At A Glance: 30 Traits of an Empath

At A Glance: 30 Traits of an Empath




Posted on July 1, 2011 by justpassingthrough


1. Knowing: Empaths just
know stuff, without being told. It’s a knowing that goes way beyond
intuition or gut feelings, even though that is how many would describe
the knowing. The more attuned they are the stronger this gift becomes.

2. Being in public places can be overwhelming: Places
like shopping malls, supermarkets or stadiums, where there are lots of
people around, can fill the Empath with turbulently vexed emotions that
are coming from others.

3. Feeling others emotions and taking them on as your own: This
is a huge one for Empaths. To some, they will feel emotions off those
near by and with others they will feel emotions from those a vast
distance away, or both. The more adept Empath will know if someone is
having bad thoughts about them, even from a great distance.

4. Watching violence, cruelty or tragedy on the TV is unbearable: The
more attuned an Empath becomes the worse it is and may make it so they
eventually have to stop watching TV and reading newspapers altogether.

5. You know when someone is not being honest: If
a friend or a loved one is telling you lies you know it (although
many Empaths try not to focus on this because knowing a loved one is
lying can be painful). Or if someone is saying one thing but
feeling/thinking another, you know.

6. Picking up physical symptoms off another: An Empath will
almost always develop the ailments off another (colds, eye infections,
body aches and pains), especially those who they’re closest to, somewhat
like sympathy pains.

7. Digestive disorders and lower back problems: The
solar plexus chakra is based in the centre of the abdomen and it’s
known as the seat of emotions. This is where Empaths feel the incoming
emotion of another, which can weaken the area and eventually lead to
anything from stomach ulcers to IBS (too many other conditions to list
here). Lower back problems can develop from being ungrounded
(amongst other things) and one, who has no knowledge of them being
an Empath, will almost always be ungrounded.

8. Always looking out for the underdog: Anyone whose suffering, in emotional pain or being bullied draws an Empath’s attention and compassion.

9. Others will want to offload their problems on you, even strangers: An
Empath can become a dumping ground for everyone else’s issues and
problems, which, if they’re not careful can end up as their own.

10. Constant fatigue: Empaths often
get drained of energy, either from energy vampires or just taking on
too much from others, which even sleep will not cure. Many get diagnosed
with ME.

11. Addictive personality: Alcohol,
drugs, sex, are to name but a few addictions Empaths turn to, to block
out the emotions of others. It can be a form of self protection in order
to hide from someone or something (external emotions).

12. Drawn to healing, holistic therapies and all things metaphysical: Although
many Empaths would love to heal others, they can end up turning away
from healing (even though they have a natural ability for it), after
they’ve studied and qualified, because they take on too much from the
one they are trying to heal. Especially if they are unaware of their
empathy. Anything of a supernatural nature is of interest to Empaths and
they don’t surprise or get shocked easily. Even at the revelation of
what many others would consider unthinkable, for example, Empaths would
have known the world was round when others believed it was flat.

13. Creative: From singing, dancing, acting, drawing or writing an Empath will have a strong creative streak and a vivid imagination.

14. Love of nature and animals: Being outdoors in nature is a must for Empaths and pets are an essential part of their life.

15. Need for solitude: An Empath will go stir-crazy if they don’t get quiet time. This is even obvious in empathic children.

16. Gets bored or distracted easily if not stimulated: Work,
school and home life has to be kept interesting for an Empath or they
switch off from it and end up daydreaming or doodling.

17. Finds it impossible to do things they don’t enjoy: As
above. Feels like they are living a lie by doing so. To force
an Empath to do something they dislike through guilt or labelling them
as idle will only serve in making them unhappy. It’s for this reason
many Empaths get labelled as being lazy.

18. Strives for the truth: This becomes more prevalent when an Empath discovers his/her gifts and birthright. Anything untruthful feels plain wrong.

19. Always looking for the answers and knowledge: To
have unanswered questions can be frustrating for an Empath and they
will endeavour to find an explanation. If they have a knowing about
something they will look for confirmation. The downside to this is an
information overload.

20. Likes adventure, freedom and travel: Empaths are free spirits.

21. Abhors clutter: It makes an Empath feel weighed down and blocks the flow of energy.

22. Loves to daydream: An Empath can stare into space for hours, in a world of their own and blissfully happy.

23. Finds routine, rules or control, imprisoning: Anything that takes away their freedom is debilitating to an Empath even poisoning.

