How Can Empaths Buffer and Protect Themselves?
There are people who feel the moods, emotions and intentions of other people when they come upon them or think about them. In some cases when there is a close family connection, like spouse or children, they will spontaneously feel it when a dramatic change in emotions occurs in their loved one. We call these people an empath. When walking into a room full of people they can be overwhelmed with all of the emotional content of the room; it can be quite trying at times. If their loved one has hurt their back, or has a migraine, or feels panic, or unrest, or whatever, before the loved one even comes home or calls, the empath’s back hurts or they feel a sense of panic, just like their loved one was feeling. Often these empaths heal those who suffer by taking on the injury or emotional stress themselves.
My late wife Kathryn had this gift, which can sometimes feel like a curse. When I first met her she did not know how to buffer and protect herself. Some members of her family and some of her friends would think she was crazy if she ever talked about it with them. Kathryn knew she had this gift, but she did not know how to buffer and protect herself. I have had more than one friend write me with this same problem asking…
How Can Empaths Buffer and Protect Themselves?
First you need to know that being an empath is normal and natural, but perhaps only one percent of the population (a guesstimate) is empathic like this. However it is quite common to find such people due to the fact that one percent of 6.5 billion people comes out to 6.5 million people with such ability.
Did you read my blog Helping Others – Reiki, Energy, and Physical Support? The story in that blog is about my first Reiki experiences with Kathryn taken from my book Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story. It describes how her empathic and psychic abilities came out and how she taught me to use my mind properly for energy healing. My book gives more real life examples of how this gift manifested in Kathryn and how it impacted our lives. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is learning how to deal with being an empath.
Intention is the key to buffering and protecting yourself. At some point in your eternal life you decided being and empathic healer was what you wanted to do and experience. Now that you have experienced it, you realize you need to protect yourself too. So now you need to make it your intention to learn this skill of buffering yourself. For me buffering myself comes easy and naturally, but I have to be more deliberate and intentional to get in touch with my psychic skills. For the empath the opposite is true. But you can do it. When I say make it your intention that means to be clear in your mind, stop and think about it, ask yourself, “Is this really important to me?” Then decide “YES! I will learn this. God please bring me the exact guidance I need” and practice!
To buffer yourself you need to learn to care for yourself more. You care very deeply about other people and this is why you are so open to receiving their energy. It is okay to receive the message that a loved one is suffering and in what way they are suffering, but then it is time to turn it off before it does you any harm. You need to deliberately reprogram yourself such that you remember to consciously turn off the empathy and do the prayers and visualizations required to protect yourself.
The basic thing you need to do at the time you feel their pain is to say a brief prayer, surround them with love and light, ask the Holy Spirit to give them the energy they need to resolve their own problem and then detach yourself from them and their energy.
Begin visualizing your own energy flowing to you from God and staying with you. To protect your energy field you can combine the two visualizations I give below, start by drawing the star and then surround yourself and the star with the white luminous egg shaped energy field. These visualizations are important because they will create real energy forms called elementals that protect you and let you be you while these others can be themselves.
In this blog Meditation and the Wandering Mind I explain the process of meditation, the purpose of meditation, the importance of practice, and why you must stick with it even if you feel it is difficult. I encourage you to read that blog too so I don’t have to re-explain those things here in this blog.
The important visualization you need to practice is to imagine yourself being surrounded by a white luminous egg shaped energy field. Another visualization to practice and use is the five pointed star. Imagine yourself standing with legs spread and arms stretched out to your side. Start drawing a line with white light from your left hand across your body to the right hand, then down to the left foot, then up to the crown of your head, then down to the right foot, and finally back to the left hand to complete the five pointed star. Draw the star so that you are inside of the star.
So to summarize what you need to do…
1. Be aware you are picking something up, acknowledge it.
2. Send them the healing energy they need.
3. Protect yourself, separate yourself from their energy. Be deliberate, be intentional and it will happen.
On a similar note I had situation with my own mother where she was taking energy from me, even though we lived 1300 miles away from each other. I used a different visualization and got a very dramatic result. That story is also in my book…if you liked this blog you really do need to read this book. This and many other personal experiences I have had tell me that our minds have a lot of power. Taking the time to be intentional in our thoughts really does make a difference.
Love and Blessings,
Michael Skowronski
Author of Unforgettable: A Love and Spiritual Growth Story
