Emotions are seemingly the easiest things to share amongst friends; it's almost like a virus. One person feels happy and passes it on to the next and the next and so on. That is ideal... but not always how it goes.

More often, one person in line is angry and yelling at the cashier which puts you in a "what is wrong with people?" mood. This, in turn, may lead to you going home and yelling at your kids, which makes them mad at each other and so on. Emotions are contagious and the sooner we learn to recognize the difference between our emotions and the people we are with, the easier time we will have in knowing ourselves.

EMPATHY AS A SURVIVAL SKILL

Empathy is defined online as "the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another." If you are experiencing the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another, how can you be aware that you are acting in your own best interest and not the person you are empathizing with? If you are identifying with, and taking on someone else's emotions and making decisions based on those emotions, those decisions may not be right for you.

Empathy can be a survival skill. When we are born, we can't talk yet and don't know much about the reality we have just arrived in. With this skill of empathy, we can read each other’s thoughts and emotions and make decisions on how we will engage with our environment.

For some of you, you may have continued to need your empathy to keep tabs on your environment and your parent’s emotional state. Especially if there were unpredictable or volatile. You may have even learned to keep that skill heightened into adulthood as a means to keep you feeling safe and in control.

"WHAT AM I REALLY FEELING?"

Things begin to go off track when we don't know where our thoughts and feelings start and the other person begins. We are always picking up on each other's energy in subtle ways. We feel and experience each other’s state of mind and often change our behavior and feelings about the situation accordingly.

If you can begin to acknowledge when this sharing of energy is occurring, then you can begin to understand yourself more clearly and begin setting new intentions. By paying mind to your ability to pick up on other people's thoughts and emotions, you begin to understand when you are letting someone else's negativity win.

By developing a certain awareness of how easily you change course based on how another person is doing or feeling you may be able to stop being a victim of others and empower yourself to dictate your mood and actions.

Grounding is a good way to organize your energy and determine what is yours and what is external static. Here is a grounding technique I like to use. 

WHAT MOOD ARE YOU BRINGING TO THE ROOM?

It is, in turn, helpful to observe those around you, especially children, as they pick up on your moods and make them known. Watch for that moment from when they switch over to what they were feeling independent of what they are feeling when they notice you.  Then you begin to ask yourself, “Is this how I want others to feel around me?”

You have more power than you think. If you walk into a room defensive and uptight, that is how the room will respond. This isn't to control the way that everyone else is feeling, but simply to create an intention within yourself representing the influence you wish to be in the world. 

Learn More About Understanding Subtle Energy

You are much more powerful than you realize. Every day, you use energy to communicate with others, to nourish yourself, to create your physical world and fuel your existence.

You created your home environment, your job, the people around you and the experiences you have on a day-to-day basis. You are the sun and they are drawn like little planets into your matching magnetic orbit. They become your reality.

Most of us don’t realize the extent to which we create our surroundings. Instead of consciously shaping our world using the energy we manage daily, we allow ourselves to tumble through, mistakenly believing that we’re being blown this way and that by unpredictable outside forces.

You have manifested everything in your life whether you are aware of it or not. This course will teach you to shift from a position of unconscious creation to a practice of intentional manifestation so you can live in a world that thrills, delights and surprises you.