24. Prone to carry weight without necessarily overeating: The excess weight is a form of protection to stop the negative incoming energies having as much impact.

25. Excellent listener: An Empath won’t
talk about themselves much unless it’s to someone they really trust.
They love to learn and know about others and genuinely care.

26. Intolerance to narcissism: Although
kind and often very tolerant of others, Empaths do not like to
be around overly egotistical people, who put themselves first and refuse
to consider another’s feelings or points of view other than their own.

27. The ability to feel the days of the week: An Empath will
get the ‘Friday Feeling’ if they work Fridays or not. They pick up on
how the collective are feeling. The first couple of days of a long, bank
holiday weekend (Easter for example) can feel, to them, like the world
is smiling, calm and relaxed. Sunday evenings, Mondays and Tuesdays, of a
working week, have a very heavy feeling.

28. Will not choose to buy antiques, vintage or second-hand: Anything
that’s been pre-owned carries the energy of the previous owner.
An Empath will even prefer to have a brand new car or house (if they are
in the financial situation to do so) with no residual energy.

29. Sense the energy of food: Many Empaths don’t
like to eat meat or poultry because they can feel the vibrations of the
animal (especially if the animal suffered), even if they like the
taste.

30. Can appear moody, shy, aloof, disconnected: Depending
on how an Empath is feeling will depend on what face they show to the
world. They can be prone to mood swings and if they’ve taken on too much
negative will appear quiet and unsociable, even miserable.
An empath detests having to pretend to be happy when they’re sad, this
only adds to their load (makes working in the service industry, when
it’s service with a smile, very challenging) and can make them feel like
scuttling under a stone.

If you can say yes to at least 10 of these traits (especially 1 to 10), you could very well be an Empath.

Empaths may carry many of the same traits but they/we are still
individuals. We can override or block certain traits and some
traits will come and go over the years (strengthen or weaken) as life
circumstances change. Once one has become aware of one’s birthright of
being an Empath (this will normally happen when any, or all, of the
above traits start screaming at you for attention), it is then we can
find remedies to ease symptoms and perhaps discover what our
true role in life is.

If you are new to discovering you are an Empath check out Grounding Techniques for Empaths and Sensitives or Ayurveda for an Empath. If you have been getting lots of colds lately and or are feeling run down, see Supplements And The Empath


Thanks to: http://theknowing1.wordpress.com
and: http://moonhippiemystic.com

I have 29 out of 30. Do I win something?
:fire works:

How about a big HUG from your sistar!!!

Perfect! That's just what I was hoping for!

How did you rate on this list of "faults that make you go hmmm?"

#4 and 7 do not apply. I am still interested in the psychology of serial killers and such.
#11 used to apply but not so much anymore.
#17 I still have to work to take care of Nikki and the Sky guy... sigh
#28... I LOVE vintage and antiques.... I don't care about the residual energy of others... one can always smudge. :)

Well the traits do morph over your lifetime. The one I did not relate to at all was #28! I love antiques. It's true old things hold energy and I can always feel it. I can get into an old car and feel the energy of the people who owned it, good or bad, and sometimes antiques carry amazing energy. I used to collect old Corvettes years ago. I had six of them, but I lost my interest in fast cars. So I think #28 was just wrong or should have been worded differently.

I have always been fascinated by serial killers too. Read many books and articles about the subject, although once I understood what caused their pain I stopped sharing it. I cannot tolerate violence at all now. I never liked it but I could tolerate it, now not at all. I feel it in my body, most unpleasant.

#11: I don't have a typical addictive personality either, never did, but there are certain feelings that I associate with addiction that are not related to typical topics like alcohol or drugs. I can't get addicted to anything that harms my body, but I can easily get addicted to routines, people, exercise. You have to be addicted to endorphins to be a triathlete, and I was certainly guilty of that vice for many years.

Still, I was very surprised to have 29 of these traits and reading them sort of felt like a light bulb moment. I've always known I was an empath but this list made me realize why I get so confused that others don't feel the same things I feel. That to me was the most interesting part.

