Here are some questions to help you determine if you are empathic…

Do you’re emotions change based on your environment?
For example, you are feeling great and suddenly you walk into a room full of others and you become overwhelmed with emotion. This might appear like social anxiety, but you actually weren’t nervous before you walked in and you are fine in other situations. Its just the energy of that room full of people.

It might benefit an empath to go out and sit on a park bench somewhere and just feel. Get in tune with all of the many emotions they feel from others and then learn to let it flow through them down through their feet.

You can feel physical ailments of others?
For example, you suddenly get a stomach ache for no explicate reason only to find out later that your mother was sick with an intestinal bug.

Empaths can be known as hypochondriacs because they will come down with something and there is no known cause. This can go on for a long time until they realize not everything they feel physically is their own! It can benefit an empathy to eat healthy and stay fit and be in touch with there bodies so when they do actually get sick they will know it is indeed their own illness they are feeling.

Do tragic or emotionally stirring events seen on TV affect you as if you are there?
For example, natural disasters, murders, an election win, or some other social/political world event.

This is something we can learn to deal with by limiting how much television we watch or what genre of television.

When someone tells you something do you always know what they really mean, or are trying to say based on what you feel from them, not necessarily what they say?
For example, a partner tells you that they have not cheated, but you feel the truth. Or someone tells you they are fine, but you know something else is going on because you can feel what they are really feeling.

Sometimes this is a challenge for an empath. We have to be okay with knowing without sharing what we know. We need to honor the process of someone else. Sometimes that process consists of not telling the truth, or being misleading. It doesn’t do ourselves, or them any service by trying to force it out. As an empath, just because we feel something doesn’t mean we have to act on it. A good practice is to feel what we feel and visualize it leaving us through our feet back down into the earth. Let the emotions flow without doing anything with them.

Do you have a compassion for people that goes beyond just caring for them, as if you feel compelled to be there for them no matter what they have done to you?
For example, someone could have broken your heart, but needs your help. Because you can feel they truly need you there for them, you find you put aside your needs for they needs. It’s as if what they are feeling overrides what you feel inside.

This can be an issue for an empath. We have to learn that it is equally valid to put your emotional needs as a number one priority. As a matter of truth, if we aren’t there for ourselves it makes are ability to be there for others harder and often times we burn out. So put yourself first and remember, “Love others as we love ourselves.” This means we must love ourselves first and loves others accordingly.

Do people feel compelled to tell you things they wouldn’t tell anyone else?
In other words, do you often find people saying to you, “I feel I can tell you anything,” all the time?

This is a wonderful gift for an empathy, as it can serve you if you choose a profession such as counselor, social worker, or another profession where listening and caring for others is the focus, but its also important to learn how to draw boundaries in order to have “you” time.

Do you have an ability to heal?
Do you find that you have the ability to make others feel better just by being around them? Do they say they feel better, but yet you end up feeling tired and out of it?

This happens because as an empath you might be drawing out their negative energy and taking it for yourself. This is where learning to ground the energy is useful as an empath.

If you have said yes to any of these questions you may have the unique ability of being empathic. This is an ability that should be nurtured and strengthened in your life. It can only benefit you and others!

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