This article is written in partnership with Keen.com—they’re dedicated to helping us find clarity and insight through psychic guidance. Whether it’s science or magic, we’re open to most things, if they may be of benefit. ~ ed.

Empaths and highly sensitive people everywhere are feeling it: we are in a world of intensity right now.

First came Coronavirus, then the Black Lives Matter movement’s long-overdue reckoning with the centuries-long pain and injustice of racism.

These past few months have been heavy and hard. Heaviest and hardest for black and brown people. And we’re still in it, deep.

If you’re feeling exhausted and angry and sad right about now, you’re not alone.

As a psychic medium and an empath myself, I know all too well how tempting it is to put up our barriers and protect ourselves from the pain, especially at times like these. But the world needs our sweet, big, raw hearts right now. The world needs our empathy.

What is an empath?

Could you be an empath? Here are some traits that might be clues >>

In my understanding and experience, an empath is someone who instinctively knows how to see life through another person’s eyes, how to walk a mile in another person’s shoes.

Or, as Deepak Chopra explains, “Some empaths even go as far as feeling the depths of the world’s problems—they see the hurt, pain, and confusion caused by war, greed, and injustice, and they feel all of it, too.” 

How to Stay Balanced as an Empath.

As a “no-tools” medium—meaning I connect with and receive messages from Spirit directly—I use my empathic abilities daily to give psychic readings from a place of love and light.

Psychics have many abilities and while advisors use these gifts to help others, sometimes, it can be difficult for even us to manage—especially when you are an empath. But these abilities also allow us to sense the emotions and energy in others and hone into those emotions to reveal a deeper level of understanding and insight into whatever surrounds them. 

Even if you do not identify as one, an empath can help you tap into emotions you may have not realized existed within yourself. For example, we may recognize if you’re actually going through a period of sadness or depression. By honing in on your deepest emotions, intuitive psychics may help you uncover the underlying reasons for stress or negativity in your life.

While it’s a unique gift that can help people in so many ways, balancing emotions as an empath is no easy task and if you believe you possess any of the empath signs, then you already know this first-hand. 

If this sounds like you, here are some tips—some of which I received from Spirit directly—for staying balanced in troubled times while still utilizing your gift for the greater good.  

For a more personal message from Spirit, connect with me on Keen.com >>

1. Put Yourself First.

While it can be difficult for an empath to put themselves before others, personal self-care is absolutely crucial for physical and mental health. Along with getting enough sleep, eating well, and exercising, find time to do an activity you enjoy, whether that’s reading a book, cooking, journaling—anything goes. Schedule such activities into your day so that you don’t get off track. 

In terms of the times we’re living through, everyone has their own specific role to play here and that’s going to change from day to day.

Not everyone is called to be on the front lines. Your role today could look like helping your children with their homework, or taking a day to care for your own mental health.

So, as a deeply feeling person who can get burned out quickly, it’s important to ask yourself these questions, in this order, on a daily basis: “What do I need today?” and then “What can I do today?”

2. Move from the Soul, Not from the Mind.

If you take the time to ask these questions every day and to really listen to the answers from within, you will know when it’s time to act, connect, reach out, and when it’s time to take a breath, disconnect, rest.

You want to come from a space where there’s a stirring in you; where you feel inspired to share or help, rather than from a sense of duty or obligation. 

Right now, it’s important not to look for perfection, but rather to focus on pacing yourself and being as balanced as you can be.

3. Get Quiet & Feel your Feelings.

Many of us are feeling a whole mess of difficult emotions right now. We may feel angry, sad, enraged, broken, exhausted, triggered. Every day may be different, but we can’t avoid what we’re feeling. 

Open your emotional faucets and allow the feelings to flow through you in order to release their pressure. 

It also helps to allow such emotions to flow without getting dragged under by them if we understand where they’re coming from.

4. Separate your Own Emotions from Empathetic Influences.

This one is a bit tough, but it’s not impossible providing you’re willing to put in a little effort. Learn to tell the difference between your own emotions and impressions from empathetic connections. 

One way to accomplish this is to pay close attention to your emotions and journal your feelings. This can help you identify patterns so that it’s easier to know when you are more in tune with others’ emotions than yours. 

Eventually, you’ll be able to make the difference more naturally: 

• Emotions that are hard to determine rather than feeling solid suggest you are experiencing others’ emotions.
• Overpowering emotions such as rage, sadness, or fear during major world events like the ones we’re experiencing right now may feel intensified because you’re picking up on the emotions of those around you. With that said, this could be a mixed bag of your emotions and others’.
• Haphazard aches and pains that randomly come on in the presence of other people—and you have no injuries—most likely belong to others.
• Unexpected emotions that have nothing to do with anything happening in your life likely belong to someone else.
• Feeling anxious, moody, angry, or irritable when you’re in an area with large groups of people can put your brain into overdrive simply based on the abundant number of people around you.