I know, I have or have had all of these at one point or another. It didn't feel like a "prize" at all! It's taken me all this time to realize that I was an empath and how it's affected my relationships. I was always like a sponge absorbing energies and it's true that it can be very confusing trying to figure out if they are your emotions or someone else's. Having this awareness certainly helps! Lately it seems I can't focus on anything that I don't enjoy which includes the job I've done for the last 7 years. Yawn, boring...! Won't it be wonderful when we can be empaths around Positive emotions?!

Moon Hippie Mystic wrote:Won't it be wonderful when we can be empaths around Positive emotions?!

YES! Maybe that's our reward for putting up with the negative stuff for eons! I like that idea.

Sure would be a lot easier to deal with things! #29 is interesting for me - the energy can be sensed but prefer deer and bison or beefalo. Have to have it for it's energy. Other than that I hit all 30 of them.

I don't like to eat meat either HL, but I also have a high protein requirement, so I'm very picky about the source and eat a lot of eggs. I don't eat red meat but if I did I would go for bison like you because they have a free-range life. I know an organic beef farmer who treats his herd better than some people treat their children and he says, "They only have one bad day in their whole life." But of course he's a rarity.

So HL, are you finding it difficult to navigate the global energies these days? I've been having a pretty rough time because I feel like my "empathicity" is getting stronger.

I am having an upsurge in dream time that has taking on a whole new direction for me. I am now getting written messages. I had one last night that was just written words telling a young lady I know to BE CAREFUL. Happened 3 times last night so I called her first thing this morning to tell her. She was in LA about to sign a record contract. I did not know any of this until this morning. I usually get visuals like movies then do not know what they mean until years later. So this is a whole new thing. I actually like it because it is spelled out. pun intended.:)

Whoa Skyz! This was a huge warning for your friend. What do you think it means? Do you think she will not sign? How did she take the information? That sounds like prophetic dreaming, the writing part is especially fascinating. Wild!

My dreams have also changed dramatically. I am sleeping really deeply, a lot of lucid dreaming and astral adventuring in epic proportions. I feel exhausted when I wake up, like I've been out partying all night, doing very important stuff, I know not what. This has been going on for several months.

Let us know what if anything happens with your friend. Signing a record contract sounds like something she has worked hard for to get to that point, what could go wrong?

The funny thing about this is that she is not exactly a friend but a customer at the work place. I called and got her cell number today so I could contact her. She is very special. Her name is Athena. She was blow away. Told me she had goosebumps.She called back after about an hour to tell me how much that meant to her and that she really needed to hear this. we will see how it goes. She is going to come into the office and talk after she gets back from LA next week. And I also feel like I have been pout all night when I get up in the morning. And I wish the solar flare headaches would ease up. YIKES!!!! Weird scenes inside the goldmine LOL!!!

Man, oh Man, on man, I do not want to even talk about these! One knowing how to control most above can be very powerful for the good. But on the other hand, these can also be used for evil. I have seen both sides at a younger age and fell to alcoholism to hide from it. Some 23 years ago found that one does not need to hide and use for the good.

Well AJ... I will bet that your skills are increasing also. I also hid from these traits for a time. But one can not hide forever from what one is... inside.

Fact or Fiction?

Some philosophers (such as Martha Nussbaum) suggest that novel reading cultivates readers' empathy and leads them to exercise better world citizenship. For a critique of this application of the empathy-altruism hypothesis to experiences of narrative empathy, see Keen's Empathy and the Novel (Oxford, 2007). In some works of science fiction and fantasy, empathy is understood to be a paranormal or psychic ability to sense the emotions of others, as opposed to telepathy, which allows one to perceive thoughts as well. A person who has that ability is also called an "empath" or "telepath" in this context. Occasionally these empaths are also able to project their own emotions, or to affect the emotions of others.

What's your opinion?

IMO, all these concepts make sense when you understand the holographic nature of life/universe/humans/beings, etc. The phrase, "we are all connected" isn't just some New Age thing. It means not only do we project our reality by our thoughts, our DNA is our connection to the hologram that encompasses all thoughts, all realities. Pair this with quantum mechanics (i.e. the act of observation changes the thing being observed) and what it all boils down to is that we all have all these amazing powers, telepathy, clairvoyance and all the others but they have been shut down in us intentionally by DNA degradation mostly, but also as children we are taught not to use these powers. We are just now rediscovering them and bringing them back to our consciousness, essentially rediscovering our ability to connect directly to the hologram. It's a long slog to reconnect, especially since we are all still gripped hard in the old paradigm.

