Being An Empath Is A Double Edged Sword

Can you feel what others around you are feeling? Are you sensitive to your surroundings? When you lay
your hands on someone, do your hands know right where to go to help that person? Perhaps you are an
empath.

Being an empath is a double edged sword. It can be both a curse and a blessing. On one hand, you
have the ability to intuit exactly what you need to do to make someone comfortable. On the other, it is
easy to lose track of what you need, because you are so accustomed to caring for other's comfort
before caring for your own. You have easy access to information about what is going on with the people
around you, but sometimes it is hard to know your own mind.

Some people would love to learn how to be more empathic, while others would love to learn how to
retain the best parts of that skill, while managing the more difficult aspects.

I have this theory that people become empaths as a way to stay safe in their world. If you know what
those around you are feeling, then you know how to adjust what you say and do to make them
comfortable so that they are safer people to be around, both emotionally and physically. An empath can
be a real chameleon, shifting tone of voice, conversation styles, body posture, and choice of tactics and
actions to help the people that are around them to feel more at ease. The problem with this is that they
often lose track of what is actually authentic and true for themselves. They tend to care take their
environment as a way to care take themselves. This is a pretty roundabout way of doing self care. Doing
or saying something that will make someone else angry or sad is uncomfortable for an empath, so that
they often avoid confrontation in order to avoid feeling other people's uncomfortable emotions. It is easy
for them to lose track of the fact that they themselves are feeling uncomfortable.

I know first hand, because I am an empath. It has been both a gift and has exacted many painful
lessons from me. I could never be the healer I am today without having been an empath. When I lay my
hands on a person, I can tell almost right away what emotions are lodged in that person's body, what
issues they are dealing with, and sometimes, even what they are thinking. On the other side of the coin,
there have been times in my life where I was not true to myself because of the needs and the emotions
of others, often greatly to my detriment.

So what are we to do about this quandary?

There are several things that I have found essential practices in my path to take advantage of the
psychic gifts, and lessen the problems of being an empath.

Essential Practices For Empaths

Develop Your Shield Body

Around your physical body, there is a layer of your aura that is devoted to your interface with your
environment. Its shape and condition indicate your relationship to your world. People who are empaths
often have a "thin skin" in relation to their shield body. When it has holes in it, we are more easily
influenced by our environment. Visualize a shield of energy around your physical body. See is as radiant
and complete. You may see it as a particular color. Some people like to see it as white or gold. Decide
what color would work well for you, and see it that way. Imagine the shield body as flowing and
moving..not static we are developing a shield here..not armor. It is good for it to be flexible, so you can
let in what serves you, and keep out what doesn't.
Center of Being

Once you have the shield body in place, imagine that there is a spark in the center of your being that is
your pure essence. Focus your attention on the spark, being all your senses to bear. Also be aware of
your sensations, emotions and thoughts. First try this when you are alone, and then, after a time,
practice it around others. See if you can switch your awareness from your environment to your self, and
back again. Notice the difference between the two.

Don't Take On Responsibilties That Aren't Yours

A person can get so used to care taking, that they can feel as though they are supposed to do it. You
are not. It is good to be as compassionate as possible without going beyond the limits of what you need
to do tyo maintain your health and sanity. You are responsible up to that line, and not beyond it. If you
are an empath, your idea of where the line is might be a bit fuzzy. Once you get to know where the line
is, try to stick to it. It will make all your relationships clearer and cleaner.

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 Get Used To Being The Bad Guy

Empaths are often outwardly kind and caring. They usually get the benefit of everyone thinking that they
are almost saintly sometimes. It is easy to get attached to being the "nice guy." It is not easy dealing
with people's negative emotions, but care taking others does not ultimately serve them or you. It does
not help them to protect them from their feelings. It keeps them from growing up. besides, its not real.
Must better to live in reality than a padded reality. Yes, they may get angry or sad at you or with you if
you don't do what they want you to do, but it is important to remember that their feelings are not your
feelings, and your well-being is not dependent on their well being.

