Dealing With Extreme Emotions ~ Empath Strategies

Dealing with extreme emotions, whether our own or others, can be challenging for any empath. For those empaths accustomed to this sort of experience, it’s easier to assess the ownership of the vibration. But for the less aware empath experiencing another’s intense emotions can be overwhelming.

Outward expressions of anger are easy for most people to discern. Clearly, it’s someone else experiencing the anger and not the empath. We may be feeling it along with the individual, but it doesn’t generate within us. It’s the unspoken emotion, intense or not, that empaths can confuse with their own.

An empath will pick up on any number of vibrations that come close. I merge with others’ energetic fields so easily that I begin feeling nervous if something is off with any of them. That’s how I know that it’s not mine. I become worried. I begin glancing around, trying to find the source of the uncomfortable vibration, and when I know who it is, I feel in to see what’s going on. If it’s coming from someone that I’m close with I’m usually more susceptible to losing my control than if it’s an acquaintance or a stranger.

We might appear in bodies but in truth, we’re each an energetic field that continually merges with all other energetic fields. And it’s in that energetic structure that an empath or aware person experiences the truth of others. I take literally the truth that God or the Creator is All That Is. Because if this is true, then there is nothing other than the Creator. All that we are, see, and experience around us is the Creator personified. So oneness is not just a nice meme but is, in fact, our fundamental reality, and the very reason empaths experience what we do.

When I experience intense or strong emotions in others, it’s not just how loud they get or the words they use, but their physical posture that affects me as well. If I’m sitting down in a chair for example and my husband is ranting about one thing or another, he has to be careful not to stand over me or lean forward while he’s speaking or I will feel that vibration pound down on top of my head. When it happens, I can’t breathe. We’ve figured out how to let him know to step back without interrupting the flow of his rant. But when it happens, it’s just awful.

Hate-speech is another intense vibration that is impossible for me to experience. It’s as if our family is about to fall apart, or a violent crime is underway. I experience its destructiveness in a visceral manner feeling fear and panic and again I have trouble breathing.

Empaths naturally want to heal people who are having difficulties, irrespective of their nature. We instinctively want to bring people back into alignment with blessings of love and peace. But here’s the thing. Are we helping them or are we really bringing our own self back into alignment by trying to balance their vibration?

In my case, I’ve found that it’s more about me at that point and my ability to remain peacefully in control. Ideally, empaths should be able to observe the expressions of others without absorbing any of their vibration. Instead, we do the opposite and then become distressed when we experience extreme or intense emotion. We judge it as wrong somehow and set about fixing it when instead we could give it no meaning at all. It’s just something that’s currently happening and has nothing to do with us. But no. We get involved and it all goes south fairly quickly.

So what’s an empath to do?

• Determine if the vibration is your own or someone else’s.
• If it’s you, take a moment to settle down excusing yourself if you need that.
• If it’s someone else, then either pull inward from them and shield if necessary, or feel their vibration along with them. Acknowledge to yourself that you’re choosing to do this and simply observe what you’re feeling. When we feel uncomfortable vibrations we tend to tense up and become resistant to what we’re experiencing. There’s nothing wrong with feeling something that’s not comfortable. It’s just one of many feelings that we experience in life. Give it no other meaning than that. Which brings me to the most important truth.
• We give EVERYTHING in our experience the meaning it has. Knowing this, every so-called negative experience we have becomes just another experience to observe and take in.
• Until the observation side of self overshadows the absorbing side it’s probably best to align and shield when experiencing intense vibrations. Some simple visualization techniques that are fairly self-explanatory include:
  • Bubble of Protection
  • Suit of Armor
  • Plow the Road (shopping carts work well)
  • Tunneling 
• Practice controlling your breath when life is comfortable so that it’s easier to go there when things become dicey. Breathe, align in Source Presence, and visualize pulling back your energetic field to a single point. Visualize white light emerging outward from that single point, bathing you in loving, protective light, blessing all who wish to experience that loving resonance. Allow any energetic cords to dissipate and resonate in your purified and divine Self.
• Understand your limitations and take time out for your own respite. Empaths tend to be self-sacrificing which only contributes to a lack of control so put yourself first. You are that important.

Experiencing Dishonesty

As challenging as experiencing intense emotions are, experiencing dishonesty, at least for me, is far worse. It’s the passive side of passive aggression and from my perspective, it’s as intense an experience as any violent outburst.

Dishonesty hits me like a wave. Inside I’m screaming, NO, but outside I’m in full assessment mode. Most of the time I don’t have to feel in to know a lie is in the works because people really are that transparent. When someone is dishonest, I feel a sense of being tied up in knots. I experience the liar’s desired effect and my outrage begins, matching if not exceeding the liar’s own vibrational intent. It’s why I had a hard time during the election. I knew the so-called new guy would renege on promises he made while up-ending the country in the process so I couldn’t listen to him or his minions then or now.

And because relationships of all sorts have been so impacted by the election it may be necessary for empaths to step back from arguments and confrontations that might take place between friends and family. Those who were duped along the way will have to find that truth for themselves. All the rest of us can do is wait for sanity to return and stay out of the line of fire so to speak.

Besides. Garden season is around the corner. Life is so much simpler there.

Blessings to all!