so i just relized my gift. i feel what others feel. not so fun since i do not know how to control it. it is very intense at most times. i was just wondering if anyone  could  help with some sheilding exersizes. the sooner i can control this the better 

For me, its more of concentrating. Sometimes I get a sensory overload when im in a large group but if I can clear my mind then I know that I have control over it. Im a tactile empath. So I can tend to avoid a sensory overload by not touching people.

Try true meditation techniques to learn to control your mind and breathing first, then apply what you learn there to the empathy.

Remember, it is a sense.

If you don't want to see something, you shut your eyes, if you don't want to hear something, you block it out, if you don't want to smell something, you hold your nose, and if you don't want to feel something, you don't touch it.

If you don't want to experience an others feelings, you block them from 'touching' you...

i was just informed elsewhere...quite offensively...that everyone has empathy. how can something like this be so common yet not be so well known. and btw i really like this site everyone is much more polite

Go back and tell them that they are full of it, because sociopaths have none.

Actually, sociopaths (defunct term BTW, it's psychopath now) are frequently exceptionally good at reading emotions, it's how many exploit people, they just don't feel them themselves.

"Some psychopaths are able to detect the emotions of others with such a theory of mind and can mimic caring and friendship in a convincing manner, often in an effort to callously exploit others. While some psychopaths can detect what others are feeling, they do not experience any reciprocal emotion or sympathy. However, some research indicates that components of neural circuits involved in empathy may also be dysfunctional in psychopathy."

It's a fascinating concept to consider though, and that offensive person is more or less right about everyone having it, with the exception of psychopaths.

Read up on it here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy

I had to post here. Fascinating topic. Empathy IS something everyone feels. But let's not confuse Empathy with Sympathy.  Fearless is right about socio/psycho paths however. I've worked with children who have been through so much that they are like this. Only at that young age they are not termed this until after they leave the school system. One student in particular was already completely adept at pretending to be sorry or pretending to be respectful or care. Harmless as a butterfly until he could not contain himself any longer and started biting himself first then stabbing others with scissors. To actually give an answer to the question at hand....if you feel Sympathy for someone and you make a habit of getting yourself over-envolved, you can experience emotional drain. If you are particularly GOOD at reading people and are a naturally intuitive person, you can also become mentally tired. Let's face it, it's interesting as all get out to "read" people. I learned to do this at an early age as a means of survival. My father was so abusive and schizophrenic that I learned what noises from my mouth, what questions, what actions to avoid. I could tell when he was going to "go off" way before it happened so I wouldn't get hurt. This naturally carried over into my adult life as a means to get by in life. If I could read body language and tone of voice better, I'd do better in a job interview etc. True empathy to me is when you pick up on this with the other person not giving you ANY input whatsoever. You don't know this person, have never talked to this person, can't visibly see emotion on their faces OR hear inflection in their voice as they talk to someone else. That is empathy, NOT sympathy. Sympathy occurs when you DO have some info to go on. I still say there is a little empathy in all of us. We are beings of energy, we give off a vibe whether we mean to or not. Some of us are more attuned to receive that or pick it up than others. If you find that you are doing this without using ANY of your five senses and it is draining you,  then it is time for deprivation. You have to reset your receiver so to speak. Long moments of pure silence with no human contact can help. Some people can't even do this in a forest type setting all alone because they find the sounds of nature trigger empathic feelings. This is why it can be hard to re-set. It's pretty dang hard to find a place where you can't hear anything or see or smell, etc AND where there are no people. There are great books on this topic and you should read read read. S.

I believe everyone has some amount of being able to feel empathy. Some people are more sensitive to it than others (or experience it on different levels, I should say). Let's say there is a scale of 1-10. If a person has a level 5 empathy level (the norm), and another has a level of 8, the person with the higher level is going to have a stronger sensitivity to others emotions and empathy than the person who is the lower level.

I don't like to talk about it much but I do have empathy (I am not going to go into depth as to why, I just prefer not to), but I don't have it as strong as someone who goes into public and are swarmed with emotions. I am one of those people who do feel the emotions, but not sensitive to it enough for it to effect me in that way. If a friend is sitting next to me and acting happy, I may have the underlying feeling of sadness, regardless of her facade, but it wouldn't be a feeling that would bother me enough to have to get up and leave the situation, or for it to bother me for too long. It is uncomfortable yes, but it is easy for me to ignore at the moment. Do I actually ignore it? No. If it is a very close friend I usually wind up asking them what's wrong, but if I do not know them very well I do not broach the subject. I try really hard not to read people, and my intuitive sense are pretty strong. However, I consider my empathy and my intuition as something different because, to me, they do different things in different situations (usually). It just so happens they occasionally work together.

Also, I am very good at reading body language, due to it being a staple when it comes to using American Sign Language, or Sign Language in general. My parents are Deaf, and, upon learning the language, body language and facial expressions are everything when it comes to getting the "tone" of the sign to come across correctly. Naturally, I learn to read body language on top of the empathy and intuition I get.

Overall, I agree with Fearless and Stacy.

Beannachtaí,

Sorchae

Stacy, I had a similar situation with my brother. Virtually anything I did irritated him. You could say my very existence irked him. I always knew specifically what would set him off, and sometimes I did it on purpose.

I've always thought that in some people, esp. those who don't have a proper handle on or understand their empathy, empathy and depression can go hand in hand. My mother was an empath and was officially diagnosed with major depressive dx. My other brother also has some degree of this, and suffered a short period of depression as a child. I am like this in a big way, but my depression was undiagnosed, and ran rampant around the time of puberty. I have found however, that I do not need to touch people to feel what they are feeling. I can sense it from a distance or even in the same room as me.

I agree more or less with what everyone is saying on empathy, and yes it does go hand in hand with depression. However some have it so bad that it can affect you no matter how hard you try to keep it in check. with so many people in this world now you are constantly on guard, and that is no fun. building walls so to speak can help yet then the energy it takes to constantly keep up those walls can drain you also. Even certain stores can give off vibes that prevent one from going to them except for days when ones energy is high enough to fight it.

I have tried the woods / forrest approach and i find that helpfull of relieving the energy overload, however if i cant find a quiet, totally quiet place to decompress  and regroup (usually sleeping) i am sometimes more suseptible (spelling ?) to what ever it is i go back into.

I think that is why i am much better with animals, their thoughts and emotions arent so all consuming, and are not emotional or energy vampires so to speak.

Sure, but I first need to ask if you are able to Ground and Centre.  If you are, great, teaching you shielding is easy.  If you aren't, then start with those.  I have blogs on Grounding and Centring.  There is also one on Shielding in the series which you're free to check out.  If you have any questions, don't be shy about asking.

You have to be able to focus energy to block which works as Vigis suggests as that is what Ground and Centering does. Telling you how I do it won't help if you can't focus. I am not so good at teaching focus since mine is fueled by the anger of a 1,000 suns, perhaps you should look into VG's group as she suggests.

Chip.

I've had empathy since I was a small child, so I know what you're going through, hon. I learned to control it by just focusing on my emotions and learning to discern them from everyone else's. It takes practice, but it works! This is a skill that is very helpful in healing and counseling, so you can use it to make others feel better! Sometimes, people don't know exactly what they're feeling,so empathy is also helpful for that, too; t5his is the way that it's helpful for counseling, or just helping a friend.

Good luck to you, my Sister!

Blessed be! )O(