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A Conversation with author Wendy De Rosa about Becoming an Empowered Empath

We hope you’ll enjoy this Q and A with Wendy about her new book.

The title of your book is Becoming an Empowered Empath. What is an empath and how can someone tell if they are one?

An energetic empath is someone who feels the energy of others, the energy in their environment, and energy in the collective. Empaths will often unknowingly take this energy on or absorb it into their own energy field and body. As a result, they experience physical symptoms, illness, fatigue, emotional overwhelm, and more. Learning how to clear other people’s energy from their body and strengthen the energetic center helps energetic empaths hold emotional and energetic boundaries and evolve from being overly empathic to an empowered empath.

Here are some ways you can tell if you are an empath: You sense other people’s emotions or feel you have absorbed other people’s energy when you enter a room. You pick up on the energy around you, how people are feeling, or what might be happening around you. In a conversation with someone they over share and walk away feeling great, while you end up feeling like you took on their issues. You get tired easily being around people. You may be vulnerable to illness. feel nauseated, or get headaches and other physical symptoms when around other people’s energy. You need introverted time to replenish. You keep the peace in a dynamic by taking on the emotions of others so they don’t have to feel or express their feelings. The list can go on, but essentially, you know you are an empath when you feel the energy of others around you.

Tell us more about the chakras and what do they have to do with being an empath?

Chakras are wheels of energy in the body. They relate to personal and spiritual power held in the energetic body that is infused with our human experience. When they are vibrant, clear, and balanced, they radiate the power of that specific chakra’s essence. When the chakras are blocked, too open, or “leaking,” we operate from wounded consciousness in that area of the body and become disempowered. The first three chakras in the body relate to empathic intuition. The first, second, and third chakras are our primary power centers for attachment, grounding, and relationships in the world. If we are holding wound patterns tied to our relationships, our existence, belonging, security in ourselves, safety, trust, feminine power, sexuality, and confidence, we lose the ability to hold our vital life force energy in these areas. This leads to weakened energetic and emotional boundaries and making us vulnerable to becoming overly empathic. Being an empowered empath is the process of having strong lower chakra health and wellness.

You say in the book that empaths experience their world through their intuition. Please tell us more about what this looks like on a daily basis.

Empaths experience the world through their “felt” sense. They feel when something isn’t right. They feel the emotions of other people, or the energy in a space. From an intuitive perspective, this means that they often know what another person needs and can offer acts of kindness, empathy, or connection to help the person rise up. Empathic intuition is the power of trusting your gut instinct and what’s felt beneath the surface. When empaths learn to trust their gut instincts, they make effective and trustworthy leaders because they can identify the shadow and clear the air when something does not feel right.

What is grounding and why is it important for supporting healthy intuition?

Grounding is the primordial connection between our physical bodies and the energy of the earth. We ground through the soles of our feet into the earth and receive the earth’s biocurrents to settle the nervous system. We also energetically ground from the pelvis through an a grounding cord connecting the body to to the center of the earth. If you use imagery, you might see this grounding “cord” as a tree trunk or a beam of light that runs from the pelvic bowl and extends down through the legs and feet into the center of the earth. Healthy intuition means that we are grounded, embodied (in our bodies) and accessing the full intuitive powers through all the chakras. Typically, if there are unprocessed wounds in the lower half of the body, our soul will move up higher in the energetic system and in turn, the upper chakras will be more evolved. This can result in strong clairvoyant intuition, clairaudient intuition, and higher guidance and insights. If we are out of balance, physical symptoms can develop in the lower body to try and get our attention. Healthy intuition means that we are tending to the health and wellbeing of our intuitive centers in both the upper and lower chakras. It is more natural for the soul to gravitate upward and as a result, can become ungrounded. No matter what aspects of intuition are stronger for you, grounding is always going to be vital for embodiment, healthy intuition — and mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.

What is the most important thing someone who wants to stop taking on other people’s energy needs to know?

I think it’s so important to know that if you are living a pattern of taking on the energy of others, then you most likely have a gift underneath that needs to be seen, needs to be validated, needs to be reparented, and it’s probably been nudging you for a long time. The triggers that happen when you take on the energy of others are also a gift because they are pointing you in the direction of going deeper within you. That journey involves inner healing, understanding the energy you’ve been carrying, healing your past traumas, and living your God-given gifts in this life. My guess is that they’ve been squashed, and the body is acting out by having big reactions to other people's energy. Becoming an Empowered Empath will help you get underneath the layers, clear your energy, and allow more of your gifts to emerge.

Wendy De Rosa is the author of Becoming an Empowered Empath. The founder of The School of Intuitive Studies, she has been helping people develop intuition and experience personal transformation for over two decades. Visit her online at SchoolOfIntuitiveStudies.com.

Excerpted from the book from Becoming an Empowered Empath. Copyright ©2021 by Wendy De Rosa. Printed with permission from New World Library.

The other night, I awoke with a start because I sensed a presence in the room. When I opened my eyes, I was extremely startled to see a face hovering in the air above me. The face looked like a Native American man and his expression and manner seemed to suggest he was just looking at me with calm curiosity. When I was startled, he seemed just as surprised as I was and then he was gone. What in the world was this?

Brian

Susyn:

It seems you had an up-close-and-personal experience with one of your spirit guides. We rarely catch a glimpse of these special souls, but when we do, it's usually to confirm that they are watching over us. Sometimes spirit guides will show themselves when they have a special message to share with us. However, based on the fact that he appeared as startled as you were, I am betting that he did not realize he would be visible to you.

