30 Traits Of An Empath - How To know If You're An Empath

[heretogrow]

Here is a very sad truth to being so feeling... sometimes animals and inanimate objects are easier to deal with than actual people. When I say I run, sometimes it just gets so overwhelming that I have to be off by myself in nature to replenish. Nothing else seems to work. It can make for a lonely life as far as handling people on an intimate basis. Acquaintances don't really cause a problem. It is as if I am most affected by those I love. It makes being very close to people exhausting.

[Zaya]

Seems like we have a lot of empaths here. Very interesting! Maybe it is more common than I thought?

EDIT: Also, anyone else here basically refuse to watch war movies? I only do when basically pressured into it lol. I own probably 250 movies and not one of them is a war film.

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by heretogrow (here)
Ok so now I will let you know how weird I really am, . Some of us feel like we can communicate with mother earth and the sun as well as her inhabitants. I think I may have mentioned this on another thread a long time ago, but each time I greet the son, I do so with a melodious, Helloooo Gorgeoussss! I know some will say this is my imagination but the sun will actually twinkle or ramp up at this greeting as if to say it acknowledges my admiration. Often times, not always depending on my state of awareness, the earth seems to answer with her wind.

Laugh if you must but both of them have become a part of my everyday life!

Much love,
Julia

I really get what you are saying.

When I was young, we rented a trailer (poorer times I guess .. heh, irony ) next to a field and backed on to crown land. A little creek ran nearby, with willows growing along it. In the fall the creek would dry up completely but get pretty heavy in the spring. Nothing much around, two neighbours within about 4 square miles; I had to walk a mile to the bus stop (for real).

My mom grew up on a farm and was pretty casual about allowing me to have a lot of freedom of movement around there, maybe she felt bad I had no one close enough to be able to play with almost ever. Surprised she wasn't more worried about dangerous animals.

This freedom I had on this land made it like paradise to me. I spent almost all my time just "out there", exploring, watching animals, searching for new plants / fungi; just taking it all in. I "felt" it completely. I could "feel" each day - each day had its own "feeling" I don't know how to really explain it - like a complex form of emotion where I could feel everything distinct like how we see distinctly. Each season felt distinct and thinking back, I would have had no need for a calendar if I knew they existed.

I was fully connected with the land. I had no fear of animals; I recall walking to the bus stop one morning and seeing a bear. I chose to see how close I could get to it before it ran away. Pretty close actually! But it had no interest in me - I put it to the fact I had no fear. I used catch snakes and "play" with them, didn't even know they could bite, lol. Never bit.

I lived at this location for three years when I was 6-9 yrs old. When we moved, I was devastated. I fell into a depression, and I was never able to get that connection to land and nature again quite back as it was. But at the same time I haven't had the opportunity to regularly be with the land the way I would like, or was at that time. The way humans mostly live rules this out completely. A trip here or there to the forest isn't even close.

So that's my long way of saying I know exactly of which you speak

[Sidney]

Yep, all but 28 and 29 although the more time that passes the less meat I ingest. And the second hand stuff, I happen to find most new things kind of offensive somehow. I prefer second hand and antiques, as I find the energies from older things soothing somehow, kind of like broken in jeans. They just feel good.
However, buildings, thats another story.

[DeDukshyn]

Posted by heretogrow (here)
... sometimes animals and inanimate objects are easier to deal with than actual people ...

I just busted a gut laughing at this ... "sometimes"???!!

[Sidney]

I have know for a while that I am empathic, but I have to say this is the best list of traits I have seen. Thanks for sharing. I would like to add something to the list and would like to know if you guys agree. ........I find that NOBODY understands me.

[rgray222]

Posted by Zaya (here)

EDIT: Also, anyone else here basically refuse to watch war movies? I only do when basically pressured into it lol. I own probably 250 movies and not one of them is a war film.

One of my rules that I have followed for many years is not to watch any TV or movies that makes its money from human suffering. This is not to say that I don't watch documentaries about poverty and sickness, I do and I also love a great suspense movie because I know that it is not real. That said more and more television is about man's inhumanity towards humanity. While there is much of that happening they refuse to tell the positive story and there is much more of that happening everyday.

It is unfortunate that the media focuses on the negative, it would lift mans consciousness quicker if we had as much positive, honest news. Positive news simply does not sell.

[heretogrow]

Thanks DeDukshyn for sharing that. I felt as kids we must have been two peas in a pod! I can still get lost in the woods and nature which is one of the main reasons I moved back in with my parents when they got older and needed help. I gave up many freedoms and became "a kid" again because in their eyes I am still their kid. The woods behind their house has been a godsend to my trying to integrate this new life hear into my path. I had other ideas for my future. But it is all good. I have noticed though when people get old and they are afraid of dying they have a need to control what they can around them. That is a challenge. Old people also like routine and familiar things and are not so tolerant of doing whatever feels right on a given day. That is seen as irresponsible. My daughter who lives here too, is learning many wonderful traits. Like how to be patient, how to look beyond herself and think of others and their needs, how to accept others for their fears and vulnerabilities, and how to see the seasons of life and accept change. When it all gets too much we still head off into the woods and get lost in tis magic.

[heretogrow]

Sidney, I have to admit that not until this list, I didn't understand me! Let alone all the others who just shake their heads. It is weird. I was considered strange all of my life and now I have a daughter who is just like me which I have felt guilty for passing on such unpopular traits to in the past. There are challenges but perhaps it is better to be so vulnerable and felling than totally out of touch. Time will tell!

