What Is an Empath?
Discover How Powerful You Really Are

Do you feel other people's energy? Do you feel when they are stressed out, anxious, sad, happy, angry... or in pain? Can you actually feel in your body what they are feeling as if it were yours? Let’s discover what is an empath and how powerful you really are.

Being an empath goes way beyond feeling empathy. Empathy is an emotion that we all possess. It is the ability to understand what others are going through. An empath not only understands it but can also feel it. We literally feel what the other person is feeling in our body as if it was our own experience. We may even absorb it.

So, what is an empath?

Empaths are highly sensitive, highly intuitive, highly perceptive Souls. We are energetically sensitive beings. We can feel energy. Our powerful sensitivity enables us to perceive, read, and process energy like nobody's business. Our sensitivity is our power!

Our experience goes beyond feeling the emotions of other people, some empaths can even feel their physical pain. We can also sense the energy of a room, whether it is dense or light. We can feel the energy from the collective, nature, animals, planet, and for some even the spirit world.

Empath's ability to feel energy basically means that we feel everything because everything is energy. Emotions, feelings, thoughts, intuitions, sensations, pain, various energy forms, people, animals, plants, elements, the moon… it’s all energy.

Now, keep in mind that feeling energy is not the problem; the problem comes when we absorb it. Being able to feel energy is actually a powerful gift. Unfortunately, when we are not in our power, when our energy is not in our body, when we are disconnected to ourselves, when we are ungrounded, exhausted, and we lack boundaries, we may end up unintentionally absorbing the energy we feel.

As empaths, we are very sensitive to what occurs around us. We intuitively sense what's going on, whether people are telling the truth or not, and what's beneath the table.

We are also super sensitive to the energy in the collective. We can be highly affected by injustices, violence, animal cruelty, racism, social issues, environmental destruction... In general, we feel very deeply the suffering of others.

Also, our body is very sensitive, and specifically our nervous system is extremely sensitive to energy and changes in the environment. Our senses are very keen and perceptive. We tend to be highly sensitive to light, sound, touch, smell, and crowds, especially when our nervous system is overloaded.

We are also very sensitive to the powerful energies that are changing and emerging on our planet. We are highly conscious energy beings. We care deeply about others and this planet.

We are deep feelers who experience the world through our intuition and a felt sense of people and situations. Unfortunately, when we are not in our power, we can be impacted by other people's energy.

As empaths, we are highly attuned to the energy around us. We are like a fine-tuned instrument of energy reading. Our perception and intuition are very powerful.

But how exactly does an empath perceive, read, and process energy?

Talking about what is an empath wouldn't be complete if we don't cover how our energy system interacts with energy.

Everything is energy and we are made of energy. Our energy system extends beyond our physical body forming what we know as aura. This energetic field is the first part of our being that comes in contact with outside information.

Outside information is first received by our energy system, which then sends it to our nervous system, which in turn translates the information into physical form. From it, our body responds with a feeling, an emotion, a thought, an action, a reaction. Basically, our energy system receives the information way before we can even feel it, think about it, or respond to it.

The energy system of an empath is extremely sensitive to energy, which makes it easier for it to perceive information, interact, and communicate with the outside environment.

The way I was taught by one of my favorite teachers - Christina Lopes, DPT, MPH - is that an empath's energy system is more “porous” making it more open to interact with energy. She uses the following fantastic analogy to explain it:

She compares the energy system of a non-empath with a glass door which due to its containing properties provides more protection to the person from the outside environment. Then, she compares the energy system of an empath to a screen door, which due to its openings (“pores”) provides less protection, but at the same time more interaction with the outside environment.

I think that both the "glass door" and the "screen door" have advantages and disadvantages, depending on the environment and the energy they are interacting with. As empaths, we can be more affected by dense energies, but we can also enjoy more of beautiful energies – like the energy of nature.

Keep in mind that with the use of proper boundaries, we can increase the protection of our energy system from unwanted energies, while being able to enjoy the interaction with delicious energy.

The way I like to see it as an ideal state for our sensitive energy system to interact with energy is: Not too "open" - so we don’t absorb what doesn’t belong to us and lose our energy, but not too "close" either - so we can feel and interact with beautiful energy.

Basically, just like the semipermeable membrane of our cells! Closed enough to prevent unwanted things from coming in or important elements from going out, but open enough to receive nutrients, get rid of waste, and interact with the system. Just a perfect balance!

Having a sensitive energy system can be challenging when we are not aware of it and we don't know how to tend to it; but in reality, it is a big gift because it is this powerful sensitivity that allow us to perceive and interact with energy that others might not be able to perceive, while giving us access to information that others might not have access to. But as with any power, it might overwhelm us if we don't know how to use it. We need to learn how to use our empathic power.

There is way more about what is an empath than what I can say in a single article. The whole website is about the experience of a highly sensitive empath. To understand our unique experience and be able to use our sensitivity to energy as a power, instead of experiencing it as a problem, we need to go deeper into how our energy system works and interacts with energy.

With Love & Light,

Angela

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What Is an Empath?
Discover How Powerful You Really Are

So, what is an empath?

But how exactly does an empath perceive, read, and process energy?

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