Our spirit guides are always near us, for they travel next to us in a parallel dimension. Most people have between three and seven personal spirit guides or guardian angels. We may have known some of them in this lifetime, such as loved ones who have passed away. Others are entities who have traveled with us for lifetimes and are committed to guiding us on our journeys.

Many people have Native American spirit guides. They are here to look over us and offer us the calm, stoic determination that helps us move through difficult or challenging times. Your impression that he had a curious look on his face might lead you to believe that he was a stranger to you, but my sense is that he was studying you in your sleep to see how you were doing.

If you were under any stress or pressure during the time this happened, he may have appeared to you as a reminder that you are always protected.

Spirit guides can be shy about showing themselves, so they often disappear suddenly upon discovery. Had this been a random or harmful entity, you may have had additional interaction. One way to determine the nature of this entity is to evaluate how you felt after the experience. Fear is a sign of negative energy. Since it sounds like you were more surprised than anything else, I think it's safe to assume that this spirit was benevolent.

There are a ways you can get additional information about the apparition you encountered. You could have a psychic reading to learn more about who he is and whether or not you knew him in a previous lifetime. You might also want to research historical records to see if your house was built on land that was once inhabited by Native Americans.

Once you discover the origin of this spirit, you may want to perform a guided meditation to see if you can call him back and get to know him a little better. The ideal way to start a meditation like this is to write down your experience in detail and then sit quietly as you visualize the figure you saw. This can draw the Native American spirit you saw near so you can interact with him in a more conscious way.

*****

Oceania:

You have been visited by a spirit guide. This nurturer and protector made his presence known because you were ready to perceive and receive him. It is time to expand your consciousness. Your guide revealing himself was an invitation to you to build a connection with him. To begin, choose a name for him that is meaningful to you, and invite his ongoing presence in your life.

His face hovering over yours was suggestive of a mirror. He is not only your guide but a reflection of your higher self. To explore his philosophical and spiritual traditions, you might begin by reading the Native American 10 Commandments. These traditions revere the rhythms of nature and focus on the interconnectedness of all life. They coincide with the views of St. Francis of Assisi, who called the earth his mother, the moon and the stars his sisters, the wind and the fire his brothers.

Release your ego and humbly see yourself as a part of the whole. Release the pervasive consumerism and materialism of American life and learn more about social movements that reclaim unity with nature. It's time for you to go green. Explore veganism, energy conservation, and the voluntary simplicity movement, which promotes a lifestyle that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich.

Consciously sort out what is important to you. Intentionally eliminate or minimize anyone, anything, and any activity that causes you stress, while maximizing those that bring you balance, serenity and joy. Create rituals of appreciation. Create an altar with natural objects. Light a smudge stick and purify the energy of your home.

Native American tradition views animals as healers and teachers. Explore the Animal Medicine Cards and discover which lessons the animals in your life are offering you.

Face the East where the sun rises and contemplate reawakenings, new beginnings and illumination; feel and know the energy of springtime. Face the South where the sun reaches its peak and embrace your personal power to create and to thrive. Feel and know the energy of summer. Face the West where the sun sets and experience the energies of slowing down, releasing and letting go. Feel and know the energy of autumn. Face the North and appreciate the gifts of rest, dreams and reflection. Feel and know the energy of winter.

Open an ongoing dialogue with your newfound spirit guide. Ask questions and listen for answers. Feel his steadfast loving presence and receive his wisdom. Welcome him into your world as you venture into his.

Astrea:

Many times in life we hear, "You will always have what you NEED, but not necessarily what you WANT." Your spirit must have needed to experience the feeling of leaving your human body, and the suggestion in the next chapter of Sylvia Brown's book was all it took to get you there.

Even though you hadn't read it yet, your SOUL recognized the title of that chapter as something it had been seeking, and your soul, knowing that you had that reference to read after your experience, got with it and out you went!

While I don't usually recommend her books, Sylvia Brown has a wide reaching and powerful effect on lots of people. A Gemini like you would be able to relate easily to her writing and put it to good use. Synchronicity - you gotta love it!

I like your description of "getting caught." That's exactly what it feels like, isn't it? One minute you're free and hovering above the room, and the next minute, ZAP! back down into your corporeal form you go!

As a little kid, I loved that "feeling of return." With practice, most of the time we can control that event, but sometimes, when our physical ears hear a distracting noise or something else occurs to knock us back into reality, back we go. With practice you will be able to control your return better.

I find it interesting that you were visiting your mother-in-law and not someone in your own genetic family. Evidently, you and your husband got married for reasons that are even deeper than love. His family's interest in "psychic stuff" will nurture your children in such matters and help them to grow into their own abilities.

You'll never have to be concerned that when your daughter visits them, she'll be discouraged from exploring her own psychic life and power. My parents encouraged me to develop my psychic senses in a time when it wasn't nice to even discuss such things in public. Heck, it's STILL not considered a great topic at the dinner table in some families!

Your kids will get to talk about it ALL and ask questions and read and study. This is going to give them such an edge in life! Talk with your husband about how you want to present this to your kiddos, so that you are united in your approach and ready to tell them their experiences are all natural and okay.

A word or two of warning: Geminis often have difficulty staying grounded in REAL LIFE. Don't get so strung out on your ASTRAL life that you neglect what you're doing here on Earth.

You are at the beginning of a long journey to learn where your power really lies. Try to be patient with this process and take your time.