Are you an empath or a sensitive?

Are you an empath or a sensitive? If you were, how would you know? How can we discern if our psychic experiences are genuine or are being stimulated by something else—like say, mental illness or a chemical imbalance?

Maybe we experience something unusual or have a heightened emotional experience and we wonder if something is wrong—perhaps we're having a psychic or emotional breakdown, or mental illness is showing itself. It's true that these are possibilities, yet it is just as possible that something else is surfacing—namely, psychic capacity and energetic sensitivity.

It could show itself as seeing people, spirits, ghosts or entities that no one else sees. Or we might be able to communicate with things we're told we can't or that don't speak our language like animals or trees. Or we could hear voices in our head.

Most adults who have such experiences don't announce it for fear of being judged, rejected and shamed. Historically speaking it wasn't all that long ago when intuitive, psychic seers and healers were being crucified in a horrific manner for their gifts, in particular women.

As kids we are more authentic in what we share until we learn to tone it down in some way to avoid rejection. We might discover that we can communicate with trees, animals, birds, bugs, frogs, lizards...you name it, but we keep it to ourselves. We learn pretty quickly not to do it out loud or we'll be chastised, teased, embarrassed or rejected for it. As kids we often have a strong sensitivity to life and a yearning to protect it no matter what it is—a tree, a flower, a cat or dog, a gerbil, a rabbit, a butterfly, a bird, a doodlebug, a frog...whatever.

We may get called many things for our sensitivities—a baby, overly emotional, too sensitive, too serious, a puritan, too picky, weak, pollyanna, arrogant, a bleeding heart, a mush, a softy, a liar, or we may even be told our expectations are too high. None of this is true. The truth is that empaths and sensitives honor the mystery and sanctity of life above anything else.

The challenge is that here in the U.S. (and I could argue elsewhere) we've rapidly grown into a culture of greed, convenience and comfort over value, integrity and sanctity. That is a problem. We've lost trust and faith in ourselves, in each other and in life itself. We've become a culture of competition and division instead of compassion and collaboration. We've separated ourselves out from nature as if we aren't a part of it. And we are dying for it, quite literally.

All that aside, it is my belief that we are all born with psychic capacity and energetic sensitivity. Why wouldn't we be when we come straight from the All That Is, infinite life force, our Divine Source?Consider that as newborns we can't see clearly and don't have structured language or thought, so we are basically one big eating, breathing, peeing and pooping lump of magically mechanical psychic matter, yet we are also wide open sacred vessels who remember our connection to Source.

The Buddhist tradition addresses this beautifully when it speaks of existence as a mystery. It points out that for some unknown reason, a wave of energy rises up out of the infinite field of all that is and expresses itself as something in this reality, and then eventually descends back into the infinite field from which it came. No one knows why or how this happens. It just happens. It is the mystery of life.

So if all existence, including humans, is born out of the same energetic Source, it makes sense that on some level we share a psychic connection with the rest of life. I believe that we do, that we are born with it. And I also believe that this connection or wisdom is socialized and conditioned out of us as we grow up by virtue of it being forgotten, ignored, neglected, judged and/or feared and punished.

Yet believe it or not, accept it or not, deep intuitive knowing is a part of who we are, especially women. Take as evidence the many stories out there from women in particular, myself included, who say they know a call is coming before the phone rings, or that someone they love is in trouble or has died before it's confirmed, or that they are going to encounter something specific in their environment before they do. Many women also say they hear others' voices in their head, talk to the deceased, see shadowy figures lurking about and feel in their bodies when something is "off" like a warning signal that something big or unsettling is happening or coming.

We tend to brush off these inner knowings for all the reasons I've already mentioned, but they are actually pointing us back to our true psychic nature and our energetic sensitivity. These are helpful, intuitive gifts, not things to be ignored, dismissed, feared or shunned. All we need for them to flourish within us is a bit of TLC and some skill in knowing how to manage our bodies as the energy flows through. For instance, what do we do with the insights that come to us or how do we sort what's relevant, real and sharable from what is simply ours to know?

Ask yourself, have you ever felt that something more was going on beyond the scene or seen? Have you had psychic experiences that you keep quiet about, or innocently brush off, fear mean you're crazy, or fear you'll be judged for? Most women can point to an experience from childhood or later that was beyond the ordinary, that woke them to the unseen, infinite arena of life and energy that we participate in.

And most women know on some level that our intuition, sensitivity and psychic capacity is real and strong. It's just a matter of owning it, honoring it and growing our relationship with it rather than hiding it. There are ways to set boundaries for ourselves around our capacities. We don't have to spend our lives feeling overwhelmed by what we feel or experience, or afraid to speak about it. I've learned that ignoring it or pretending it doesn't exist only adds to our inner stress, pain, and struggle in life.

Remember if we change nothing, nothing changes.