Develop Your Throat Chakra

Sometimes an empath will know what they need to say or do to make good boundaries, but have a hard
time following through in expressing it. The throat chakra is the center for the expression of personal
truth. Through the opening of the throat chakra, we open ourselves to expressing our true needs and
feelings, as well as expressing the creative force as it moves through us. Some good exercises for
opening the throat chakra are singing and chanting, sharing your feelings and thoughts with friends, and
meditating on the throat chakra. Some healing stones that help with the throat chakra are chrysacolla,
turquoise, lapis lazuli, amazonite, and blue lace agate. You can meditate with them, put them in a
medicine bag, or wear jewelry (particularly necklaces).

Develop Your Root Chakra

The root chakra helps us to deal with being fully in the world. When the root chakra is open, we are fully
grounded and present with whatever is coming our way. When it is not open, we can be disassociative,
fearful, and have difficulty staying present with what is going on. Opening and healing the root chakra
helps us to release the fears that keep us from our highest manifestation within form. Some exercises
that help to open the root chakra are:

Imagine you are sending roots down into the earth from your base.
Imagine you can breathe in and out of you root.
On the inhale, breath in energy from he earth.
On the exhale, release any thing that is within you that does not serve you.

Some healing stones that might be helpful are obsidian, boji stones, hematite, and red jasper.

Smudging And Clearing Regularly

Whether you are having difficulty with your empathic abilities or not, it is a good idea to smudge yourself
regularly to release other people's energy and influence from your energy body. Other good clearing
methods are showering, bathing and spending time in solitude. Can you feel what others around you are
feeling? Are you sensitive to your surroundings? When you lay your hands on someone, do your hands
know right where to go to help that person? Perhaps you are an empath.

Psychic Vampires
When an attack takes place, the Psychic Vampire receives an energy surge while the victim
experiences fatigue.

People who "suck" the energy of others are called "psychic vampires." This "sucking" takes place when
one's energy is depleted and needs to be replenished so he or she "sucks" the energy of another
person. It is not unusual for a person who is ill or feeling inadequate emotionally to draw upon or deplete
energized individuals of their life force. These "suckers" are not bad people, most of them are not aware
on a conscious level that they are doing what they are doing. Still, their unknowing actions can play
havoc with anyone who leaves an energetic opening for this type of thievery. It is important for us to be
aware that we may be susceptible to having our energies stolen from us and learn ways to protect
ourselves.

Traits of A Psychic Vampire

• experiences feelings of abandonment or rejection

• needs constant reassurance
• never feels satisfied
• seeks nurturing
• low energy - fatigued

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 Symptoms Of Psychic Attack

• leaky or diminishing aura

• dizziness
• loss of energy
• muscle tension
• mental confusion
• headaches
• chronic fatigue
• sleep disturbances
• irritability
• depressed mood
• physical illness

Protection Against Psychic Attack

• Become aware of which individuals deplete your energy and limit your contact with them.
• Visualization Techniques: Build walls of protection or create a bubble of light surrounding your
• auric field.
• Crystal Shields - amulets for protection

Cutting Cords to Toxic Relationships

Bridge Exercise / Infinity Exercise
Among healers the sharing of energy is referred to as cording. This cord represents life support tubing
energetically connecting two individuals together. Babies are born with a cord attaching them to their
mothers, this is natural. But there comes a time for a mother to Cut the Apron Strings allowing her child
to go out into the world on its own. This is appropriate. If the mother fails to break the cord, the child will
eventually attempt to do it. This too is appropriate.

The world is full of unhealthy relationships. In these relationships, individuals cling to one another
allowing cord attachments to occur between them.
Seldom is the sharing done equally. Actually if the energy sharing was done equally it would be silly to
have the cord in place at all. It is possible to be in a relationship without cording one another, in fact it is
preferable. Couples that share one life source ordinarily create a relationship in which one individual
becomes weaker, the other stronger. The weakened person feels collapsed because of giving away
his/her life source. The stronger person feels great for a time, but his/her appetite may very well
increase, craving more and more of the shared energy.