5. Identify your Triggers.

There’s more than one type of psychic and the same rings true for empaths. 

All empaths are able to identify with and experience the emotions and physical feelings of others, yet they may affix to dissimilar forms of energy. 

Common forms include physical sensations, human emotion, planetary connections, plant or animal connections, or specific surroundings. It’s also possible that they may connect to more than one form. 

Again, journaling is helpful here as it can help you identify which settings prompt empathetic connections more than others. 

6. Meditate Regularly.

Connecting with our emotions through meditation a few times (for approximately five minutes each) a day is a helpful tool when it comes to separating our own emotions from others’. 

Find a quiet, distraction-free place to close your eyes, take deep breaths, and tune into your body and your feelings. If you feel your emotions are becoming disconnected, try to determine if this is because of something going on in your life at the moment or if it feels arbitrary instead. This can help you acquire more authority over your empathic gift. 

But we also don’t necessarily have to meditate in the traditional way of getting still. Especially because we’re dealing with so much heaviness right now, movement in our meditation feels important to release some of that psychic weight, dislodge suppressed emotions, and release chattering thoughts. 

Think of it as spring cleaning for your mind: get outside into nature if you can, go for a walk, practice yoga, dance. 

Remember, though, that feeling these intense feelings is part of the process.

7. Don’t Push the Emotions Away.

Feel your feelings, and then you can transmute them.

Whilst we can freely receive emotions that do not necessarily belong to us, we can also use this gift in reverse, almost like a superpower, by transmuting what we’re receiving back out into the world. 

Try this practice: visualize people as healthy. Hold a space in your mind for others to heal and be whole. See them getting the justice they deserve. You could also use the Buddhist practice of metta. 

Remember that even the deepest, strongest, heaviest emotions won’t break you if you allow them to flow through you. If you try to fight the emotions or push them away, that’s when they are likely to become lodged in your body and weigh you down. 

So get into your body, move daily, allow your body to process your emotions for you. It’s capable of that! It knows instinctively how to tap into that moving, flowing river of life. You just have to get it moving.

8. Pace Yourself.

Whether you’re moved to the work of activism, or just focusing on keeping your own family peaceful and healthy, you do not have to get it all done in one day. 

Watch and read the news, but regulate and limit what you’re consuming. Be informed, but not overloaded. Manage your time, especially when it comes to social media. If you start to feel overwhelm creeping in, give yourself permission to pause and step away, even if just for a day or two. 

9. Speak to a Psychic.

Think of a psychic like a coach who can help you identify roadblocks that may be hindering your empathic abilities. As you’re already an empath, it’s possible that you possess additional psychic powers that an advisor can help you discover and develop. Allow me, or one of Keen’s other advisors to help you on your spiritual path.

A Message from Spirit for Black and Brown Empaths.

A lot of people may not see this, but George Floyd was an evolved soul. His mission was global. He could have changed the world in the way he lived, or in the way he died. Though he has his own lessons and challenges, he made a positive impact on and was loved by many people in his life. It so happens that his biggest impact on the world was through how he died.

You are your ancestors’ dreams. The greatest thing you can do is spiritual work. Take a break when you need to. Whatever you’re feeling is valid. You do not need to rush toward forgiveness. Take comfort in the fact that Black Lives Matter has now become a worldwide movement.

Do not be discouraged, but take breaks. Develop and nurture a strong spiritual practice of your own. This will help guide and comfort you in dark moments. You are loved and you are appreciated. 

For your own spiritual reading, connect with me, or your best-matched adviser on Keen.com >>

A Message for All Empaths.

This needed to happen at this moment, at this time. And your life is also a part of the plan.

It is also no coincidence, for example, that as a result of Coronavirus, many white Americans are right now feeling the financial insecurity that many black Americans have experienced on a daily basis for generations. 

It’s not that this time has been a great equalizer, because we have all experienced it differently, and there is still a deep divide of inequality, but we are more connected and compassionate in our vulnerability.

Even so, this moment could go either way. We are at a spiritual precipice.

We can either continue to learn through suffering or experience the joy of coming together. 

We have an opportunity here to start a chain reaction that echoes through future generations, but we will only be able to effect that change if we lean into the pain we feel; if we lean into this powerful, raw energy; if we lean into the gifts we’ve been given, and use them!

Your life matters. Your feelings matter. What you are going through is valid. Your guides are here to help and you do matter. There is no judgment. Give yourself permission to feel, and to heal.