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I'm in need of some help from another empath, do you know any extra strong cleansing tips or anything for after being alone with someone incredibly emotional and anxious all day long? They really imposed and wouldn't go home and very rude to my roommate, boyfriend, and mother so I got like bad moods ×4 and I'm having a rough time wringing out my emotional sponge.

Oh my goodness, can I relate! I’m so sorry you had to deal with all that toxic energy and I truly know how draining it is to be around people like that. 

Here are some of my personal cleansing tips that help me a lot when dealing with empath burnout:

Smoke Cleansing

The first thing I do after spending time with a toxic individual is smoke cleanse my space and myself. This removes the residual energy of the experience and helps me become grounded again. You can use whatever method of smoke cleansing you prefer. Even lighting a stick of incense and waving it around your space and person can work wonders when it comes to removing unwanted energy.

Water Cleansing 

Taking a shower or a bath with the intent to have the water cleanse any unwanted energy is an easy and effective way to raise one��s vibration. I find that the simple act of self-care, coupled with the intent to cleanse is extremely powerful. You can use bath salts for added cleansing power as well. Water is very programmable too, so it’s an excellent way to literally shower yourself with intent. You can recite an incantation while in the shower, or just think positive and cleansing thoughts. 

Alone Time

When I’m drained and anxious from an unpleasant encounter, I need a lot of time by myself to re-charge my ‘emotional battery’ so to speak. I find that taking some time to just be is very helpful after negative stimulation. I might burrito myself in a blanket and curl up with a good book, or I may sit quietly and meditate for a while until I feel calm again. No matter what I decide to do with my ‘alone time’, I find it always helps to retreat for a bit.

Crystals 

After I’ve smoke cleansed and showered, I find that spending some time with some of my favorite mineral specimens can be very uplifting. Black tourmaline, smoky quartz, labradorite, fluorite, rose quartz, and amethyst are some of my favorite crystal ‘friends’ to hang out with after a draining experience. They all have properties that are extremely beneficial to empaths (refer to my 10 Crystals for Empaths post for details) and can have a neutralizing effect on bad vibes and funky energy. 

General Self-Care 

If I’ve tried all the methods listed above and I’m still feeling some type of way, I do my best to be as gentle with myself as possible. I suggest doing whatever activities that are the most uplifting and relaxing, whether that be drawing, binge watching a favorite show, eating a favorite comfort food, making some yummy tea, or taking a nap. Sometimes distraction and comfort is needed more than anything else. 

Those are just my personal tips. If any other empaths wanna add some tips for Anon, please feel free to do so ♡

I really hope this helps and that you feel better!! 

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This piece has such a good explanation of what it feels like going through empath stuff. The difficulty of realizing that not everyone is like this, the fear that people will think less of you for becoming "new age" or thinking you abandoned logic and reason for superstition, the relief after getting control over what you feel. Really good article!

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15 Difficult Things About Being A Very Intuitive Person

1. It can be hard to tell the difference between an intuitive feeling and just… a feeling. You know that if you treated every passing feeling like an intuitive nudge you’d probably have lost your damn mind by now, so you have to be discerning about what’s a ‘gut feeling’ and what isn’t. 2. It’s hard to convince someone of something just because you ‘know,’ and harder to not say “I told you so” when you’re right. There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing a ‘feeling’ isn’t a compelling argument… except after you were right about said ‘feeling’ and the person you were trying to convince would have saved themselves some trouble had they just trusted you a little.

