If you have empathic psychic abilities, it may take a while to understand your experiences as empathy because the feelings are so strong you don't immediately recognize them as belonging to someone or something else. Once you realize you are empathic, however, you can begin to control and improve your abilities so they become a force for good in your life and the lives of others.
Exercises to Strengthen Empathic Abilities
Many people who have empathic psychic abilities feel overwhelmed by them, which is why strengthening them is a valuable tool. Being empathic and having good control over this ability not only helps you better connect to others, but it also allows you to use your empathic abilities as a source of kindness and compassion. Try these progressive practices for working with empathic abilities. Take your time with each exercise and master them in order, learning to do one before you move on to the next.
Create an Empathic Shield
You can practice creating a shield any time and any place. It's especially fun to try in a crowd, such as at a party or on public transportation, where you're being bombarded by thoughts and feelings from every direction. A shield will completely block all mental, emotional, energetic, and physical noise around you so you are left quietly to your own thoughts and feelings. It's always best to practice generating a shield at home alone before you try it the next time you're on the bus or train, but you'll really get a feel for its effectiveness when you engage it in a crowded place. To create your shield:
- Close your eyes and breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Focus on your solar plexus chakra. Visualize a golden light emitting from the chakra and flowing through your body.
- Visualize the golden light moving outside of your body and enveloping you completely.
- Now, do the same with your root chakra, visualizing a red light surrounding you and your golden light.
- Imagine all empathic information bouncing off of your light shield.
This blocks empathic information, at least for a while. If you notice it creeping in again, repeat the above process to re-create your shield. In the beginning, you may need to reset your shield frequently, but as you grow more experienced with the technique, it will hold for longer periods until you are ready to add a filter or take it down completely.
Filter Empathic Information
Once you have learned to block the information totally, you can create a filter to choose which information you want to receive or when you wish to receive it.
- With your shield in place, determine who you would like to receive empathic information from. Start with someone you know and trust, such as your spouse, pet, children, or a close personal friend.
- Close your eyes and state your intention silently, "My shield will now allow information from _______ through it."
- Now visualize a small opening in your shield right around your third eye region and imagine a purple light coming from the other person's third eye, moving through the opening in your shield, and coming into your third eye.
- Sit with whatever you feel. Notice your emotions and body sensations.
Since people process and experience emotions differently, you may notice experiencing someone else's feelings is different from if you had those feelings yourself. For example, if the person is feeling anxious, you may notice a jumpy stomach when you normally feel your own feelings of anxiety in your solar plexus. Part of this process is learning to recognize someone else's emotions and physical sensations, even if they express differently from yours.
Practice With a Willing Partner
As you begin to hone and strengthen your capabilities as an empath, practice working with someone you love and trust completely. Choose a close friend or family member; you'll need someone who can provide you feedback and whose feelings won't overwhelm you. It's best to start with someone who is not an empath, because you want to deal with simple feelings before you approach the complexity of emotions and physical sensations the average empath experiences at any moment.
- Choose a space where the energy feels neutral and you won't be disturbed.
- Sit quietly facing your partner.
- Instruct your partner to relax and not try to feel anything specific or modulate his or her emotions in any way.
- Close your eyes and breathe deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Lower any shield or filter you have in place.
- Focus on your partner's energy. It may help to visualize a glowing green light running between both of your heart chakras. If you need, you can also hold your partner's dominant hand (their giving hand) in your non-dominant hand (your receiving hand). So if you are both right handed, you will hold your partner's right hand in your left hand.
- Sit with the energy you experience. Notice any sensations you feel, either emotionally or in your body. Start with physical sensation because those are the most concrete and easy to recognize. Report each to your partner exactly as you experience it. For example, you might say, "I'm noticing dullness in the left side of my lower back around the kidney."
- Allow your partner to either confirm or deny each of the physical sensations you report.
- Next, focus on any emotions. Again, report your exact sensations instead of trying to interpret what they mean. For example, you might say, "I feel like I want to cry," or, "I'm feeling agitated and angry."
- Allow your partner to confirm or deny each sensation.
- After the exercise, visualize your energy detaching from your partner and put your shields back in place.
Practice on a Larger Scale
Work with a partner until you feel confident and secure in your abilities. Once you do, try taking it out into the world. It's important you behave ethically with your abilities; it's not good ethics to read a random stranger without his or her permission, for example. However, you can work on dropping your shield in public places and allowing small bits of group energetic information to come in before you put your shields back in place. When you're ready to try this, start with a small crowd, such as at a party, before you work with a larger crowd.
- Go to a crowded place with a shield firmly in place.
- Breathe deeply until you feel relaxed and confident.
- Now, visualize your shield opening, and allow any information to come to you.
- Pay attention to your body and emotions and allow each sensation without trying to label it.
- Start with short bursts of this, just for a minute, and then put your shield back in place. Continue doing this for longer periods to see what information you can glean. Always put your shield back in place after such an exercise.
Send Love When You Receive Negative Input
When you sense negative emotions or feelings, make a practice of sending love, even if you're unsure of where the negativity coming from. To send love:
- Close your eyes and focus on the emotion.
- Visualize pink light beaming out from your heart chakra and surrounding the feeling you are experiencing. Do so for as long as feels appropriate.
- Affirm in your mind, "I send you love and light for healing."
Tips to Improve Your Empathic Abilities
You can also engage in other practices to help you improve your abilities.
- Try to meditate daily.
- Engage in a regular movement practice, such as yoga, qigong, or tai chi, to ground and center you.
- Selectively use your empathic abilities in ways that sustain and nourish you.
- Learn to set healthy boundaries.
- Never attempt to use intoxicants such as drugs and alcohol to dampen, strengthen, or control abilities.
- Spend alone time every day doing something that recharges you.
- When you feel overwhelmed, make sure your shields are in place and remove yourself from the situation until you feel more centered.
- Spend time with a pet, which can recharge you.
- Spend time in nature to maintain healthy energy.
Learn How to Strengthen Empathic Abilities
Like all other psychic abilities, having empathic abilities is a gift from the universe to you. However, in order to begin experiencing it as the blessing it is, you must learn to control and develop it so you can use it as a force that serves your highest and greatest good.