There are different types of situations we face in life that are difficult. Ending relationships ranks pretty
high up in the "tough stuff" category. It doesn't matter if you were the person who walked away or if
someone else left you, a loss is felt either way. It is especially painful if a relationship ends without
closure. Unfortunately, often times when people "breakup" what they don't realize is that they may very
well still have cords attached. The intact cord keeps an open channel for continuous feeding on each
others emotions and anxieties.

Experiencing pain from an estranged relationship or troubled marriage? Try either the bridge
visualization or infinity exercise to gently release the cord attachment to free yourself of continued
feelings of sadness or separation.

The Empath
The Fourth Chakra-Dominant Individual

This is an excerpt from an upcoming book by Dr. Jelusich, to be released this summer
by Lotus Press Publishing.

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In my understanding, having been an energetic healer and counselor for over 10 years,
I have found that 95% of all communication is not verbal, nor physical. It is energy on
many levels. Certainly, you have walked into a room before and encountered someone
you do not know, yet you’ve had a feeling about that person, good or otherwise. And
whether you are sitting in a movie theater, a restaurant, or standing in an elevator, you
emanate a quality of energy in all directions at all times that is the energetic unique
signature of your being.

That same energy is the signature of you as an individuated spirit, a multidimensional

being who is unique in the universe. It is that same 95% that creates the meetings with
others, that creates the relationships in which you engage, that creates the possibility
for you to learn a life’s lesson..

And at first, this presents us with an interesting puzzle of life. We live in a oneness
with no separation, yet we are unique beings. We use words like “I think,” and “I
see,” and “I believe,” and yet there is no separation between us as we exist in this
oneness of being. It is quite an enigma, for it is that very same oneness that allows an
intuitive healer to tap into you, whether you are there in the same room or speaking on
the telephone, separated by a great distance.

In metaphysics, there is no space and no time. They are not limiting factors in the
information, wisdom and healing that is available on all levels of our being. So often
this is difficult to embrace, because most of us in western society tend to only regard
the physical being as viable, with little consideration for those parts of us that are non-
physical, but every bit as viable to our existence.

It is necessary to embrace that part of our nature that is not physically borne, not
because it is on some other level, but because our metaphysical nature coexists
seamlessly with our physical nature in a continual exchange of life energy. It is that
very same oneness where reality exists, where the boundaries between the physical
and the non-physical evaporate in the light of greater understanding of our true nature.

We are, as human beings, composed of four archetypal energies: mental, physical,

emotional, and spiritual. Look at most tarot decks, and you’ll see the four minor
arcana suits are divided into these same distinctions of human character. It is the
congruence of these energies, flowing along together through time, that allows our
lives to be productive and meaningful. If one or more are out of balance, suffering
ensues as our illusions in life are challenged by the realities we encounter.

So as we go along through life, composed of these four components of being human,

the energies exchange and intertwine with each other and among several dimensions
in a dance of experiential existence. And through our experiences we garner the
wisdom to push through our illusions, thus reducing suffering and hardship in our
lives.

Your metaphysical nature is set, to a certain degree, in each lifetime by specific

parameters of karma, mission statement, skill sets, and chakra disposition. That is,
most of us are governed by one or more chakras that influence the psychology of our
being through their respective attributes. One’s life and challenges become a stage,
where the predominant chakric disposition orchestrates the life’s lessons in a way that

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the participant must experience. Knowing your disposition, chakric strength and
weaknesses helps you to gain understanding of why you may tend to live your life the
way you do, and why certain repetitive patterns occur. It is in the understanding of our
metaphysical nature through our given disposition that allows true self-empowerment
to take place.

As you grow in consciousness, you begin to understand how and why situations are
created for your learning, and how best to optimize your life’s path. Your weakness
becomes your strength, and your strength your weakness. And by remembering within
you are all answers, you self-empower through that same chakra by making conscious
decisions, aware of your orientation towards this life time.