3. You only want to do what’s ‘right,’ but figuring out what’s ‘right’ is basically your #1 life struggle. You know what it’s like to be able to discern what’s “right” (most positive, most helpful, most beneficial, etc.) in any given moment, and the gratification you get from acting on that inherent knowing. Unfortunately, this can also leave you susceptible to only wanting to act on what’s best, when figuring that out is sometimes a process of trial and error. 4. It’s hard to play dumb when you know people are being dishonest or disingenuous with you. And if you’re being honest, sometimes it hurts to be able to tell someone finds you annoying or wishes you weren’t around as much. It’s probably the biggest downside of being hyper-sensitive to what’s around you, but also probably saves you from spending time with the wrong people. 5. You can be very indecisive, as they say: the clearer the choice, the louder the cry to try and choose otherwise. 6. We live in a world that values thinking over sensing, yet our subconscious minds are much more powerful than our conscious ones. And that’s exactly what you’re tapping into when you have that “intuitive feeling” – your subconscious intelligence. A major reason people doubt themselves is because this typically isn’t seen as valid as conscious choice-making, though we already know the opposite is true. 7. You rarely realize that not only can you intuit ‘truths’ but also ‘possibilities’ (hence being prone to intense anxiety). There are usually multiple potential outcomes to any given situation, and the more you are conscious of one, the more you are conscious of the (less likely, more unfortunate) others. 8. Sometimes, it’s better not to be hyper-aware of (or sensitive to) everything that’s going on in the world, it’s exhausting. You can start to feel as though the world’s problems are your own, and that gets overwhelming when you realize that you alone cannot solve them. (Good news, they’re not – they only feel that way because that’s how you perceive them.) 9. You find joy in understanding things, so you’re quicker to think about them than you are to enjoy them. You sometimes have to remind yourself (or consciously re-teach yourself) to just sit back and enjoy life. You’re so busy putting the puzzle together, you forget to kick back and check out the bigger picture, which is pretty great, too. 10. Not everything requires an in-depth emotional analysis. In fact, some things are best served by leaving them alone. Figuring out the difference between what is and isn’t is a delicate dance that you have to learn to master. 11. Your hyper-sensitivity is something you have to protect. It’s really easy for people to take advantage of you and your empathetic capacity (intuitive people are almost always very empathetic). 12. You won’t let yourself continue doing anything that doesn’t feel ‘right,’ even if that’s the easier (or more logical) choice. Your life is totally subject to how you feel about it, even though in reality, you would be better off seeing with a touch of logic and objectivity now and again. 13. You always find yourself asking people ‘what’s wrong,’ because even the smallest micro-expressions can read to you as ‘off.’ Alongside being hyper-aware of things like this, you have a hard time just letting them go. It feels like seeing a burning fire and just walking away. 14. You feel everything more acutely in general. You take everything seriously, and seem to feel everything with more intensity than other people do (for better and for worse). 15. You take on other people’s problems as your own. You sometimes confuse ‘perceiving something being wrong’ with it ‘being your responsibility to fix.’ Your challenge is in letting yourself perceive a situation, yet also just letting it be what it is at the same time. Source: Brianna Wiest’s book The Truth About Everything, Thought Catalog

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This transcends languages

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me to the demon in the corner of my room: ain’t u got shit to do

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11 THINGS THAT EXPLAIN WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE AN INTROVERTED EMPATH

If you’re an empath, you probably already know that you see and feel things in a unique way. Empaths have the innate ability to truly understand other people, whether they know them well or not. With their unprecedented abilities to be selfless in a self-serving world, empaths might often feel used by others or out of place. But empaths, I’m here to let you know there are more people like you out there than you think. Upon discovering the term “empath,” it really helped explain a few things about why I am the way I am. There are a lot of ways I can describe my personality: introverted, INFJ, or a highly sensitive person (HSP), but I think being an empath is really at the core of who I am. (What’s your personality type? We recommend this free personality test.)

So, here are 11 things that helped me explain some of the out-of-the-ordinary parts of my personality I didn’t understand before. They may not be true for every introverted empath, but they are definitely true to the empath in me:

1. Empaths walk in other people’s shoes with little effort. One of the easiest things for an empath to do is understand what another person is going through. That is, in essence, the definition of the word “empathy,” which Merriam-Webster describes as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another.” In short, empathy is walking in someone’s shoes even if they’ve walked a completely different path than anything you’ve experienced. Now, this isn’t to say that empaths have a supernatural ability to comprehend any human situation, experience, or feeling — we’re just better at it than most.

2. We feel deeply. I don’t know how else to explain it, but it’s as if my emotions seem to be more heightened than others around me. This can be both a blessing and a curse. On the upside, people will know I care about them without me even having to really say it. However, there are times where a greater tendency towards apathy would make my life easier; it’s tiring to constantly be experiencing strong emotions. For example, when I’m grieving — whether it be the loss of a loved one or a dramatic and unpleasant change in my life — my insomnia worsens, my moods plunge, I listen to a lot of sad music, and it becomes all too easy to choke up and lose myself.

3. We can be brought to tears over seemingly insignificant things. I’ve cried while looking at an exhibit in a museum, reading books, listening to someone tell a story, and especially while watching or reading the news. Tears come easy to me but when they do, I often need to assess where they’re coming from: the empath in me or the HSP. Both aspects of my personality can lead to an emotional response, but it’s important to identify in myself where the emotion is coming from in order to move on from that moment.

