What is an Empath?
An Empath is a person who was born with unique variations in the central nervous system. This means how the brain is configured and how the nervous system works in the body. This has not yet been studied and quantified by science. Instead it is being brought forth by individuals who are becoming self-aware of these qualities and who explore this experience through creative and intuitive outlets.
An extremely high degree of overall sensitivity is the general indicator for this type of person. All of the sensory organs of an Empath have low thresholds thereby resulting in unusual sensitivity to light, smell, and sound/ frequencies.
An Empath also possesses a very sensitive emotional nature that is typically difficult to self-manage. Books have been written on "highly sensitive people" and those materials are relevant to this topic. However, being highly sensitive is only one part of the formula for Empaths.
They are sensitive to the visible as well as the invisible and pick up on body language and voice tone, telepathically picking up your thoughts and emotions including those you wish not to be known. It is not uncommon for an Empath to suddenly feel 'overwhelmed' for no apparent reason only to discover later that someone they know experienced some sort of trauma at that exact moment they felt it. So essentially, an Empath is someone whose senses are extraordinarily heightened, meaning they receive the majority of their psychic input from what they feel.
Since Empaths are constantly bombarded by emotions which do not originate internally, they struggle to figure out why they feel the way that they do and therefore tend to have to have to be alone in their own space to relieve this.
Emotions that create powers that have been known to be God like in nature. Empaths are so sensitive that they can absorb the negative emotions of others in their body to which it can physically manifest and create feelings of fatigue and nausea and migraines. Migraines are the most common symptom of sensory overload in an Empath and ideally it is best to not get to this stage of overload and to try to be aware of too much before too much becomes more than enough.
Empaths are born Empaths, they don't BECOME Empaths. There is confusion around the difference between whether being more sensitive as you mature means you are an Empath. This is not the case. Highly sensitive people can often think they are Empaths due to the similarity in sensitivity but the level of difference lies in the clairvoyant abilities that an Empath has that exceeds that of a highly sensitive person.
Traits Of A Highly Sensitive Person
They feel (their own) emotions deeply.
They are sensitive to the emotions and emotional states of people around them
They are easily hurt or upset.
They tend to avoid conflicts, arguments and other types of confrontations.
They tend to become agitated and/or flustered when surrounded by large groups of people or lots of activities.
They tend to need time to themselves each day.
They tend to be creative types who deeply appreciate art, nature and music.
They are prone to suffer from recurrent depression, anxiety or other psychological disorders.
They tend to be slower at recovering from intense stimuli, because they are sensitive to other people's suffering, noise, light, caffeine, pain, medications, temperature, and other stimuli.
They tend to be introverted and have rich, complex inner life, because they are able to concentrate and process information deeply.
Traits Of An Empath
Empaths are quiet achievers but expressive in area's of emotional connection. They find that talking about emotional issues is a great outlet that aids in understanding themselves and others.
Some Empaths can be the opposite of what an Empath 'should' be because they are overwhelmed or unable to handle emotion and what they feel in the world around them so they block their feelings.
They can be focused outward, toward what others feel, rather than themselves. This is a common trait to many people who have not gone through a process of self development.
They avoid disharmony caused by emotionally turbulent situations. This type of situation can easily create an uncomfortable feeling because an Empath feels this emotion.
Empaths are emotionally sensitive to violence and general chaos.
Empaths are sensitive to loud noise and television. In particular, television programs that depict emotional drama.
They struggle to comprehend acts of cruelty and crime that involves hurting others.
They struggle to comprehend suffering in the world and are often idealists who theorise about fixing the worlds problems. Are often found working as volunteers, with people, animals or the environment.
They are expressive so they can often be found in areas of music or the arts.
They often have the ability to draw others to them. This includes children and animals as they have a warmth and compassion that is beyond normal You may find that strangers always talk to you if you are an empath.
They can be good listeners as they generally have an interest in other people.
Empaths can be moody or have large mood swings due to overwhelming thoughts, feelings and emotion.
They are likely to have had, other paranormal experiences in their life. This could be astral projection, psychic ability or a variety of other experiences.
Empaths are daydreamers that have difficulty keeping focused. This is common with people who deal more IN emotion and neglect other areas of their mind.
Like many people on a spiritual path Empaths frequently experience déjà vu and synchronicities. This is something that occurs to everyone however Empaths are often more aware and therefore 'look out' for it.
All Empaths have precognition, premonitions, nightmares, constant illnesses with no medical cause (due to picking up on others illness), the ability to feel the truth and converse telepathically before an event has taken place and a tendency to not be able to control their emotions which can result in the energy from their intense feelings can cause electrical shortages and malfunctions in anything that uses electric.
Some Empaths are so powerful that telekinesis (moving things with mind energy) can manifest when they are very unbalanced emotionally. Children and Animals have an affinity with Empaths and will always feel at ease with one due to their healing nature. Attracting energies that need healing is another regular experience that Empaths endure and tend to find themselves in situations that challenge their ability to counsel and support those that are suffering from mental and physical illness. It is not uncommon to find that the manifestation of constant lower energies creates physical responses in the form of anxiety attacks and mood fluctuations.
ALL Empaths have healing ability. They don't necessarily need to educate themselves on much as it is within them to already know and channel energy to create harmony and balance despite being unbalanced themselves from others energies.
The Physiology Of The Empath Trait.
When you think about something it triggers electrical activity in your brain. Neurons (special cells that relay information from the brain to the body's nervous system) get activated through a very mild electric current. These neurons then activate other neurons, creating a chain reaction. Each thought follows a unique 'pathway' in the brain, called a 'Neuron pathway'. Scientists already know that the Neuron pathway varies, depending on the type of intellectual activity you’re doing.
All this electrical activity generates a magnetic field (which is true for all electrical currents). As Empaths, we are able to read and interpret this magnetic information. Our own brain translates these magnetic patterns into an emotion that we personally experience.
Think of it like having a portable MRI machine (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) in your brain. You can 'take pictures' of magnetic waves and translate them into something meaningful. Doctors use MRI scans to differentiate between sick and healthy cells. We use it to differentiate between emotional states.
An example of a 'physiological' reaction to emotion.
When someone is angry, there’s all kind of electrical and chemical reactions happening in their body (sweating, getting flustered, faster heart beat). All these changes trigger mild electrical currents that create a magnetic field around their physical body.
As an Empath, you are able to scan this magnetic information to “read” their state of mind: this person is angry. Although the pattern changes from one person to the next, Empaths are able to interpret it and translate it.
About human magnetic waves -
• They can go through solids (such as bones and walls) with very little loss. This means that you can read people even if they are far away.
• They are very very very weak and are often called “Subtle Energies”. They cannot harm you in anyway.
Conclusion
If you are lucky to learn adaptive mechanisms earlier in your life so that you can deal with this constant surge of information you can avoid the path of destruction. But without some basic education, ( I’m sure your parents did not discuss with you when you were young about being an Empath), some Empaths will resort to destructive or energy consuming mechanisms to deal with the situation. This can lead to depression, mood altering addictions (drugs, alcohol) or anything else that can drown other people’s emotions.