Empathy

You walk into a room and feel the tension in the air before anyone has said a word. You sit with someone who says they are fine and you know they are not.

All of that is empathy. Feeling what another person feels.

And it is often the quiet beginning of something much bigger.

Where it comes from

We are all one. We are connected to the same energy source and we all live in the same environment on this plane of existence. We mostly forget that when we are born into this world, and get on with the life lessons and experiences we came here to learn. We interact with others who came for their own purpose and learning, and some of them are struggling.

How to grow it

Society teaches us to pretend things are fine. You meet someone and say "How are you?" and they say "Good, and you?" It is an unwritten rule that you do not answer that question with how you actually feel.

So here is the practice I give people who want to grow their empathy.

Reach out to the people around you and ask them properly. Something like "How do you really feel? I care about you, and I hope you feel safe enough to tell me what is going on inside you." Put it in your own words.

When they answer, ask questions to learn about their feelings. Give them feedback that shows you have listened. Give them the sense of being heard. You might say "This is what I have understood from what you said. Is that right?"

Make that person one hundred per cent of your focus, with the intent of learning about them as a human being. Keep your mind on asking and listening to learn about their feelings.

You will very soon discover that most people around you are not in a great place, and that your support could be the only support they have. Sometimes all they need is someone to listen, and a hug.

That practice does something for you as well. It kick starts empathic abilities within you.

How it grows into something more

One of the places empathy leads is clairsentience.

Clairsentience is being able to sense the vibe in a room. Everyone can remember walking into a room and feeling the tension without anything being said. That is being clairsentient.

When you develop it, you can know anyone's mood just by sensing them. In person, at a distance, or reading a photo. And it works whether that person is still living or is in spirit.

If you have lived with someone for a long time you already have a heightened awareness of them. You know their mood simply by being around them.

The Clairs page sets out the whole family of senses, and the Reading People, Psychometry and Mediumship pages are where you can take that feeling next.

It reaches past people, too. Something that happens to nearly everyone as they grow spiritually is a growing empathy for animals, pets and wild ones both. The Reading Animals page covers that.

I strongly encourage you to develop this one. It is perhaps one of the best abilities for always being drawn to positive people and positive outcomes.

Why empaths feel drained

Now the hard part.

I often hear from empaths who feel drained. I have come across this in beginners and in people who have been doing this for years. It applies to healers, and to every kind of reader whatever their method.

The simple answer to why it happens is that you are giving away your own energy. The person you are with feels energised at your expense.

Your energy is meant for you. You are not a battery charger for other people.

It happens because, by default, you connect with the other person from your heart chakra. That is a natural response, because the heart is where your caring and love come from. But coming from the heart opens you up to being drained. It also opens you up to taking on their negativity, so you can come away drained and burdened by whatever is going on in their life as well.

That is unhealthy for both of you.

The fix

What I encourage you to do instead is reroute your energy from your heart, up through your crown chakra, and then to the other person.

When you first do this you will get head spins. That is normal, and it goes away.

What happens next is that you connect to universal energy, and your own energy stops flowing out of you. You get as much universal energy as the person you are with, so you walk away feeling amazing, because your own energy has just been boosted. The other person feels better too, and you do not take away any of their negativity.

The Healing Through the Crown page explains the crown in full, and the Protection page goes further for the empath who soaks up everything like a sponge. The Body Energy page has the first exercises for feeling your own energy.

Where this leads

Compassion, love, support, unconditional giving, empathy. When life throws you a curve ball, those are the things that turn out to matter, far more than money or possessions or status.

Empathy is one of them. Look after it, protect your energy, and let it grow.

Ask someone today how they really feel, and listen to the answer.

If you would like this read against your own chart, my readings are here.