I also connect with many people who are considered to have mental illness. I have stopped lying though. I have begun to admit that I am seen as having the same afflictions. I won't take medications so I have to develop new ways to handle it. You would be surprised how many people who think, act and feel different from others are labeled and considered mentally ill and unworthy. I don't hide anything anymore and just let it all out in the open. I figure then I don't have to carry the weight of pretending to be something entirely different from what I am discovering I am.

[shadowstalker]

I match up to all but this 24. Prone to carry weight without necessarily overeating

[heretogrow]

Shadowstalker! Love you sister! Lucky you not to carry the extra weight. I have trained my mind not to see it! LOL!

[Dorjezigzag]

I don't usually like these put people into boxes type classification questionnaires but this one I did find interesting.

Of course this is not the definitive 30 questions, it is someone's ( or maybe group) opinion based on their own experience.

I think I can relate to all of them accept the weight protection thing although I have seen this in some people I perceive as being sensitive, Anodea Judith often talks about this in her books. She writes how the location of the fat protection can often relate to the chakra of that area and is often a result of childhood abuse

So yeah I can really relate but if you can't I don't necessarily think that means you are definitely not an em-path.

As Tesla was talking about I think empaths can get pretty nasty, one reason is possibly because they are so sensitive they develop techniques to switch off (cut off), which can make them the opposite of empathetic.

After frequently having everyone's rubbish offloaded on them you can't blame them from wanting some form of protection.

There is a comedy called Paul about an alien and he heals people by basically taking the illness into himself, he then has to overcome this illness himself. There is a scene where he nearly does not manage to do this, which I can really relate to.

Most people see healing as something that is emitted from a person and I think that often this is the case but healing can often be drawn from the person as well, which the healer then has to deal with. This is the struggle of the empath

[Frederick Jackson]

Great thread. It seems like it should always have been here! I have a little story:

There used to be an "empaths" board on AOL that I joined even though I am not an empath. I did it because the people were open and honest and caring and intelligent. I participated with a number of postings in mid to late 1997. Then one day something bad happened. Someone came in who I felt was evil and I decided then to leave the forum rather than deal with it. (Maybe I was a coward. But I also subscribe to Jesus' dictum "resist not evil" as when you tangle with evil you are generally going to be taken down by it Remember, you are the one with something to lose, so save the fight for when it really matters or you have no choice.)

Can anyone here tell me if they find this peculiar: I had left a message where I had said something to the effect that one may experience a state of oneness from time to time if one is fortunate, but to be in this state of being most of or all of the time it seemed to me was something only "masters" such as a Jesus of Nazareth might experience. You might call it the difference between a state of being and being in that state as your "station". Well, next thing I know I see a message posted in response to this post of mine stating that (I paraphrase) "Nonsense, you do not need to be a Jesus to arrive at this station, it is not that hard." Tell me please, why did I react so strongly to this statement, feeling without any doubt that there was something evil about this person? It does not seem like such a big deal on the face of it. Or does it?

Well, some years later I contacted one of the empaths by email. When I mentioned the empath board she said that she quit the board too at about the same time I did. She felt that something had gone bad (I forget her exact words).

It is bad enough when evil enters any forum to subvert or poison it, but for empaths it must be many times worse. i wonder if there is any forum now for empaths. It seems from the posts above that the Project Avalon Forum has enough empaths for it to be -- to a certain extent -- just such a forum!

[ghostrider]

I never thought about being an empath but, dang I got all 30 , all those things I do them normally, I thought it was just the way to live ...

[skyflower]

Over the years I have gone to the other extreme for an empath, which is to block out everything. It was a survival mechanism kicking into high gear, after being the dumping ground for most of my life. Finding a balanced middle ground is not easy, but I guess that's part of the lesson.

[crosby]

i learned a while back here on PA that I was an empath, but your list really confirms it for me. thanks so much. now i know a little bit more, an it is very helpful. again, thanks!
warmest,
crosby

[Joanne Shepard]

This is a cool thread, I don't want to leave. Wow
Thank you for starting it.

[jagman]

Excellent Thread rgray222!

I share many empath characteristics.I really dont know if that makes me an empath but
I find it very interesting. I remember when I was working at the prison before my shift
would start I would sit in the parking lot sometimes an hour before my shift would start
and I wouild try to talk myself into walking in.I knew once I entered the prison gates
a deep troubling feeling would come over me. ( It felt like death)

[Wind]

In addtion to being an empath, are you highly sensitive? I know that I am, but most of the time I wish I wasn't. I can relate to the suffering of others as it if was mine. Especially when I see animals being abused it hurts my soul, after all they are our companions. Humans are more responsible because we are free to choose... And wisely we should choose. Pros and cons of being a highly sensitive empath? Well, I can "see" and feel more, like multidimensionally. I see it all. Otherwise, it's a a burden.

In addition, I wonder that how many of us empath's are INFJ's or INFP's? See this.

[Tesla_WTC_Solution]

Did the empaths get tired at the same time or what???

*stirs the cauldron*

I ordered DOUBLE toil and trouble, please??

p.s. how weird, right after posting this, a crow tapped on my balcony railing,
looks like I have a new familiar

p.p.s. just because animals are motivated by food doesn't mean they can't love you. Feeding an animal is like giving part of your life to them. that's how they see it. not all of them care how cheap it is either, a life is a life, and they are grateful when we make their easier.


it was crows and ravens who brought bread and hope to the prophets of the ages.
and it is the prophets who bring bread and hope to them, when it looks like nothing but war and darkness coming.


they are one of the few animals capable of enjoying life as it is, an ironic accident watching the anvil fall on itself... lol



THE WILD HUNT



see the little black shock troops? lol