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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.

I have seen two psychics, and both thought I was a stripper/dancer. I don't strip and never have. What could this mean?

Jessica

Susyn:

I am assuming that your dress and demeanor do not reflect such an occupation, in which case I suspect that both psychics were picking up on a past life. There could also be some astrological reasons for this false assumption as well; I'll go into that a little later.

I am a big promoter of listening closely when you hear the same thing from two different sources, for that indicates that someone is trying to tell you something. Even though these two psychics assumed this was something you do in your current life, the more likely explanation is that they were picking up on a specific past lifetime when you engaged in this type of activity.

In fact, I am a bit surprised that these psychics didn't investigate this further, especially after it happened a second time. We often carry energy from our past lives that shines through in our current incarnation even though the two experiences seem to be unrelated. Most often, people who carry unfounded fears or have a strong interest in a country or culture they have never experienced are demonstrating signature signs from a previous life.

This must have been quite a shock for you to hear. Since in the past, being a stripper was pretty scandalous, if you were one in a past life, you could be carrying a lot of difficult emotions from that time. It may be that, through having these psychics tell you this, you are being led to some needed healing in terms of your self-image.

As a Pisces, you are a water sign. Water signs are generally known for their heightened sexuality, which could be another explanation for the misinformation these psychics picked up. Depending on the strength of other water signs in your astrological natal chart, for example Scorpio or Cancer energy, you may simply be emanating an aura that suggests a more open view toward sexuality. This could lead a psychic who is trying to make sense of what she is picking up on to assume you would be drawn to this type of career.

If you are interested in learning more about your past lives or the energy you are sending out astrologically, you might seek a reading on one or both of these subjects. This would help you to determine where this information came from, and what - if anything - you may need to do about it.

Discovering the underlying cause of this mistaken identity can lead you to greater understanding of yourself, buried talents, needed healing, and new avenues for personal exploration, so I recommend you explore this further via an astrology or past life reading, or past life regression therapy.

*****

Oceania:

I'm looking at the sequence of numbers in your birth date, and see a series of pairs: 2, 2, 1, 1, 9, 9, followed by 0, symbolic of wholeness. These pairs suggest you have two selves: an outer facade you share with others, and a hidden genuine self who is longing to emerge and become whole.

The fact that psychics see you as a stripper suggests you yearn to STRIP AWAY your outer facade and reveal your inner authenticity, your real thoughts and feelings, values and goals. These psychics seeing you as a dancer points to your yearning to be less rigid and more flowing, creative, expressive and artistic.

This is an ideal time to get to know and love yourself so you feel more confident about letting your inner light shine. You may have grown up with a critical parent who held up a magnifying glass to your minor shortcomings rather than celebrating your positive attributes. Such early-life experiences lead people to wear a mask with others. When we are put down or abused, we come to believe we are unlovable, and that sharing of ourselves will only lead to rejection. We then may try to become what others expect us to be.

Your story reminds me of a tarot card called The Tower, which depicts a building falling down. The card represents the falling away of everything false, the crashing and burning of all aspects of our lives that do not serve us or ring true. The Tower STRIPS AWAY everything but our truth, which emerges radiantly in the next card, The Star.

Write down three or more things you REALLY LOVE, activities that make you feel happy, content and glad to be alive. Write down three words that describe your true inner essence. Create a vision board: a collage of inspiring words and pictures cut out from magazines. You can also include photos of yourself that seem to capture the real you. Put together a list of songs that inspire you, and dance to the music!

You're a young woman in search of her true self, and you can use the numbers in your birth date (2, 1 and 9) to find her! In the tarot, these numbers are The Priestess, The Magician, and The Hermit. The Priestess is particularly intuitive and sensitive. Her watery blue energy will help you feel and sense your way to your essence. The Magician and his fiery red energy will empower you to manifest your dreams. The Hermit and his earthy brown energy will help you walk a path of sturdy integrity, unswayed by the demands of others.

Strip away your false identity and allow your genuine self to dance freely through your life; it's time to play and stretch and grow!

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.