With the evolution of consciousness in our world of today, there is a growing portion
of the population of people who are experiencing not only their own growing pains,
but the growth of others as well. In this instance, consider the person who has
incarnated with a heart chakra disposition. In my opinion, an individual must have
had several lifetimes of right action and behavior, or dharma, before that person could
qualify. It is through the accrual of merit, an individual accomplishment of character,
that one carries with them from incarnation to incarnation. Thus the person who
incarnates in their heart carries an inherent experiential goodness, different from an
inherent spiritual goodness that we all have.

It also means that the individual comes through in this lifetime, through that
goodness, as psychically sensitive, through that 95% of all communication that is not
physical, to all others around them. So not only is the heart-chakra individual faced
with the living of their own life, they are sensitive to the energies of others around
them, to the extent they become living sponges, soaking up emotional energies of
other individuals. In my experience, one in fourteen people are empaths. This “taking
on” can create a negative compressive emotional energy in the emotional energy field
of the individual.

This can often create a problem, because most empaths do not know that they are in
fact empaths. Most empaths, not knowing that they are taking on this energy in a non-
physical way, are unaware of the origin of their suffering, and the negative
compressive emotional energy can have deleterious effects on the individual, because
that person also would not know how to clear the energy, or dispose of it.

Many heart-chakra beings suffer continually, taking on the negative energies of

humanity, through having had many good past lives. They often do not see their own
goodness, but rather may sometimes take on suffering as a validation of their lives.
This is done through love, not as a purposeful self-destruction, but because of the
intense self-realized goodness that the empath has lived in their past reincarnations.

Many physiological and psychological issues can develop from a heart-chakra

disposition, and with the heart chakra, issues can become systemic to the body, mind
and emotions.

Physical issues include problems with the heart itself, respiration, ribs, thymus, skin,
joints, fibromyalgea, blood flow and blood quality, weight retention, and other issues
systemic to the body.

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Psychological issues include a loss of personal identity, depression, loss of the ability
to think clearly, personal sabotage, and constant struggle to stay emotionally stable.

Imagine your emotional energy field as a cup that holds water. If the cup is full, then
any water (emotion) added to the cup causes it to overflow. This is the energetic
equivalent of what happens to a heart chakra individual, who has taken on so much
energy from the people around them that any added emotion is always too much, and
causes suffering in some way.

Here are some exercises that the empath can do to help relieve the emotional body of
negativity.

Exercise #1. Whether you shower or bathe, imagine the water as magnetic. Knowing
what a magnet does, imagine the magnetized water pulling out of you, as appropriate,
any negative emotion, thought or feeling. You don’t even have to know what the
negativity is, just think “Release, release, release,” to yourself as the negativity goes
out into the water, the water goes down the drain, and you are clear. The Earth
transmutes the negative energy into neutral energy. If you cannot get to a shower or
bath, hold your hands under running water and think “Release, release, release.” If
you cannot get to water at all, just imagine it running over the back of your hand. The
power of your will helps to clear you.

You can do this exercise as often as you want every day. It will help to keep your
emotional energy field clear. Water is a great conductor of emotional energy, and most
empaths always live near water or love being in water.

Exercise #2. “No-Stick Teflon” When in a situation as a party or gathering of people,

an empath can often feel claustrophobic, as the press of many emotional energies can
be very chaotic in mixed gatherings. Knowing what Teflon does for cookware,
imagine “No-Stick Teflon” in your energy field. Your field will not filter any
goodness that comes through, but will tend to fend off any negative emotional
energies, hooks or tubes from others. You may still take on certain things, as you
must, if it is within your path’s learning.

Remember, people will come into relationship with an empath to work out mutual
life’s goals; the energies already being set up across space and time through that 95%
that is not physical.

Most empaths find their lives as a hub of a many-spoked wheel. They usually will
find themselves in the center of a soul-group to help anchor the groups karma and
emotional workings. Therefore, it is imperative that they keep their fields clear with
regular exercise, meditation, and with a sincere recognition of their inherent goodness
for having incarnated in their heart.

Through the empath’s mere existence, the 95% of communication that is non-verbal
will energetically cause others to tend to aspire to their own greatness, because of
what the empath represents as a soul that has made diligent progress in past lives.