For an empath however such as myself,  we tend to be emotional sponges picking up energies from all over the place, most of the time without even realizing we have done so.  If you tend to be an emotional sponge, it's critical to know how to recognize your own feelings, emotions and energy in relation to others so that you don't take on the weight of the world that surrounds you.  But that is a whole nother blog.

So how to recognize an empath or their traits....

Empaths are often quiet people at heart and love their alone time.  As an Empath myself I find when i'm alone, I am in tune with my own energy, how I really feel in the moment and don't have to spend time deflecting others energies left, right and center or feeling everyone's pain, frustration, stress and a myriad of other emotions.  My alone time brings me back to balance and allows me the space to breathe.

More often than not it can take a while for an empath to be able to handle a compliment sent their way for they are more inclined to find the amazing in everyone else, and point out other's positive attributes. Empaths are highly expressive in all areas that concern emotional connection, and can talk openly and honestly with care, love and a depth of wisdom that will help even the most confused soul make sense of a situation with ease.  Empaths love to help, love to give but more often than not, find it hard to receive that which they give out so easily.

There is a flip side to the Empath however, where they can be almost the exact opposite: extremely reclusive, loving the thought of isolation, off in their own little world that can appear somewhat unresponsive, dismissive and could even appear ignorant to some.  Some are VERY good at switching off and blocking out others, which at times is a good thing, especially for the struggling empath who is just learning to cope with the overwhelming emotions of others, as well as trying to sort through their own feelings. 

Empaths are extremely sensitive to world, local or national news, TV, movies anything that could possibly broadcast emotion in an extreme negative or positive way.  Emotional drama or Violent behaviour depicting heart wrenching scenes of emotional or physical pain inflicted on animals, children or adults can bring an empath to tears in seconds.  In my own personal experience I have become violently ill, physically sick or unable to control the tears that pour from my eyes and the pain in my heart is almost crippling.  Because of this I have not watched the news in my house or read a newspaper for well over 10 years.  Most empaths will struggle to even comprehend the cruelty that is shown on any level, and will have difficulty in being able to express themselves in the face of another's closed mindedness, lack of compassion or even ignorance.  There is just nothing within an empath that can justify the cruelty and suffering they feel and see whether it be an adult, group, child or animal.

Empaths seem to have a tendency to feel what is outside of them sometimes more so than what is within them.  This as I am painfully aware of can cause empaths to put others before themselves and ignore their own needs, ignore their own self care.  In general empaths have the peacemaker attitude, non-violent and non-aggressive.  Any environment that has a lot of negative energy or area filled with disharmony creates an uncomfortable feeling for an empath and a need for resolution or quick escape.  If they find themselves within this sort of situation or caught in the middle of a confrontation, they will generally intuit the  easiest way to settle the situation as quickly as possible, or try to avoid it all together.  If the need to defend themselves arises, harsh words expressed or reaction occurs, they are more than likely to resent their lack of control and find steps to move forward in a peaceful matter to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.

Empaths have an innate ability to attract people and animals into their lives through their genuine warmth, love and compassion.  Whether the empath is aware of it or not they are beacons of light to those in the dark, and have a somewhat magnetic capability to draw to them the people that need them the most, just at the right time.

This is true for family, friends, acquaintances and even complete strangers, people find it easy to talk to empaths about the most deep and personal things, and before they know it, they have vented and or poured out their hearts without intending to do so consciously.  It's as though that person instinctively knows that the empath would listen with wisdom, compassion and an abundance of love, care and understanding and because of that feels safe to express themselves.

Empaths are often the deep thinkers, the researchers, the problem solvers of many things.  As far as an empath is concerned where there is a problem there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS an answer.  I myself have been known to spend hours problem solving, brainstorming and  researching until I find the answer, if nothing else but peace of mind that i've found it.  This is an amazing gift for an empath in my opinion, because we feel so so much, to have the space to sit in our own feelings and the ability to search for an answer, also gives the ability to find growth within ourselves very quickly when our gift is finely tuned.


©Rebecca Fox R.M.

Empathic abilities are something we all start life with as a newborn. 
How many times have you heard the words from your family, friends or midwifes - Babies can just sense the energy of the people around them - somewhere along the way throughout our life journey some of us choose not to utilize this wonderful gift and it just falls away.

This wonderful empathic ability if utilized allows you to understand the energy of people around you and read that same energy.  Have you ever been in the presence of someone and just immediately been put off by their energy and would rather walk away? 
Or have you bonded with the very essence of someone's energy and have that feeling of yaeee I want to know more about this person? whether it's good, bad or indifferent.

