Empathic Awakening

How did you become an empath seems to be the most common question that I encounter from people that are curious about my particular gift. There is one simple answer to that: one does not simply become an empath. Either you were born an empath, or you were not. This gift is not a skill that can be acquired or learned. There are some of us, however, that were born empaths but did not realize it until later on in life. This is certainly the case for me.


I remember the day of my awakening like it was yesterday. The date was November 27, 2013-the day before Thanksgiving. I woke up that morning and went through our normal school day schedule with my children. As we left the apartment to take the kids to the bus, I began to notice some really strange symptoms going on. As we left our property I was suddenly struck with chest pains, which is a rather odd symptom considering I was only 29 years old with no history of cardiac distress. Once we got on the city bus, I began experiencing several different emotions one after the other. First I felt really happy, then suicidal. Next came excitement, then sadness. I continued to run through the gambit of emotions for the next hour. By the time we got back home, I was begging my husband to take me to the hospital. I even contemplated going in for a psychiatric evaluation due to the emotional roller coaster I suddenly found myself on. Then my husband uttered the words that have ran through my head on a daily basis ever since: "You don't need a hospital. You're not going crazy. You're becoming an empath". My next question was, "What the hell is an empath. Never mind, I have Google."

I promptly went to Google and did a quick search about being an empath. The first thing I ran across was a questionnaire that might help one determine whether or not they are an empath. There were 38 questions and I answered 37 in the affirmative. I was dumbfounded. It seemed like everything that I had ever known was suddenly different. I kept wondering how I made it to the age of 29 without ever noticing this new problem, yet all of my research indicated that empaths are born this way. Confusion and a sense of loss struck me. I really started to question my own sanity.

As the day went on, more intense emotions of all sorts bombarded me. I couldn't even be in the same room as my own children. I suddenly felt every emotion from every person near me. Much to my own surprise, I could decipher which person each emotion was radiating from and it was not a pleasant experience. I was literally in Hell.

The next day was Thanksgiving and we had plans to go to my father's house for the family meal. We had family coming in from out of state. The kids were restless and overly excited about the visit. Dad's house was two buses away and I was dreading the trip. By the time we got there, I was completely drained from all of the different people and their emotions that I had encountered during the hour long adventure, and I honestly had no desire to be social. I found myself hiding out on the balcony just to avoid my family members and the fact that I was feeling way too much from each and every one of them. After the meal, we politely excused ourselves back home as quickly as possible. Of course, that meant that there would be another hour-long bus trip and more strangers to bombard me with their emotions. By the time we finally made it home I went straight to bed and fell asleep questioning everything that had changed in my world in just two short days.

I continued my empath research and began networking with anybody that knew about this. Learning and communicating with others seemed like my only chance for survival. "Knowledge is power" as my mother always said. One of the key points that came up in my research was the fact that you are born an empath, but sometimes a traumatic experience begins the awakening. The very second that I read that I was able to pinpoint the experience that likely began this for me. Three weeks prior, I was assaulted on a housekeeping job. The light bulb came on and suddenly it all made sense to me. I finally felt like I could try to make sense out of this and maybe even learn to use it to my advantage.

For the next year, I decided that I wanted to investigate everybody and their emotions. I was driven to be able to handle and gain control over this new "gift" that I had. Now, I can focus my attention on a person and know exactly what emotions they are feeling (the same goes for animals). Strangers started to come up to me and tell me all of their problems and even very intimate details about their lives. They would almost always say "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. You're a perfect stranger to me but you seem like somebody that can be trusted."

By the time a year was over, I wanted nothing to do with this gift and started calling it my curse. I learned about blocking techniques but was never quite able to master it. The thought would occasionally cross my mind that I was not given this gift to ignore it, but to use it to help others. I still battle with that debate to this day.

It's been almost two years now I continue to struggle with being an empath. Due to the fact that I still can not seem to block people and their emotions out, I tend to retreat to the solace of my bedroom. There are times where my closest friends and neighbors do not see me for a week or more at a time. Lucky for me, all of my friends know that I am an empath and accept it when I need my break. I consider myself blessed with the circle of people around me that understand me and accept me even though sometimes I seem like a nutcase. Until next time-Stay Blessed!

-Lady Ariel