August 3, 2014 Another post inspired by my friend who likes post with her coffee. :)

Tell me again; What’s so special about being an Empath?

I have a friend who has regularly read my blog for quite some time, and almost as regularly, inspires what I write. Recently, she had questions about one of my posts; specifically, she wanted to understand what I meant when I said I’m an Empath. I gave her a fairly simple explanation, which seems to have piqued her curiosity. Today, she posted an article which was posted on SpiritScience.net from one of their members entitled “How to Protect Yourself as an Empath”. While some of the article resonated with me, most of it did not. However, beneath the article were links to other articles. I’ve attached a link to one which gave me some serious “Aha” moments. The author has gathered a plethora of traits and experiences for Empaths. While some (thankfully) are not part of my experience, others have, at one point or another, been added to my bag of tricks for coping with things like crowds or the strong negative energies some of my fellow humans are wont to project. Others, still, have given me some ideas on how better to utilize this double pronged gift with which I was born.

http://thespiritscience.net/2014/07/21/30-traits-of-an-empath-how-to-know-if-youre-an-empath/

But how do you know? When does the lightbulb come on?

This topic takes me back to a time when a recently ex-boyfriend was pelting me with massive amounts of negative energy. Being pretty ignorant of shielding at the time, I did the only thing I could think of and envisioned myself surrounded by outward facing mirrors. What I didn’t realize at the time was that it blocked the negative energy very effectively, but it blocked everything else as well. I sometimes wonder if that had something to do with my moving in with a man I’d recently met and marrying him a few months later. Had I not blocked out all energy, would I have seen him for what he was, and realized that the feelings I had for him were not of the “happily ever after” kind?

Though I’ll never know the answers to these questions, what I do know is that the experiences I had were necessary (not the least of which was the birth of my two daughters!) and were filled with many lessons I needed in order to grow into the person I now am. Many of those lessons were pretty painful, and for a time, I lost my true self (someday, I might actually discuss life as the wife of an alcoholic!), but believe me, those lessons won’t soon be forgotten! The best part of those lessons has been that I’ve learned how I do and do not deserve to be treated!

But I digress. I know that my daughters exhibited evidence of Empathic tendencies at a very early age, only because, by then, I’d figured out what was “wrong” with me and taken clumsy steps to ameliorate the effects. If I were to climb into the wayback machine and go back to my own childhood, I’d recognize those same traits in that younger me as well. Like many younger Empaths, both my daughters and I sought ways to deal with what, to the rest of the world, seemed like just an oversensitivity. We built walls or limited our circles of friends, but whatever we did carried into our adulthood. My daughters were lucky, though, because I did know what was going on and taught them to shield from a young age. Or at last, I started to teach them, but the end result was that they taught me better, more effective and less all-inclusive ways to shield.

Is there a better teacher than the limitless imagination of a child?

Being able to explain what they were experiencing opened up an amazing opportunity for me to learn. The girls’ imaginations were not restricted by the paradigms we adults learn to live with, and fail to question often enough. They taught me to look for methods to shield which used outside energies, predominantly from the Earth herself, to maintain my shields without requiring constant monitoring or a drain on my own energy. They opened my eyes to possibilities I’d either never have found on my own, or which would have taken me far longer to find. At this point, the legacy my mother was either unable to pass on to me, or just completely ignorant of the gift (and frankly, I couldn’t tell you for sure whether it came from my mom or my dad) is out in the open. My girls will likely find it in their own children, and as parents, must make their own decisions about how much or how little to share. One thing, though, is for certain. They take with them something I didn’t have growing up: not only permission but encouragement to not only be different, but to embrace their unique and wonderful selves!

My gratitudes tonight are:
1. I am grateful for being unique.
2. I am grateful for the lessons I learned that my parents weren’t able to teach.
3. I am grateful that I am an Empath…most of the time!
4. I am grateful for quiet, lazy days after a week of running hither and yon.
5. I am grateful for the abundance which is available to all of us: love, health, harmony, peace, joy and prosperity.

Love and light