Being an empath doesn’t have to be a curse. You can use your empathic abilities to help others. Whether you use it in a professional capacity, or whether you just use it to help friends and family, being an empath truly can be a gift.

When I’m doing animal communication readings, I open up and allow in any emotions or physical issues the animal is experiencing. I don’t do this lightly, and I do protect myself, but for me, this creates a more complete picture of what is going on when doing the communication.

I go through all the steps mentioned previously: grounding, releasing, shielding, and transmuting. During the shielding process, I create a “filter” to allow some of what the animal is experiencing to come through. If I completely shield, I’m blocking a big part of my gift, not to mention vital information. On the other hand, if the animal is in extreme pain, I really don’t want to feel that either. By creating a filter, I allow about half of the emotion or physical sensation to come through and into my body. That way, I receive enough information to assist me, but not too much so that I’m on sensory overload and can’t complete the reading.

I don’t do this lightly. If I’m not careful, I could end up keeping the emotion or ailment as my own. The biggest advice I can give you is that once you have allowed anything that is not your own into your energetic field, you have to release it immediately when you are finished! I can’t stress this enough. If you don’t release it, it becomes yours. This is a big reason why empaths have a difficult time. It is like second nature for us to take on the energy of others, but it is harder for us to, as the song says, "let it go."

I learned this lesson the hard way. I was working with a horse that was having foot problems. The horse was experiencing pain, but due to the hardness of the hoof, I was having a hard time distinguishing where the pain was exactly. So I opened up my empathic abilities, and allowed the pain into my body. It was in his left foot, and radiated outward from the center, and down the left side. Now I knew where to focus my energy work, so I did any energy healing session on him. When I was done, about 20 minutes later, I climbed into my car to leave. By the time I drove around the barn and out the driveway to the road, my entire left foot was throbbing. I forgot to release the horse’s pain. Luckily, I’m a fast learner, and I realized pretty quickly what had happened. Of course being in a pretty good amount of pain was a strong motivating factor too. Using my intent, I released the horse's pain from my energetic field. It was completely gone within 30 seconds. Had I not released it, the pain would have become my own, and I would have had a series problem with my left foot. The same applies to emotions.

Now, anytime I use my empathic abilities, I always release what I’ve allowed in when I’ve finished the reading. Even if you just use your abilities to understand and provide support for a friend who is going through a rough time, make sure you release their energy.

Stay safe and stay healthy!