so much of our lives.
So, how much change are you willing to choose, empath?
One of the wellness serves offered at Stella Luna Counseling & Wellness in Cleveland is Empathic Energy Healing for energy healing sessions. We also offer special events from time to time that focus on these abilities for those who wish to experience their benefit. You can sign-up for our free newsletter to stay abreast of when the next such event will be happening at our relaxed and comfortable facility.
Thanks for reading!
Rian Dean is an empath practicing empathic energy healing at Stella Luna Counseling & Wellness. He has immersed himself in Shamanic, Totemic and Nordic mystical systems. After encountering a near-death experience and being legally dead for 12 minutes, Rian awoke and has been pursuing empathic energy healing techniques and empowerment coaching ever since. He has developed his own training system, Empathic Empowerment Training®, to assist empathic individuals to embrace their gift while actively utilizing their empathic abilities to enhance, enrich, and expand their lives and the lives of everyone they encounter.