Being an Empath is a lot like being a cup and constantly being filled and refilled by external sources. The problems for most Empaths arise when they get closed-up and fail to release whatever is moving through them. How does this happen? It has to do with the fact that human consciousness tries to understand and discern and pay attention to and make sense of… at least the Mind does.
The Mind wants to hang on to things and examine them or tuck them away for later to be looked at more closely. The big issue with the Mind taking over this filing process (or, taking it over alone and without the help of other facets of consciousness) is that the Mind rarely gets back to it, and it gets tangled in other thoughts, memories, emotions, & beliefs. Then, a trigger comes along and suddenly the Mind reacts to it as a part of the tangled mess it got tucked away in. There has been no real processing, and no release, and at this point it certainly doesn’t make any sense.
So, how can an Empath or Sensitive handle this process?
By training the Mind to examine the input before filing away the experience. By training the Mind and the Emotional Body to utilize the tools for discernment & discrimination with which Empaths, Sensitives, Mediums, & Psychics have been born.
A difficult lesson to learn is how to protect yourself while remaining open. The psychic gifts are there – available for use & development naturally – in every human being, in order to process things coming in. Empaths need a regular rhythm of self-care to cleanse & protect their energy but also allow time to be with the self, thinking and feeling your own thoughts and emotions and the “who” of you – this is for centering. It’s not just self-care; it’s not just grounding & centering; it’s about an alignment with your own Spirit for a period of time.
Other quick practices can help us to ground and re-center ourselves regularly throughout the day between cleansing & protecting self-care rhythms. But, realigning with your own Spirit in the peace and solitude of your own self – without the nagging presence of something that wants your attention (work, people, responsibilities, etc.) – is a huge part of being able to process incoming vibrations because it provides a separation, like your skin provides a separation of your physical body (protecting & encompassing it) and the physical elements of the world round you.
If an Empath can practice daily cleansing & protecting upon waking and before retiring, and is taking 15 minutes to ground & center, or re-align, at least once or twice during the day depending on activities, then that Empath can also make regular time a least 2-3 hours each week (all at once, or in 1-hour blocks) to cleanse, protect, and sit in solitude – focused at the gym, going on your Nature walk, sitting in meditation, or engaging an activity that is entirely unpressurized, expressive, and even creative.
The activity may have a particular structure – a work out routine, or a method of producing a painting or music – however, it must be so easy and ingrained as to be unencumbered, something you don’t have to think about and has a free-form quality to it. Whatever it is, you will know it after trying a few things, and recognize it as being that “alone time in rhythm with who you are”. Another method is movement, like walking or dance, in which the Empath merely moves or dances to physically channel excesses of energies in a body-expressive way that releases & grounds the energies. And, of course, certain work in the garden like weeding & mulching can also have the grounding effect.
It’ not about sitting down to read a book or vegetate in front of a movie or social media; that’s too much external stimulation. The activity should be centered on drawing out your own personal internal motivation, drive, creativity, and the release or expression of your own thoughts and feelings arising from your own consciousness – not put there by your favorite song, or book, or movie, or funny cat videos and memes.
Beyond self-care rhythms and “alone” time, Empaths need to understand how they are feeling or experiencing the energies around them. For example, looking at the psychic sciences and the methods of receiving information, we can see the basic clairsentience, clairvoyance, clairaudience, cognizance, gustation, & olfaction as being ways to experience vibrations from others and the world around us. The best way to empower yourself with these gifts and facets of consciousness is meditation.
A regular daily meditation that centers & relaxes your body, allows you some mental silence, and connects you to your intuitions, Spirit Guides, Totem Animals, or Guardian Angels, or your sense of Sovereignty (empowered & centered Self) can do amazing things in learning about your Mind and how you can help it file the impressions & energies it has received. This will also help you to process Emotions, make sense of dreams or memories or visions, release limiting & false beliefs, and make use of intuitive wisdom.
No matter who you are or what you do, these practices will help you. If you happen to be a highly sensitive person, intuitive, Psychic, Empath, Medium, Healer, explore these practices if you don’t already. Take encouragement that there are ways to discover peace & fulfillment within yourself.