The Era of the Empath: Understanding and Honing Your Gift
EP. 04
In this episode of The Mae B Mindful Podcast, host Hannah Mae delves into the complex world of being an empath. Discover the unique challenges and extraordinary gifts that come with heightened sensitivity. Hannah shares insights on how to navigate this path, heal from past wounds, and harness your empathic abilities for spiritual growth and transformation. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that promises to inspire and empower.
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Episode Transcript:
Hello, this is The Mae B Mindful Podcast, and I am your host, Hannah Mae. I'm a mother of six, a conscious birth instructor and educator, a spiritual growth facilitator, and a certified hypnotist. This podcast is about inspiring hope and expanding awareness and consciousness in order to revolutionize the way we live and experience our lives. You can expect thought-provoking episodes each week, spanning a range of topics drawn from both my own journey of transformation and healing and my work with others. I hope you find this podcast to be informative, refreshing, illuminating, and instrumental in your own soul's evolution and growth. Let's jump right in.
Hi, guys! Welcome back to The Mae B Mindful Podcast. I'm your host, Hannah Mae, and I just wanted to have a quick word on the subject of being an empath. It's actually a really fascinating and complex conversation because it can be viewed from many different angles and has many aspects to it. It can really get a little complicated sometimes, or at least it can feel complicated. Additionally, there are other issues that can overlap with this and confuse the matter more when we use one label or title as a generalization.
We are multifaceted, complicated creatures, and we bring our own set of circumstances, conditioning, and experiences to the table. In addition to the heightened sensitivity that comes with being an empath, there can be a lot to navigate and sift through. I wanted to open up this conversation because it's really many conversations. I feel that we have entered, and have been in for some time, the era of the empath. It's amazing because I think there’s a particular calling for someone wired this way. While it can feel incredibly burdensome until you learn to channel this gift, it really is a gift. My next point is that while it can feel burdensome, it opens incredible opportunities to experience life uniquely, to serve uniquely, and to be part of beautiful transformations, becoming a source of healing and growth in this spiritual revolution.
I don't know at what stage of this revolution we are because it's hard to say, but I know we're in it. People who identify as empaths can feel really overwhelmed because they are more sensitive and attuned to different energies, likely picking up on all of it. It can feel overwhelming when you are perceiving things you cannot see. Until we learn how to channel this gift, it can feel harmful, but there's also a real danger of it being more burdensome than it needs to be.
I'll use an example to explain what I mean. I had an interesting interaction with someone I had a relationship with. We had a very open, honest relationship, and I could talk to her about this because I thought she understood. However, she's human and subject to flawed judgment. She said to me, "Hannah, you don't know what this person is feeling." Based on my journey and growth, I could say with certainty, "Actually, I do know what that person is feeling because I feel it in my body." However, my interpretation and the meaning I assigned it were off. Until we start to understand and see things in the right light, which requires spiritual discernment, our interpretations can be flawed. We're not dealing with something in the realm of the five senses. There’s a need for spiritual, energetic, and emotional discernment.
We're dealing with things on an energetic and spiritual plane, and there's a heightened need to stay clear and continue addressing the things that come up within us. This helps prevent internalizing and assigning meanings based on our own wounds, misperceptions, or fears. The truth is, I often do know what others feel, but my interpretation can be way off, as it was for most of my life and still can be because I'm human.
We come from various backgrounds, and it's important to separate things and recognize our survival skills. If hypervigilance is a survival skill that helped us through life, it can aggravate and shape how we see things until we heal the core issues that birthed this need. If I have codependency issues, which I have journeyed through and continue to recover from, these things can intertwine and cause suffering. We don’t need to recover from our gifting or sensitivity; we need to learn how to care for ourselves, navigate this path, and hone our gift.
If you come from a background with any emotional, physical, or spiritual volatility, you may carry burdens and pain that don't belong to you. Empaths often house pain in their bodies that need to be cleaned out. This is crucial work for anyone with heightened sensitivity. This ability to connect deeply with others is wonderful because it allows us to experience life intensely and serve in unique and powerful ways. When the pain we didn't understand comes full circle, we can see its power and the healing and joy it brings, allowing us to have our own healing experience and gratitude.
This is just the beginning of this conversation. I wanted to open it up and put it on the table. I welcome your thoughts, feedback, and comments. I'm curious to see the direction this will go. Goodbye, my friends, and thank you for tuning in to The Mae B Mindful Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. Your feedback helps us grow and improve. For more information, resources, and exclusive content, visit our website at Maebmindful.com. Tag me until next week when I bring you another thought-provoking and inspiring topic. Until then!