As someone that has provided healing support and readings to empaths for several years, I've discovered that not all empaths are alike. The way empaths process their empathic responses are different, and what they need to do to remain balanced mentally, physically and emotionally also vary. There is certainly some similarity in the very nature of being empathic, but I’ve been amazed at the unique ways in which empaths need to be present with their compassionate nature.

People who are highly empathic seem to live in a world with less of a concrete sense of boundaries than many of the rest of us. This is actually, a highly sensitive state of spiritual awareness, and a truer experience of how energy exists beyond our human, physical perceptions. The boundaries certainly get thinner as we become conscious of our oneness with all life. Because empaths can find it difficult to know how to function comfortably in this world, it is challenging to know how to be with their empathic nature.

In response to the thin walls empths can experience, I have noticed that some empaths become quite removed from their empathy—hard, distant, critical, or very mental—as a way of protecting themselves from the deep empathic responses they otherwise experience. This distancing from their empathy is a kind of shield that is often erected unconsciously as a desperate act to ensure greater inner peace.

I’ve met empaths that were upset with themselves for “taking on energy that wasn’t theirs,” when from my perspective, they were having a natural empathic reaction. Empathic reactions are as natural as jumping and making a shocked or scared sound when we are unexpectedly frightened by something. In the physical world, we consider a shocked response when we are frightened to be natural, but in the spiritual/emotional world, many of us have catalogued natural empathetic responses as somehow, unnatural and needing to be controlled.

When I do a reading for someone, especially an empath, I’m often able to glimpse the world from their perspective. What I’ve noticed about empaths is that they are highly compassionate, deeply affected by aspects of life, and their balance is easily affected by what is happening around them. Energetic shielding, emotional protection and other forms of distancing yourself from compassion and caring, rarely works well. For one thing, when an empath does this, they are also cutting themselves off from the flow of healing energy within you, and potentially making themselves more stressed and physically ill.

Empaths seem to do better in the world, when they learn how to be with their depth of their compassion and use their healing gifts to maintain balance and transform disharmony. And empaths have unique ways of doing this. Some need to process the energy through themselves, regardless of their initial reaction. Some, learn early signs that help them begin using their healing gifts and energy to intervene and assist before they would otherwise experience an empathic reaction. Still others must evolve into a constant state of compassion, so that there is no dramatic effect caused by outside influences. I have met empaths that needed to remain in a relaxed and open state, allowing whatever came through to simply pass through. They work diligently on releasing judgments and attachments so that they are in a constant state of loving openness and flow.

Many find their empathy easier to live with as they become familiar with their own energetic healing gifts and begin to use them consciously in service to whatever is calling to them for assistance—Mother Earth, animals, plants, human physical challenges or emotional distress, planetary transformation, inter-planet relationships, or connections to other realms of consciousness. In my experience, most empaths have some unique method of maintaining inner peace and balance, as well as being of assistance.

I’ve known an empaths that work with crystals to assist in keeping the light-grid around the earth in balance. When the grid is out of balance, she feels it and must attend to her energy work. Another empath needs to either be active with her hands in the dirt of Mother Earth or at the very least meditating with Mother Earth, allowing anything she has picked up from her clients to flow through her and into the Mother for healing. Still another empath maintains his sense of humor and composes music in order to move emotional charges through him, with those charges and imbalances becoming expressions of beauty. One of my closest friends is an earth empath and whenever a volcano is about to go off, she gets early warning signs that are letting her know she needs to meditate with the volcanic energy of the Mother. If she doesn’t she gets migraines. If she does, she is at peace in service to the earth.

Empaths that are emotionally empathetic, often find this Creation Meditation helpful for being present to emotions, and allowing them to easily release. Just scroll down the page to the link: http://www.newdreamfoundation.com/womens-enlightenment.htm

Empaths are profoundly unique, and it is their empathy—their great compassion—that makes them so special. Learning how to be with the energy rather than running away from it seems to bring empaths the greatest sense of peace, in whatever way they are called to use their gifts and be with their compassion.

Author's Bio: 

Misa Hopkins is the author of the best-selling book, “The Root of All Healing: 7 Steps to Healing Anything,” named the first-aid handbook for the new 21st Century consciousness. Hopkins is an astute observer of human motivation and potential. Her observations about the healing progress of her clients and her own miraculous healings led her to ground-breaking conclusions about why people remain ill. In her writing and workshops, she provides insights about breaking through hidden barriers to experience ultimate wellness. You can ready more of her work at http://www.Self-HealingSecrets.com.