For those who know me or have been following my blog, you may know that I am an Empath. With my gift, I am highly sensitive to the energies of people and places that I visit. Through a lot of hard work learning to control and develop this talent, I am now quite comfortable in calling it a gift and am able to use it to help others. Part of my involvement at Sacred Mists is to teach the Empath extension class and help others learn to control and develop their gift if they so choose. I have been doing this for over a year now.
One of the things I have noticed with all of my students introductions and I find a bit alarming is how many of them have been what I would call “misdiagnosed” with anxiety disorders and depression and are being medicated for it. While I am no doctor, and I am not wishing to pass judgment on any of the doctors I can tell you that a large number of my students are off their medication within the time they spend on the course or shortly thereafter. So why does this happen?
Most doctors may not be aware of what an Empath is, let alone how to treat it without medications. It is becoming something that is being talked about more as more of us are realizing that there is nothing wrong with us, we have a gift that we need to learn how to manage. As empaths, we are hypersensitive to the energies of those around us. Without being aware not only can we sense that energy but a lot of times that energy can be taken on as our own. Hence why some empaths may be depressed more often, may experience a lot of mood swings, or become anxious. Think about it this way, if you walked into a grocery store to get a gallon of milk and felt the emotion of every single person you walked by would that not affect your mood? Think about it……
Empaths can also take on actual illnesses of those around us. We may not actually be sick but may still exhibit all the symptoms. It is also possible to feel the energy that has been left in an environment of a place that you visit. Hospitals and funeral homes can be an absolute nightmare for us.
The good news. This gift can be controlled. No it does not have to be controlled with medicine. There are two techniques fundamental to controlling this gift……grounding…. and shielding. For those not familiar with what those things are you may be thinking ok sure. A lot of what goes on in and around us has to do with energy. Once you start learning to control that energy you’d be amazed at what we are capable of. Both of these skills can take a bit of time to learn and there are many many variations on them, but they can do wonders to improving a person’s wellbeing, even if you are not an empath. It is impossible for me to teach you how to ground and shield in a blog entry but I can give you a simple example of each one. Of course as with anything you have to believe that things will work. Your intentions and belief is core to making things happen for you.
Grounding – A simple exercise I like to ground can actually be done in the shower. 😛 🙂 As the water is running over you picture it pushing all the negative energy out of your body and down the drain and replacing it with positive energies. Have anything bothering you, focus on it and let it go down the drain. Once you finish you should feel refreshed and relaxed. This is just one very quick variation on the many many ways to accomplish this. In essence, it is a way to manipulate the energy that you are carrying to be positive and to inform your subconscious on what to focus on.
Shielding – The act of shielding is like creating a magickal field around yourself to protect yourself from negative or unwanted energy. You will want to ground before you attempt to put up a shield. A simple shield that you can play with, to begin with is the bubble shield. Picture energy coming up around your body to form a “bubble” around you. You can play with the colors texture etc to find what’s most comfortable for you. The outside of the shield will keep out negative energy and the inside will take the positive energy you are putting out and bounce it back to you to keep you strong. :))
If you are unsure if you are an empath, here is a link to an article that may help you.
Are You An Empath?
So while I don’t disagree with the use of medicines to help Empaths, I would love to see intuitive gifts and the sensitivity that comes along with it become more well known and have people start to work with alternative methods to the medicines to handle it if possible. Not only would they be off of the medications but more people with this gift would be able to do what we are intended to and help others. So many times an Empath will read the description and say wow all this time I thought there was something wrong with me. There is nothing wrong with you, it is not a curse it can be managed and hopefully made to feel as if it is the gift that it was intended to be. I also do want to note that if you need medication it’s important that you use them and work with your doctor to decide the best plan for yourself. You and your doctor always know best and mental health is so incredibly important. My intention with this article is to bring your awareness to this issue and then you will have information to help you decide. 🙂
Much Love and Many Blessings,
Jasmiene Moonsong
Empaths often Misdiagnosed
