Here are some signs you are an empath/intuitive:

• You feel the emotions of others.
  When you’re with someone, even a perfect stranger, you know how they’re feeling even before they say a word. This means that you may feel sad, panicked, excited, etc. for absolutely no reason at all.  You may notice this more strongly with some people than with others.
• You can feel the physical aches and pains of others.
  You may notice a soreness or pain without having any reason for feeling it- then you hear a close friend is suffering from the same discomfort.  
• Strangers open up to you about their lives.  Often with far more detail than you bargained for and within moments of meeting you.
• You are the go-to person for advice and emotional support in every friend group. You often wonder how that happened.
• You feel overwhelmed or exhausted from being in large groups of people. Being around a hoard of people experiencing a wide range of emotions in a confined space quickly produces sensory overload.  Maybe you routinely avoid or dread shopping on the weekend or before a holiday.  Alternatively, being at a live performance will create a positive contact high like none other. All of that intense excitement and anticipation can be wonderful!
• You need your alone time, desperately. Feeling or being aware of the emotions and pains of others is draining, so you need to spend time alone to refuel.  The need for self-care and down-time is greater than for most people, even for extroverted empaths.
• You are easily moved to tears, even by fictional tv, books, or movies. Since your ability to relate to people is so strong, it’s easy to get sucked in to the emotionally charged situations of fictional characters. Even those on commercials. Raise your hand if you cry easily at commercials, I see you.
• You are easily overstimulated by multiple sources of information, sound, lights, etc. You may have noticed that you are more bothered by such things than others. You can chalk this up to being highly sensitive.
• You tend to want to retreat rather than expose yourself to the onslaught of emotions in the public. You have a core group of safe friends and limit contact with others who have “loud” or intense emotions.
• You know what someone is about to tell you before they say it. Being tuned in to emotions means you are also likely tuned in to thoughts people are formulating, as they are the dominant thoughts of the moment. You’re not weird, you’re empathic/intuitive.
• You call people and they say “I was just thinking about you.” Thoughts are energy, and energy isn’t limited by distance. See above.
• You may refer to yourself as clumsy. This is common enough that I’m including it here. Often out of self-protection, you may spend much of your time un-grounded, or somewhat disconnected to your body. This limits your ability to relate well to the physical world around you, which leads to tripping and bumping into things.  The bruises on me recognize and honor the bruises on you. 

So now that you know you’re an empath/intuitive, (you see now how those words describe the same characteristics, right?) what are you going to do?  This is where many people will begin to tell you ways to protect yourself by erecting a virtual wall, creating a bubble, or setting up other barriers to keep the emotions of others at bay. Well, I’m not going to tell you any of that. I’m going to tell you it’s a super power!

A Super Power?

Here at the Divine Energy Collaborative, we know that feeling like you need to protect yourself comes from a place of fear, and that doesn’t give you power, it takes it away. Blocking yourself off may keep you from feeling other people’s stuff, but it also isolates you and limits your ability to feel all of the wonderful emotions as well. Our perspective is that by opening yourself up to the never-ending flow of divine love and light, you remain fully filled to overflowing. With love and light flowing freely out from you, it’s impossible for any negative emotions to stick to you or cause discomfort, and any who need love will find it without taking anything from you. 

We’re all connected, and these connections to each other are vital, now more than ever.  Instead of closing yourself off in fear of how the intense outside emotions will impact you, try opening yourself up to divine love and letting it overflow.  In this way you can walk in confidence and ease and never worry about whether your “shield” is strong enough. Love conquers all.

Once you are filled to overflowing with divine love, it then benefits everyone you come in contact with, and even those you never see. In this way, you can make a positive impact on the world, everyday. I definitely classify this is a super power!!

Interested in more ways to step into your power as an empath? Join us for Empowerment for Empaths and Intuitives. A twice monthly online group to celebrate, manage, and magnify your gifts. Here is a list about how to have more ease as an empath/intuitive that you might want to share with those you love.