What is an Empath

That is a beautiful explaination. I thought i knew what Empath meant , but i knew only half of what it meant. Thanks so much for sharing.

Well said Fire

I have been able to read people around me for as long as i can remember, i felt i was judging them which makes it really hard for me to open up more to these feelings. The last thing i want to do is judge someone, but usually i can sense something a person needs to change in themselves, but i do not tell anyone this, i keep it to myself. I hope they will become more aware of their limitations just as i am doing for myself. I am sure many people can also sense my limitations that i need to become more aware of.

I would have to say the toughest thing i struggle with is feeling other peoples emotions usually it's the negative ones that drain me.

FIRE wrote:Empaths are driven by their own intuitive natures. This can be for good or bad.

I have found that the majority who step forward suffer from some form of mental distress or disorder. This does not mean that the majority of Empaths suffer from mental "illness", instead it implies that the majority of Empaths seem to have some sort of "struggle" with their own uniqueness.

I tend to go through life struggling just as you have stated above, and i too do not feel it is any kind of mental illness, i find many people in society tend to lean towards mental illness for many struggles in life. A pill for everything This can only brings us farther away from who we are. But for me i will not allow this concept to take root in me.

My mother at one time was taking anti depressants, she was much better before she started taking this medicine, but she still had her struggles. As she took the medicine she began getting worse, she was sleeping all day, did not want to clean or go out of the house. I suggested she stop taking her pills and she showed great improvement, but for the longest time she held on to the notion that she needed them and could not function without taking them. Her improvement was 100% she now lives life with more joy, love and she is so much more intuitive, sometimes she amazes me.

If it pertains to the brain in any way we love putting labels on it. As i am sure some medicines are needed out there for people who struggle with certain illnesses and can be very helpful for them. I feel that we have amazing abilities that have not been tapped into yet, abilities to provide healing for ourselves and others that one day may become the normal medicine.

But please understand this is what i have come to understand, and by no means am i saying that medicine is bad. I choose to live a more simple life and tend to rely more on the abilities that were given to me naturally to help me understand and deal with my struggles.

There may come a day where medicine will help me ease some sort of struggle/pain in my life, but i hope i can go through what is needed without taking anything.

Thank you great post

Many Blessings

It would be awesome to be able to feel others feelings.

Wonderful explanation and spirit-being I enjoyed your post, I am pleased to hear your mother is doing much better now.

FIRE wrote:What is an Empath.............

An Empath is an "active psychic." who is capable of using their psychic abilities at any point in time just as they would any of their other abilities.
An Empath is a person who was born with unique variations in the central nervous system. This means how the brain is configured and how the nervous system works in the body. This has not yet been studied and quantified by science. Instead it is being brought forth by individuals who are becoming self-aware of these qualities and who explore this experience through creative and intuitive outlets.
A high degree of overall sensitivity is the general indicator for this type of person.
All of the sensory organs of an Empath have low thresholds thereby resulting in unusual sensitivity to light, smell, and sound (as well as other subtler senses. I know now that all my allergies etc. are a direct result of being am empath. I've had problems ever since I could remember.). Although underlying sensitivity is the unifying factor behind all Empaths, how this sensitivity is "managed" or "funneled" varies from person to person. An Empath also possesses a very sensitive emotional nature, that is typically difficult to self-manage. Books have been written on "highly sensitive people" and those materials are relevant to this topic. However, being highly sensitive is only one part of the formula for Empaths.
As a result of the interaction between an extremely sensitive neural network and the concurrent emotional nature of a person with this profile, Empaths are highly intuitive. A better understanding of intuition leads to a better understanding of what actually constitutes an Empath. For now, I only want to say that Empaths are highly intuitive
which means they tend to do things by feeling, by sensing, by reacting to proprioceptive queues, and by following "hunches, gut-feelings," etc. This includes critical decision making, reacting, and acting upon influences in their own lives predominately from intuitive queues. This process can lead to better or worse results depending upon the development of the Empath.
Empaths are driven by their own intuitive natures. This can be for good or bad.
I have found that the majority who step forward suffer from some form of mental distress or disorder. This does not mean that the majority of Empaths suffer from mental "illness", instead it implies that the majority of Empaths seem to have some sort of "struggle" with their own uniqueness.

No, it is not mental illness but does suggest that "excess wiring" and "diverse thresholds" may require other interventions beyond medical treatment. The stress of taking in the emotions of other people, of sensing information on a continual basis, of being a "human sponge", of being driven by deep inner forces that are not understood, all create a "torture chamber" of sorts within the average Empath.
Now I will try for a more popular explanation. An Empath is a type of "psychic", but instead of reading the "future" or viewing remote objects, the Empath specializes in reading people. I suggest using the word Empath as a hybrid form of psychic, more of a realistic/grounded version of our potential for extra sensory perception. An Empath is sensitive to the visible
as well as the invisible.

Boy guys Fire sure hit the nail on the head with that post!

What is funny is that there actually was a people that lived in Northern Europe that legend now generally refers to as the Fae and these people crossed with other groups of Humankind. In today's world, as in the past, there are people that carry "Fae" genes and these people that carry the "Fae" genes are inclined to be very psychic as well as artistic. The problem with carrying the "Fae" genes is dealing with the gifts that you were born with. And the stronger that these genes are the harder they are to deal with because normal people do not have those gifts. The first thing you learn when you discover that you have these gifts is, "Don't tell anybody!" Because if you do they will get very upset at you. Those gifts are a threat to their privacy. So one not only lives in a "Holy Smokes" reality that is way different than other people's, but they also can not tell anybody about it or they will be persecuted. I think that there needs to be an Empath Support Group to help folks that carry strong "Fae" genes deal with the affliction that they were born with.