The other day I came across a really good blog post by Dr. Perry. I followed him back in 2020 and other authors like him when I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I’ve had issues with anxiety all my life but my doctor never diagnosed me. It’s a shame really.

This article on Empathy really spoke to me in a lot of ways. You may have seen me refer to myself as an empath and that is very true. An empath is a person who is very sensitive who attuned to the spiritual world around them.

I suppose it’s one of many reasons that I am a homebody. Being around people can be exhausting at times especially if they give off negative or oppressive vibes. Some people wear their trauma on their sleeve and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but when you are an empath, you wear their feelings too. Without even realizing it sometimes.

Spiritual Empaths

Being an empath means having a heightened awareness of emotions and and feelings of other people. You can easily pick up energies around you and this rang true for me for most of my life.

A spiritual empath is someone that has a natural ability to feel empathy on a deep level. Don’t get me wrong. Everyone has the ability to be empathic or to feel empathy for others. But there are some people, like me, who are born with this gift.

Signs that you might be an empath

There are several indicators that can help you determine if you are a spiritual empath. Keep in mind, that spiritual empaths are different than those that can feel empathy. Spiritual empaths tend to feel things more strongly and pick up on energies that others cannot.

• Feeling someone’s pain or trauma but not recognizing it as your own
• Heightened sense of awareness about the people around you, the place you are in, or events that are about to happen
• Inner intuition so strong, that it has saved you from getting into trouble or warned you about other people
• Sensing the presence of “others” around you – that you can’t see with your own eyes

Picking up on energy around us

When I worked at a local college, registration day would always leave me with this burst of energy. It was like I was high on drugs – which I wasn’t. The school was full of excitement as new students came to register for their first day of classes.

Likewise, during exam time, I would come home with tension headaches or feel the stress that students faced during the day. And if a student had a meltdown, I felt that too.

Desire to help others

It’s what made me so good at that job. I had so many students come into the office begging to see counselors. If no one was around, which was often – I would help them with their resumes and finding jobs.

Sometimes I just listened to them and talked them through their feelings. It wasn’t my job. I definitely wasn’t paid to do that. But I couldn’t let them leave like that. I just couldn’t. So, I talked them down and booked them an appointment with the counsellors.

Years later, I had a former student deliver me a pizza. He was so happy to see me. “You helped me get this job!” he said to me. And then I handed him a $10 tip. “You changed my life!”

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had gone into career counselling. I feel like I missed my calling. It’s something I regret. But I got to befriend seniors through my volunteer work. So, there were a lot of lives I’ve made an impact on now that I look back over my years at the church as a musician.

Inner intuition

This is something I have written about before. Spiritual empaths have a deeper level of intuition that can either be a gift or curse at times. It feels like a stomach ache, cramp or a “bad feeling” when something is about to go very wrong.

The feeling can be about a place, a person, or an event that may happen later on. It’s like an internal warning system that goes off.

For me, I have this with some people. It served me well in the workplace until I became ill. I called it my “spidey” senses. I would get a feeling in my gut that I couldn’t trust a new person. And so, I kept my guard up around them.

Getting out of bad situations

Other times, I got the “punchy-gut” feeling when out in public with friends. I remember at one Canada Day celebration at the provincial building – things were getting a little rowdy and the crowd had grown too big for my liking. I got that punch-gut feeling in my stomach and looked up. I tugged on my friend’s arm and whispered, “we need to leave,” and sure enough – the police came out with batons, guns and shields.

We bolted out of there fast and an instant migraine hit. That sometimes hits too. Migraines from feeling too much tension of those around me. I could literally feel the tension inside of me.

Negative energies or “bad juju”

There have been times when I have felt a presence when entering a new building or home. Walking into the Notre Dame building in Montreal was like this for me. It was hot, stuffy, and had this really dark vibe. I can’t explain it well. I just felt this heavy and oppressive feeling when I sat down to watch a concert. I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were being watched by something old. Really old.

I’ve had this feeling when walking into other places. A friend’s home had unusual activity and I got that feeling at night time. She said she felt like she was watched all the time. It depressed her and her health started being affected by it until she finally moved out of the house.

My old house had this feeling from time to time after my mum died. I’ve been in other places that felt oppressive. I call it “bad juju.” It’s a feeling that’s hard to shake.

It’s like the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. You get goosebumps on your arms. A shiver runs down your spine. Fear creeps up slowly on you. Or maybe not fear but an uneasy feeling that leaves you almost sick.

