Empath issue

[cheesedip1]

If you are an empath, how do you know whether some of the emotions you feel are from other people's auras or if they are just your fear/YOUR emotions?

[Prinie]

Because I feel imposed on or crushed. When they're my emotions they rise up from inside of me. But when they come from the outside, they feel like they surround me and are pushing against me.

[Prinie]

Before I go to bed...

What I notice is that when I am in a good mood and I have healthy boundaries I tend to be able to observe my environment without allowing it to affect me. In that way I can perceive the energy, but I can distinguish the difference between the two sources.

I've been a fairly good mood today and so when I went to my dad's house, i felt he wasn't 100% (his energy had a mild downward tug) So i asked him if he was stressed and he said yes, told me why. I was able to remain in a good mood, but acknowledge that he was not.

[cheesedip1]

I was feeling good ever since monday but then today i had a crash period later in the day.

I just have trouble telling the DIFFERENCE between other people's projections and what's from my own energy body (my own stuff). Plus, maybe I was feeling down today because of past impacted energies (ascension symptoms).

Man, I wish I just knew which is which....help!


I'm not sure if I felt bad because of my own self doubt or if it was other people wanting me to leave the convo. I guess I could of always just tried to choose my response and be nuetral instead.

Help! I'm confused.

[cheesedip1]

Originally Posted by Prinie

Because I feel imposed on or crushed. When they're my emotions they rise up from inside of me. But when they come from the outside, they feel like they surround me and are pushing against me.

Thanks, but this doesn't seem to help me much. I have trouble telling the difference.

[Prinie]

I pay attention to how I feel when I'm alone and this helps me.

Hopefully others will post too.

[TuningIn]

Hi there. I seem to like to try to convince myself of being confused about such things as this. Then I snap out of it, and back to reality, realizing that, frankly, well, yes I do know myself. I no longer judge between the two by methods other than by my own character. I ask myself, even now, "Why am I having such despairing thoughts?" and I go through my complaining about it in my mind, and realize the entire time that I am too intelligent analytical and logical in my own character to get so worked up about such mundane and rather boring thoughts of sudden sadness. If it is something that I am familiar with, I accept. If I am not, then I object, because that is definitely "not like me"..... Let me rephrase. Have you ever sighed about your day, possibly early morning, and say aloud to yourself possibly, "I just don't feel like myself today..." and you don't know why....??

In the back of your mind you suspect the alien nature of such feelings and their irrationality, and lack of stimuli. You dismiss such thoughts, and rather brink on the edge of accepting such foreign mind ninjas as if they were your own...and get on here and post to us. Well i must say, it is quite funny, the games our minds play with themselves, but I personally never let such things trouble me so that I beg for help... But i do understand, perhaps we are just different people. What scares me might not scare you.

Oh, and, have a nice day friend. I do hope all is well.

[hazelfern]

It can be tough to tell which emotions are yours and which emotions you are picking up on. I have only figured this out this year and I have been working on figuring out the difference between the two.

The first thing I have focused on is disconnecting from other people. In order to do this I have practiced doing an assessment of how my various centers of energy feel and then grounding myself. The exercise I do is based on one in the book "Empowered by Empathy : 25 Ways to Fly in Spirit " by Rose Rosetree" While most of the book is devoted to developing empathy there are a couple of exercises for bringing yourself back to Earth when feeling overwhelmed. I have modified the exercise "Coming Home" so that I can do a check of physical, empathy detector, mental, emotional, communication and higher self. After doing this for several months I now have a better feel for what is normal for me and what is being influenced by other people.

After doing this assessment I then do a read to see what I pick up when I think about different people. I normally do this on the drive to work and see what I can pick up about feelings for the people I work with. I have associated icons and colors with each person and if one is more noticeable than the others I can pick up that the person has some kind of emotional reaction at that moment.

After doing this for several months, I am finding that I have a better judgement of what is my emotion and what other people's emotions are. Many times when I feel overwhelmed by strong feelings, I take a step back and ask if there is something in my life that would cause the emotion or am I picking up things from someone else. Several months ago I could not tell the difference, now I find myself better able to split apart the two and find the differences.

Hope this helps you some, it can be rough trying to make sense of the extra input. I would emphasize finding some exercise that helps you to assess where you are emotionally and then practicing that everyday. The reason for the practice is so that when you are overwhelmed with emotion you can automatically do the assessment and have a better handle on what is happening. Trying to figure things out when you are feeling bad is not always easy.

[cheesedip1]

Originally Posted by hazelfern

After doing this assessment I then do a read to see what I pick up when I think about different people. I normally do this on the drive to work and see what I can pick up about feelings for the people I work with. I have associated icons and colors with each person and if one is more noticeable than the others I can pick up that the person has some kind of emotional reaction at that moment.

You see colors in your mind's eye or something?

[Bonadea]

I Generally don't unless i take the time to figure it out and even then....

[Angelz]

As an empath when you first start developing your abilities it will be extremely difficult to tell the difference from your own feelings and the feelings you are absorbing from others. For me now I can tell because I know myself. I know that I do not normally get headaches and other weird symptoms. Therefore if it is not me it is someone else. Another way to tell is to feel with your heart...are the feelings coming from your heart or do they seem to be absorbed into your very pores? As an empath you could also be so cluttered with emotions and energies that you need to clear yourself in order to distinguish.