Empaths have the natural ability to be able to scan another's energy for thoughts, feelings and possible life experiences or occurrences whether that be past, present or future.   In my own experience when I was still developing my gifts and learning about, as well as creating physical (that bubble of space that surrounds you) and emotional boundaries, I had found myself reading another person's energy without a second thought or without really understanding or having an awareness that I had even read the person in front of me, in an email, phone or skype etc to begin with (and so very quickly).

The ability to read another's energy, thoughts and feelings is an amazing gift to develop and work with, but it definitely in the early stages of understanding and developing can be quite the challenge as well.

One of my first real understandings of the depth of my empathic gift and the complete sense of the overwhelms of that very same gift was walking into a supermarket one afternoon.
It happened to be unlike me to pop in after the school pick up one day and OMGoodness the rush of emotion, stress, tension, tears, anger, happiness, resentment, joy,......every type of emotion there is came rushing at me the moment I walked in.  NEVER had I truly understood the stress, worry and emotion people carry until I put myself into a space with hundreds of them at once.

I felt overwhelmed, drained and the workings of a massive headache on the way, with a slow pounding inside my head.  I couldn't move from that spot for a good five minutes.  I just stood there looking like a bewildered fool i'm sure, as scores of people moved what seemed silently around me......but no, no, no, no, no I have never had such an array of emotion flow through me at such enormous speeds.  One minute I felt the tears roll down my face, the next minute I was singing a pop song in my head and quite joyous, then anger came rolling in, just one emotion after another and back again until my body started to wilt with the influx of energy.

I worked out VERY, VERY quickly that it was time to put together some protection and coping skills or tools for me to use, so that I never had that rush of emotion come at me ever again.  I also now shop at one of the smaller supermarkets and very early in the morning!

Being aware of your energies and your boundaries is an extremely important part of being an Empath. Knowledge, protection, boundaries both physical and emotional are key to an Empath finding balance in their lives.

©Rebecca Fox R.M.

My Furbaby Felix came home this morning, not a very happy boy.  His tail hung low, his eyes were all glassed over and his pupils HUGE, it was more than clear he had been hurt somehow.  

Being a Reiki Master for both humans and animals I went straight into creating a space for him to heal, except this time, I decided to take the principals from my new book - THE CHAKRA WAY  - to a new level and use the same quick fixes and tools I have provided in my book for humans and use them on my furbaby instead.

As part of the test to see how well he responded to those tools, I created two spaces for him right next to each other.  The first one was a green blanket (green is a healing colour and relates to the Heart Chakra), the other was brown (which relates to healing of the Root Chakra).
Underneath the brown blanket I stuck healing green crystals, under the green blanket I stuck nothing. Neither of these blankets had he ever sat on before and where they were placed on the couch was not where he usually liked to sit.

I was amazed as I watched him slowly jump up on the couch to his normal spot.  He looked over at the two blankets got up and walked over to the green one, he circled it, padded it as they like to do and I thought to myself, how interesting that he immediately went to the green one.  As I watched and waited for him to get comfortable so I could do a Reiki session on him, he never did.  He spent time getting ready to get comfortable then went to the brown blanket, immediately sat down and rolled over onto his belly to get ready for his Reiki.

I have done four short treatments on him as he sat on that blanket (I have found especially in cats, when doing a healing session, short treatments often are far more acceptable by them) and in that time he has managed to move two of the crystals out from under the rug and is now sitting on them.  On the fourth treatment he got up with me to get some water and his movement is a lot better, his eyes have become normal and his tail is starting to lift very slightly again.

I'm quite honestly AMAZED at the results.  Firstly I believe he chose the brown blanket because that has everything to do with healing of the Root Chakra (The Root Chakra on animals is the place where the most damage was done, around the base of his tail), secondly I can't believe the intuition of the cat to actually remove the crystals from under the blanket and utilise their healing qualities where his pain was (by sitting on them, literally!)

I have decided to use my Quick Fix Diet for mind, body and soul on all the animals I treat now, as the results have astounded me as I keep a watchful eye on his progress.  It still astounds me how much influence our energy centers really do affect us on a day to day level.

I hope you will join me in holding space, prayers and healing for all animals across the world who need it for whatever reason.

Much Love and Warm Blessings

Rebecca Fox
Author of THE CHAKRA WAY