Have you ever felt that, walking into a building or home? How do you describe that feeling?

When feelings become too much

Sometimes being around people can be too much for me. I’ve played the piano at my fair share of funerals. I got to a point where the death of a friend hurt, but it didn’t devastate me like when I was younger. I’ve had more than my fair share of loss for one life time.

If I had to perform at the funeral, I learned to shut off my emotions and act like the professional musician that I was. I’m mostly retired now.

None hurt so much as when my mother died eight years ago. After she died, I felt her around me still. Her energy. Her spirit. And yes, before you tell me ghosts aren’t real – I believe in them. I’ve had too many spiritual experiences not to – in all the homes I’ve lived in.

When it comes to grief and funerals, I find I’m just drained after that. I haven’t had to play one in a long time. And when my health started to decline last year, I started turning funerals down, only accepting gigs where I knew the family.

I still grieve for all the friends and family I have lost. This is a constant struggle and one of the reasons I started this blog.

Selfcare for empaths

This is an important part of being an empath. You need to learn to take care of yourself. If that means shutting yourself off to the world for a few days, then do it. Let your friends know you’re having a difficult time and just need more downtime. They will understand.

Meditation, relaxation, hot baths, sleeping – are all great things to do for selfcare. Writing is my main form of therapy. I write probably 4000-5000 words daily. I’m starting to write books about my experiences.

Prayer can help, if you are the praying kind. Pray to whatever deity you have opened yourself up to. Ask for comfort from loved ones who have passed on. Having faith can be a wonderful thing – no matter what that faith is in.

Connect with others like yourself – but be careful about toxic energies and people. You need to cut contact with those people and keep it to a minimum. They will wear your soul down.

The eyes of a soul

Getting to know people for me is harder now. But when I was younger, all I had to do was look into someone’s eyes to know what kind of person they were.

If the eyes were cold or they gave me a blank stare – I knew that person was a lost cause. They were a danger to themselves or to others around them. I cut ties or distanced myself from them.

If a person greets you with a smile, and there is kindness in their eyes – that person truly cares for you. Those are the people you want to hold close and keep them in your life.

There’s that saying “he looks like an old soul” – that means their eyes are full of wisdom. If you see “old soul eyes” on a baby or toddler – they are more likely to grow up with spiritual abilities or a natural empath.

You might hear terms from authors like kind eyes, gentle eyes or a cold and unyielding stare. You can tell a lot from a person’s eyes.

Spiritual beliefs, the afterlife, loss, grief

When it comes to discussing taboo topics like aliens, ghosts and other supernatural entities, I have mostly kept my beliefs to myself. But I fear as my illness grows worse, and the pain becomes unbearable, that maybe my time on this earthly plane is running out. That could be part of the depression too. I’m grieving over the news from my geneticist.

I’ve been thinking more and more about what happens when we sleep at night. What happens to our soul or essence. That part that makes us who we are. I believe that when we die, our physical bodies die and we either bury them or opt for cremation. That’s my plan – it’s better for the environment.

I know that I travel a lot in my dreams. It’s inspired books that I’m working on and short stories. I’ve had visitations from loved ones in my dreams. Mostly, my mother, uncle and grandmother.

I believe that dreams are a doorway to the spirit realm. This is what the Indigenous Elders taught me over the years. There are beings like Shadow Walkers in Norse mythology and Native American culture that possess the ability to move between the spirit world and living world. They can visit us in our dreams. I’ve had one too many dream experiences to know that this could be true.

I’m obsessed with the paranormal and learning all I can about the mythology of spirits, demons, ghosts, whatever other names you have for these entities.

I’ve had people call me crazy. And yet, I’ve met many wonderful people who share the same beliefs and we have exchanged stories. I’ve followed some hospice care nurses on TikTok that all have similar stories of loved ones visiting their patients in their final days.

I believe in an afterlife. There has to be more than this world that we live in. This world is sometimes cruel and painful to live in. In dream form, everyone I meet is healthy. Even my mother is healthy and vibrant. Full of life.

And so, if you’re a non-believer that’s fine with me. But if you start calling me crazy, and tell me to get my brain scanned – you can just move along. It’s fine that we have a different belief system. But I’m going to use this blog to share more of my dream visitations and stories.

I welcome anyone with an open mind to follow this blog and share their paranormal or dream travels with me.

Thank you for reading.

Head over to my Spiritual Guidance section to learn more — it’s a work in progress.

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