by Angela Thompson
“The tongue, like a sharp knife…kills without drawing blood.” – the Buddha
From a spiritual perspective, I do believe that we are all here on this path called “life” to evolve as souls. I believe in reincarnation in that after we die, our souls are born again into another body. I believe that we return to Earth many times to learn valuable lessons in order to perfect our souls so that we eventually return to Divinity/God/the Creator. We are all working through the levels of consciousness with each incarnation we have here on Earth to learn and grow.
What do I mean by the levels of consciousness? Well this concept is a little difficult to define, but from a very basic premise, as we progress, we move our consciousness to higher levels by evolving into kinder, more sensitive, more loving people. We have to learn to treat other people respectfully even as we go through our spiritual lessons/tests here on the Earth Plane. In a nutshell, you could say that it is about learning what is right from wrong. The ultimate aim is to become fully conscious, to learn all our lessons so that we can ascend so that we never have to return here.
As Empaths, it is very difficult for us with our sensitive natures to witness some of the cruel things that go on in the world, and we can be deeply affected by the problems we see on the news. We can also struggle with the way we are treated by other people who are not so sensitive, and we also have a strong sense of fairness about what is right and what is wrong. I feel this is because we are old souls.
We have worked through many levels of consciousness during many different incarnations, and we look at things differently as a result. I am not suggesting that as Empaths we are Angels by any means; we too can have our moments (particularly if we are holding a lot of toxic energy), as we are still growing and evolving along with everyone else. It is just that our souls are a little further along the evolution process than a lot of other people’s.
I have found it very useful to look at situations in terms of the levels of consciousness because it has helped me to understand why some people behave in the way that they do. As a sensitive person, I struggled to see how some individuals could be so selfish and mean to others without any remorse or guilt. I have witnessed this within my own family as well as in the workplace and in the wider community. In some ways, I feel I used to alienate myself because I was quite judgemental of the behaviour I was witnessing. I now realise that we are all on a path, and that some people are just at a different level of consciousness to me and they are just not aware of how their actions are affecting other people. They are totally oblivious! They have the thick skin
that as Empaths we just do not possess. They are very much in the third dimension, and there should not be any judgement – things are and will change as more souls begin to wake up.
That being said, as Empaths we still have to live on the Earth Plane with our high sensitivity, and I don’t want to make light of that because at times it can be very, very hard. So what can we do to make life a little easier for ourselves when dealing with non-empathic people who do not understand our trait and quite frankly don’t want to? We are after all living in a culture that dismisses sensitivity and honours the intellect.
I would like to suggest the following ideas to help you:
As much as you possibly can, learn to DETACH. (I understand that this is difficult for us because of our oneness
with everything.) Don’t give things your energy; walk away if you can! If someone presses your buttons and makes you very angry, your energy expands and the space that opens up from this could quite easily attract more negativity.
Learn to DISCERN. Whilst I always think that it is best to detach from a situation if you can, there will be times when you do have to take action. If we do not intervene in some scenarios, there will never be any evolution; things will never change if a person or an organisation thinks that they can continually get away with something. Sometimes we have to speak up. In the case of bullies, you will often find that once you have made that stand, they will back down and leave you alone.
Look at the situation in terms of the levels of consciousness and realise that people who are rude, critical, arrogant and self-centered are usually very insecure. In these situations, lead by example – demonstrate what it means to live in a higher vibration.
Make sure that both your energetic boundaries and your personal boundaries are intact. Don’t let these people make you feel bad about who you are; accept and feel strong within your empathic trait and be true to who you are.
Drop these people from your life if at all possible. Spend less time with these harmful people if possible and don’t engage in their negativity. As Empaths, we often pick up that very negative people are often just feeling lonely and unloved and they are taking it out on everyone else, but that does not mean we have to save them
or feel sorry for them at the expense of our own self-esteem or feelings. Abuse is one way that people subconsciously try to get rid of their negative energy and then steal the victim’s positive energy. Stay away!
The above article was excerpted from the ebook From One Empath to Another with the author’s permission. Angela Thompson is an Empowered Empath, Lightworker, Author of From One Empath to Another and Reiki Master living in East Yorkshire, UK. Her website, MysticalUnion.co.uk, is designed to help Lightworkers and Empaths who are still struggling with this journey called life. Click here to follow her on Twitter today!