Is this psychic activation or psychosis?

How do women know if our strange experiences are an emerging psychic capacity or something else? How do we sort what's intuition, psychic capacity, energetic sensitivity or spiritual awakening from mental illness or emotional breakdown?

With a few simple questions, we can begin to reach some clarity. We just need to know what to ask. The first thing to recognize is how such abilities develop.

Consider that humans are born with psychic capacity and that upon birth, we are wide open vessels of energy, merged with the flow of energy around us. As newborns we can't see clearly and don't understand language. Without clear vision or language, nothing around us gets identified or labeled as anything. It's just space with lots of sounds, tastes, colors, motions, smells, and other sensations. We are wide open vessels of energy and love flowing through us, more directly connected to Source and to our infinite nature than at any other time in our human development.

As our vision clears and we begin to learn language, that changes. Social conditioning upon our senses is quick and pervasive. A great deal of focus is given to the mind and its thinking capacities, which eventually dominates our psychic and energetic senses. We are conditioned to believe that the mind is our most important faculty and ally for survival and safety.

To a certain degree, that's true because we need language and reasoning to interact properly with this reality. Yet, it is also true that thought and language create restrictions and boundaries upon the openness, flow, sensitivity, energy and psychic perceptions we are born with, as well as on our notions of what's considered okay or normal and what's not. One of our greatest hurdles to spiritual awakening is removing all the power we give to our conditioned mind and restoring our power to its proper home in our heart—the hub of our sensitivity and intuition, and the portal to our infinite wisdom and nature.

Most of us can point to at least one experience from childhood in which we had a "psychic" moment, or perhaps felt more directly connected to infinite Source energy, before we got the clear message from those around us that it was unacceptable or unbelievable. As humans and especially when we are growing up our priority is to feel accepted, loved and like we belong. To disclose things that are rejected, judged or dismissed by those around us puts our sense of safety and survival at risk. We quickly learn to keep things that others don't accept—such as intuitive knowing, psychic communication or multidimensional vision—quiet or hidden to avoid feeling embarrassed, shunned, shamed or rejected unless we are one of the fortunate few who have awakened or wise parents who accept it.

Yet, that doesn't mean our capacities don't exist, aren't legit, or disappear if we ignore them. We just set them aside and they get overridden as we grow up until such a time comes when it is right or it feels safe for us to examine them and embrace them again. When we look deeply enough, most of us can find at least one instance of something intuitive or psychic happening in our childhood that we wound up dismissing due to social conditioning.

Maybe we had an invisible friend, ally or guide. Maybe we communicated with trees, birds and animals. Maybe we saw visions or felt waves of future events. Maybe we were visited by strange beings or even ghosts. Or perhaps we had powerful visions or dream experiences. Maybe we heard other people's thoughts or voices in our head. All of these can be signs of strong intuition or inherent psychic capacity. They aren't necessarily signs of a psychic or emotional break, illness or breakdown though it is wise to officially rule that out rather than assume anything.

As adults, most of us can point to our intuition and psychic capacity in action, like knowing the phone is going to ring before it does and knowing who's calling before we answer. Or feeling a nudge to bring an umbrella with us on a sunny day, only to get caught in a rain shower later. Or sensing that we are going to cross paths with someone from our past moments before we actually do. Or knowing that a loved one is in trouble or has died before it's confirmed.

These are intuitive, psychic experiences, not mere coincidences. Most of us can point to at least one in our lifetime. Yet if we can't doesn't mean we lack the capacity. It just means we've buried it deep inside. Chances are that it will resurface when the time and conditions are right and aligned for us to embrace and honor it.

So how do we know if we are energetically sensitive, empathic or psychic? We know because we are. We are born that way. The question to ask is, what blocks us from acknowledging it?

Asking ourselves some simple questions can help identify our abilities:

• Have I been described as too sensitive?

• Am I emotionally tender?

• Do I wear my feelings on my sleeve?

• Do I connect deeply with what's around me?

• Do I feel compassion for every little thing?

• Do I love fully and deeply?

• Have I been told that I am overly reactive or emotional?

• Have I been described as having too high of expectations when it comes to living with integrity?

• Have I been told that I am too serious, boring or no fun?

• Do I feel uneasy in crowds or around groups?

• Do I feel exhausted after being around people?

• Do I dislike "jokes" about other living beings?

• Do I feel deep empathy for the pain of others around me or in the world?

• Is it hard to separate other people's pain or struggle from my heart?

• Do I have trouble releasing painful images from movies, TV shows or books?

Experiencing such things can mean many things. For instance our experiences may indicate that our energy field is too permeable or vulnerable. Or that we have invisible cords connecting us to people, places or things that need to be released. Or that we have hyper-sensitivity from a past trauma wound that is still active. Or that we hold ancestral or past life energies asking for healing. It is wise to examine all possibilities for ourselves so we can access the support that will help us the most.

Such experiences can also point to a deep inner empathy, energetic sensitivity and psychic capacity. This is nothing to be afraid of yet it is something to be aware of. Managing emergent psychic capacities on our own can feel overwhelming and can disrupt our lives. It's advisable to find a guide to help us navigate these powerful changes to keep ourselves out of problematic situations and in a space of confident safety in relation to what emerges.

Remember if we change nothing, nothing changes.