4. We are passionate. One reason we may get emotional easily is that we have a large capacity for passion. If there’s a subject, people group, or situation we truly care about helping, we will throw ourselves into the effort. If we believe what we’re doing will truly help someone, we may even be willing to go out of our comfort zones to get it done — even us introverted empaths.

5. We listen because we truly care. It’s against our nature not to care. We go beyond the shallow definition of “people-pleaser” because we not only place a lot of value in how others perceive us but also in that we don’t want to let anyone down. We have a passion for other people, and one thing about people is they love to feel heard. As empaths, we know this and look to offer a listening ear.

6. We love serving. Empaths have servant hearts: It’s hard for us to see suffering and not want to help. When we’re choosing how to spend our time, we often look for activities that have a purpose and meaning behind them. While I’ve been a student, I’ve always been drawn to organizations surrounding volunteer work. Maybe it’s partially nurture — how I was raised — but I think it’s also definitely a part of my nature, linked to the empath I am. Looking after others is also one of the ways we ourselves feel fulfilled because it’s often easier to focus on the struggles of others rather than ourselves.

7. We get other people’s feelings but not always our own. It’s kind of like having the ability to know who is crushing on your friend but being completely oblivious to the possibility that someone likes you. Reading other people’s feelings? For an empath, that’s a piece of cake. Sorting out our own inner turmoil? More often than not, a complete and utter fail. You’d think self-awareness is a fundamental human trait, but for some of us, it’s a bit trickier to figure out. Empaths feel and understand so much that sifting out their own feelings from the feelings of others can be a daunting task — albeit a necessary one.

8. We read people well. Empaths often consider the effect their words will have on the listener, because they want to know that what they’re saying or doing isn’t going to negatively impact someone. This mode of calculated conversation and action can provide empaths with a large store of knowledge as to what makes people tick.

9. We have strong, lasting connections with people we may not have interacted with in years. Once we bond with someone, it can often take on a “till-death-do-us-part” type of existence. Distance, separation, and time may cause our surface level relationship to corrode, but we still feel a strong affinity for the person who meant a lot to us at one point in time, even long after we’ve parted ways.

10. We’re often labeled as being overly sensitive or emotional. Telling someone that an emotional response makes them weak is an argument people have been using against various groups for ages. They may not be singled out in this, but empaths often fall into one or more of the groups under such reproach. Especially if you’re a male empath, people might see your sensitivity and tell you that you need to “man up.” Our culture associates masculinity and power with rationality — as if an emotional response is never the rational one. (Personally, I think there are many scenarios in which it could be construed as highly irrational to lack any emotion.) So empaths, stay strong in your own uniquely sensitive way; the world could use a whole lot more people like you.

11. Empaths are sought after but often underappreciated. Not all empaths are introverts, but the ones that are tend to be affected more by this one. When you’re a genuine, attentive listener who gives good advice, people and their problems tend to flock to you. It doesn’t even matter if they know you hardly at all, but something about empaths makes people decide to bare their souls. It’s not really that much of a shock that this happens if you consider how good at being understanding empaths are, though it can at times become frustrating. We do care immensely about the well-being of others, and that’s why we may bite our tongues and sit down to listen to someone rant about the same things again. However, empaths need to beware of one-sided relationships where they’re giving all of themselves and not receiving anywhere near the same in return.

A Final Note to Empaths

My dear empaths, you were born hard-wired to put others first. Your selfless attitude is both courageous and compassionate. Just don’t forget that it’s important to take care of yourself, too. There will be people who won’t appreciate your sensitivity or will seek to use your empathetic demeanor for their own gain; and these are the people that are not worth anguishing over. Instead, seek out the people and the places that will value you and support you as much as you support them. And don’t let someone convince you that caring for other people isn’t worth it. But then again, I’m sure you know that already.

BY SUZANNE YOST @ introvertdear.com

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How do you know if you have any psychic ability at all? And how do I know what's part of me being mentally ill and what's not? Do you have any advice or words of wisdom? -@sapphicbabywitch

I am both Bipolar Type 1 and well versed in my personal psychic ability, and I can assure you that this question has haunted me before in the past as well.

Some of my Bipolar side effects are random bouts of psychosis and I am very familiar with intrusive thoughts, swinging moods, etc. But these symptoms, I have noticed, are very different from when I connect with the nonphysical world, be it through psychic ability or astral travel.

I think, personally, one huge identifier is the energy behind each. I’m going to use personal examples from my experiences with empathy v. mood swings, and hallucinations v. seeing spirits.