RavensMoon - Needing meat containing high amounts of protein is/has always been a must for me, and if I can't get it I'll get what I can, but there are times when I just want my vegies and fruit because the site of meat makes me sick.

OMG Yes RavensMoon! If I'm not exhausted, which is pretty much all of the time, I'm finding that I have to shut the empathic side down, even at work - not a good thing there, but just get overloaded.

Herb Lady, I'd LOVE to know how you shut it down. I have never even thought to try this. I'm guessing you just harden your shell like a turtle? I have no idea.

I have a psychic friend, she does make a good living at this. I asked her the very same question. She says she can stop the info form coming thru also. I guess it takes some training. I have not gotten there yet.

HL - I also would love to know how :)

Well ladies, for at least 16 years of bad marriage and not being allowed to cry, it just shut down, but came bursting through with the help of a friend. So now, when I get overloaded I either take an extra break at work, good thing my boss is very open to things and understands. Or I just hold it in and when I get home I either break down or just hide away. So, trying to quit smoking hasn't been working either, so I don't worry about it I just hide away and stay busy with my plants and Hooch, since they both make me smile! But it's not easy getting through those rough days.

That sounds more like "postponing" than actually halting the incoming vibes. What I am finding over time is that whenever we have a false flag or some big crises I get really uneasy stuff incoming, lots of drama, fear, anger from the masses, definitely not my stuff. It takes me at least a week to get my feet back under me and it totally drains my energy like a used battery. Definitely rough days. This certainly feels intentional and directed. The Archon explanation makes as much sense as anything else. Now that I see this pattern, I can recognize it when it happens. Maybe the next step is to learn to transmute it. A work in progress, we are.

Postponing?! - hmmmm - Yes that is a much better way of describing it. Either way, yes it is very exhausting if I allow myself to watch and read about the tragic events. I think too that it is all intentional, if we get overloaded then we go into a kind of numb, emotional zombie state, while others get very angry and lash out, while others get depressed and just go on trying to survive. Now that I've thought about it, it's more of an emotional warfare that is used against us to suck the life out of us. And they definitely hit us from as many angles as they can. Since we know this, then we can better protect ourselves so that we may be able to help others. But definitely we need to hide away at times from all of it. Thank God for those who are not so empathic who can stay positive to hold the light!

HL, that is absolutely spot on. I spent a few futile days trying to convince my sheeple friends that Sandy Hook and Boston were false flags getting us to emote and react. They think Raven is a Loony Bird. The Archons don't care which of those emotions you listed that we have because they are all lower chakra, negative emotions that cause us to keep our heads down and our stomachs churning. Once I read that they actually live off these dense emotions, it became a little easier to recognize them, feel them "feeding" on your psychic energy, and stop! Because who wants to be a damn food source? The knowledge alone makes you complicit!

I think some of us just do not let the crap get to them. Like water off a ducks back. I believe ALL of us breathing are empaths. Some have known all along and some are just waking up to this ability.

Great discussion everyone!

This was a great article Skyz and a wonderful discussion as well. While I'm not quite ready to believe everyone breathing is an empath, I certainly wish it was so and hope it will be so. I truly believe if everyone woke up (or opened up) their nascent empathic abilities, the world would know peace.

My husband is a wonderful, kind and loving person as you know, but he does not and cannot feel empathy, a.k.a. walking in someone else's moccasins. We have had this discussion numerous times, where I "feel" deeply and he feels nothing. And he isn't about to try. He said "Being Raven" sounds very difficult and tiring. We are both healthy as horses, eat the same thing, drink the same things, sleep the same, etc. but I am often tired and he's full of energy, having very few down days unless he is fighting some bug or something, which happens maybe once a year. So he's made a choice not to engage empath because he sees what it does to me. But you know what? I think his shell is actually cracking even if he doesn't want it to. Time will tell!

Most men don't like to deal with the feelings that they get, other than for the love of a good woman, and even then some can screw that up. They may trust their instincts in whatever field that they are in and in the areas that interest them, other than that they tend to just let the rest go. It's a shame really as some are so sensitive and kind, they don't want to know how good they could really be and are afraid to find out - I suspect for fear of ruining a so called image.

I've also enjoyed this discussion very much!

That was well stated, Herb Lady. Ditto on the enjoy very much.

Thank You RavensMoon!