The Empath Series - Answers - Staying Open/Shutting Down

 In response to the question :
How do you keep the emotions of others out without shutting down your own empathic sensitivity?

There is a difference between walls and boundaries. The creation and maintenance of the energetic filter allows us to feel everything without absorbing all the feelings. Asking the question "Is this mine?", creates a moment of reflection rather than instant reactivity. When you ask yourself,"Is this mine?", there is always a response. There is a knowing in us about our own "stuff" whether we look at it or not, we usually can recognize it. When it is someone else's feeling there is a sense that it doesn't quite fit. One usually feels confusion or discomfort on some level. Like trying to put on someone else's coat, it just doesn't fit. If you can recognize that feeling, and then say to your self, this is not mine, the feeling will tend to dissipate. 
 We are usually in full open absorption mode and this is why we often only see two options. Wide open with no boundaries, or fully closed with no receptivity.
Living life as an Empath without being in perpetual pain is a process of continually developing and practicing self-awareness. In order to know what is someone else's, I have to know what is my own.Which means on some level taking responsibility not only for my own feelings and issues but becoming aware on multiple levels of what they are, what their signatures are in mind body and spirit.
We then experience peace, balance, equilibrium and the choice to feel.

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