Empathic Ability vs. Mood Swings

When I’m having mood swings, I can feel it in my head. I feel unbalanced, and something will tick me off and I can snap from serene to angry, or happy to anxious, but often times a thought or external stimuli is linked to this switch.

In contrast, my first experience with empathic ability that I could first identify as emotions that were not my own was related to the death of my pet rat. I was in a classroom of people not talking to anyone and nobody was paying any attention to me, and my heart sank to my stomach. There was no stimuli for this emotion and I was feeling very level headed mentally that day. I came home and found my rat had passed and identified the feeling as guilt. This trend continues when I pass someone and feel their anxiety, though I’m not anxious, or someone enters my home and I become overwhelmingly sad despite my love for this person.

So, from this, we can conclude

Empathic feelings come from an external source with no immediately identifiable stimuli.

Empathic feelings are often quick, brief moments of feelings from another, while mood swings and symptoms from mood disorders are often long-lasting, be it an hour or two to a couple of months.

Hallucinations vs. Spirits

During a hallucination, my personal experience is often visual. It feels like a dream and doesn’t make sense, and will often shake away when I make a quick double-check. Now I realize that not everybody who hallucinates will have this experience, and it can often be quite worse, but I can only speak from personal experience.

I remember being at a concert and I felt anxiety and dissociation trying to take a hold of me. Pretty soon a cockroach appeared on the person’s shoulder in front of me. It startled me due to its large size and dissimilarities to any cockroach I had ever actually seen, and when I made a double-take, it was gone. When I drive after a long and anxious day at work I will sometimes see headlights pop up where there weren’t any before. Even really bad experiences like seeing a man outside of your window in class shooting you in the head. After it happens, I know it’s not real, despite the fear it brings in the moment. These are hallucinations.

Doing spirit work, however, elicits a different response. I will feel the spirits energy when they are around or I’m talking to them, and I can feel their presence. It will come to me in body tingles, smells, emotions, colors, feelings, emotions, and general “vibes.” Hallucinations are hollow. There’s nothing connected to them.

When astral traveling and seeing spirits in the astral, because I lack the ability to see them when not in that mindset, I’m actively summoning or pursuing the spirit. Psychosis is not something that is often sought out.

So, in short:

Hallucinations hold no personal energy unless it draws a response from you (ie. fear, worry, panic).

Hallucinations aren’t often actively sought out, in contrast to spirit work.

My experiences are not universal. For example, some people experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs may actually be looking for hallucinations. Also, not everybody hallucinates the same, and I recognize my experience with it is mild in comparison to some others with problems with mental health. I also realize empaths don’t feel everything the same way. Again this is all personal experience.

Above all the most important thing is getting mental health in check. Even if you have never had a mental health diagnosis, be aware and conscious of symptoms, and talk to a therapist or psychologist as needed. The easiest way to distinguish between your mind and the nonphysical is to first be able to identify what’s going on in your own head, what are your thoughts, and how to identify them.

Thank you so much, @sapphicbabywitch for your question!. If you, or anybody, has any more questions please do not hesitate to ask! I will always answer to the best of my ability.

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cleansing

the first time: i hereby declare this room cleansed. negativity be banishéd. so mote it be.

now: listen here fuck-o's. no one likes a negative nelly. i'm a witch and i said get the fuck out

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Empath Protection

This is a masterpost with resources for empaths. First off, are you an empath*?

An empath is someone who deeply feels and connects to the emotions, feelings, and energies of other people. This can cause anxiety, depression, fatigue, exhaustion, headaches, stomach aches, and/or severe stress. There are varying degrees of empathy one can feel, and for some this gift/burden is heavier than for others. See also, 30 Common Traits of an Empath, More Information about Empaths. Signs which are most commonly empaths: Aquarius, Cancer, Pisces. Here is a resource of tips and tricks for the empath.

♦ Empath Bath Salts - Use this after being around people’s energies for too long and are needing to be cleansed of them. ♢ Empath Protection Sigil - Put on your person, a charm, in your grimoire, or on your clothing. ♦ Empath Protection Jar - Protect yourself from others negative energies. This is a preventative. ♢ Empath Bath Spell - This spell is for balancing your own energy and grounding yourself. ♦ Crystals for Empaths -  Put on your person, beside your bed, under your pillow, in rooms you frequent, or on your clothing. ♢ The Veil Method - How to block out other people’s emotions. ♦ Treatment for the ‘Empath Hangover’ - How to deal with things after ebing emotionally drained. ♢ Negative energy protection sigil -  Put on your person, a charm, in your grimoire, or on your clothing. ♦ “I Am Warded and Safe from External Feelings” Sigil -  Put on your person, a charm, in your grimoire, or on your clothing.

Misc. Tips for Empaths:

Wear silk; silk neutralises other people’s energies. Perform grounding and self love spells often. All yourself designated quiet time. Cleanse your space, aura, and chakras of negative energy often.

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I think its important to consider the possibility that this is all fantasy. There is no evidence that telepathic emotion transfer occurs, or that non-physical entities exist, let alone that they would be able to and wish to interact with me if they did.

But after I drew that pattern and cleansed, I’ve felt so much safer and more calm at home. Way fewer anxiety attacks. I don’t feel any heaviness around the edges like I did before. I can still feel the lines in the apartment, and they make me feel protected.

Even if its all complete fiction created by my subconscious, I feel that this is a solid coping mechanism to quiet my anxieties.

In related news, I pushed out stragglers from the closet who were wafting insecurities around. Then just now in the bathroom, I had my eyes closed and suddenly saw a 1970s office worker (standing still) angrily rush toward me. It sounds a lot more terrifying than it felt, now that I write it down. I focused on emitting as much brightness as I could, to drive it out.

I had been practicing shielding, which may have protected me from the brunt of it. Glowing my heart and letting the brightness out of me feels safe and good, but I think it might be what attracts the feeders.

It isn’t immaterial that I feel the most effective after smoking pot. Sativas make it easier. The strain I just picked up today is very potent and makes it easy to shield and glow. Indicas blunt my senses, and can give me a kind of “empath deafness” where I realize I feel completely different from how people around me feel. Maybe weed just amplifies my delusions.

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In the months since my last thorough cleansing of our apartment, entities have slowly crept back in. They feed on the emotions I give off, and each one has a favorite flavor. I've felt their little weights in the corners, and seen their shapes in our bathroom out of the corner of my eye. They've been less brazen since the last major episode, because now they know that I know how to remove them. Then the dreams started again. I still dragged my feet in re-lighting the sage and sweeping everyone out the windows. I felt as though I'd be seen as silly, either by my wife or neighbors. I think that was a defensive strategy on their part. Tonight was bad, though. Firstly, I brought home a lot of anger and stress from work and driving. Its so sticky and clings on to my insides, drive time stress is so hard to dissolve away. I tried quieting it, but not well enough. I let my negativity infect her, and we got into an argument about stressing each other out. Full disclosure, she had taken an extra klonapin earlier in the day, and had been drinking after she got home from work. Klonapin frequently heightens the effects of alcohol for her. I don't doubt that played a part tonight, as well as my inability to handle my stress. But after the argument, we got into bed, and I thought things over while I watched her fell asleep. The emotions in the argument escalated so quickly, and transfered between us so profoundly, it just didn't feel natural. I got up to have a bowl and some water, and I decided I needed to cleanse the apartment. As I walked over to the sage, I could feel them pulling me back, trying desperately to intimidate me. That made me more sure it had to be done immediately. I lit the dragon blood sage, and breathed it in as I felt my aura and made it glow in my heart. I drew circles in the air and guided them all out through the windows, telling them that it would be okay but that they couldn't be here anymore. The spare room was the heaviest. I didnt remember until then that I had just cleaned it out and organized it last week, which may be why the activity has spiked. As I guided one out from the closet around my left side, I felt an intense headache in my left temple. I pushed their dark weight through the window and up into the sky. Once I got everyone I could find, I felt a knowing. I walked the the center of my apartment, and drew lines between the cardinal directions, with an occasional circle. I guess it was a shielding or protection spell? I felt so incredibly relieved afterward. There were some stragglers, but I helped them outside. One was very tiny and confused, so I tried my best to make them feel snug and safe as they left. I shouldn't let it get this bad. When it isn't at its worst, I have trouble believing its a concern at all. Twice as I wrote this in bed, I felt the covers and mattress depress and had to shoo them out. I just want them to leave me alone.

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hope your pets stay healthy in 2017

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indigestion, louis wain

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Last night I had another dream that wasn't mine. I was in bed, but the room was different, with wood paneling or something. One of those things that you dont realize is off until you wake up. But the walls felt like someone else's walls. They just weren't my dream walls, somehow. I was on my left side facing the center of the bed when my covers started to slip behind me. I grabbed it as I looked behind me into pure darkness on the floor. Then, in slow motion, I was pulled down past the floor and into the darkness. Everything was out of reach. I woke up, and I could feel its satisfied laugh.