So honour that, own it, work with it too.

We’re all feeling rattled, thrown around and turned inside out at the moment but, if you’re an empath, you’re likely to be feeling it at a whole other level. You may well have felt all this global chaos and overwhelm coming our way even before it really hit the news, registered in your body as increased pain and fatigue (I know I did), or feel the lockdown energy before it becomes law (yep…bizarrely…here on this UK Saturday, it seems to be business as usual on my busy road and yet I’m deep into experiencing all the anxiety that comes with having to strategise family needs and safety during such a time). You almost don’t need me to write about what that feels like, plus the fact you pick up on all the collective anxiety, the highs, the lows, the waves of uncertainty as though you ARE that collective, not a one person island. These times feel like we are all in a washing machine; one which demands that everything goes into the load, whether we thought it needed cleaning or not…and so all of us are making sacrifice after sacrifice though, at some level, it feels necessary, like some sort of reset ready to start anew. Yet this can feel thoroughly, systemically exhausting for those of us that seem to tune into everybody’s version of that sense of loss and confusion.

What you may also be picking up on, which may be confusing, is another slipstream; a current of such tranquility and gentle power, like the essence of something profoundly natural and familiar yet not felt for such a long time you have to comb your sensory database to even start to give a name to it. This feeling might be swelling, blooming, thriving within you, though you know not what to make of it given the current “news”. You may even be noticing moments of clarity in whatever your own symptomatic state of health is; as though a decade or so’s worth of flu is finally lifting, opening up a small window of hope that defies all immediate logic.

As a tried-and-tested Earth empath, I more than think I know what this is in myself. It finds its echoes, its answers across the hills, in those other news reports that tell me that Venice’s canals are running clear without the swarms of tourists bursting its streets to capacity (as I, sadly, saw for myself just a few months ago; the familiar place had never seemed so sickly or malignant…), that dolphins are being sighted all along the Veneto coastline and coming into those canals, that skies are clearing of smog, birdsong being heard in places normally too noisy or inattentive for any such a thing, even that people are singing to each other across the streets, kindnesses being inspired in the hearts of neighbours who, until now, have kept their convenient distances.

The true Earth empath doesn’t just take this all in as a heartwarming idea; the Earth empath feels it all as Self, just as the pollution and abuse of Nature seems to hit our very nervous system right at the core, making us feel weak and sickly in ways that defy the diagnoses of medical science, and all the ups and downs of Earth circumstance “coincidentally” track the same rhythms of our variably tentative health….yet, at last, we can appreciate that it works both ways. When Gaia goes into renewal mode, so do we, feeling stronger, more resilient and assertive, much more supported in our physicality, our core strength, our emotions and general wellbeing. If we take the cue to add our healing intentions and positive focus to that change in trend, really noticing all the subtle improvements, celebrating and sharing them, we can feel how we are even contributing to that revival; providing to Her the very boost in confidence that we are feeding off ourselves, in a synergistic loop that lives out the truth of our profound Earth-connection.

What we are “empathising” here is that Mother Earth is feeling somewhat better, that she herself is rising from her sick bed, that a glimmer of hope is sparking in the breast of a struggling planet. On my country walks which (assuming I keep from those pockets of open green that have been suddenly dived-bombed by a mass swarm of urban folk) are all-but deserted of cars and people, I speak to Her to ask how she is doing and receive my answer as the whisper from the trees, the vibrant tinkle of new clear-flowing streams and mini waterfalls created beside swollen rivers and recently flooded fields and the sightings of birds that are very VERY much the rarities in my normal life (a kingfisher, a stonechat, several nuthatches running up trees, a skylark that sat in the ground to serenade me just meters away, a jay on my doorstep). Nature seems to be growing in confidence, coming nearer, standing for longer, asserting and reclaiming some of what was stolen from her, in order to rebalance…as Nature always does, eventually.

Also, I don’t know about you but, I’ve been noting how my nervous system is calming down these last few days, even as other people seem to get revved up. Its not when the manic dash for supplies is going on outside my house but at other times, when the road is so still that its like going back to a time even before the time I first moved here, almost twenty years ago, and the roads were only fractionally busy compared to now. Its at times when, without knowing the specifics, I can feel humanity slipping into a different gear… Its the same way I always feel the intense lull in the collective energy on Christmas morning…a rarified feeling, the kind of unfathomable stillness only the heart truly recognises, like a sort of pause for planetary breath; only that once a year thing got taken over…turned up louder….and got too fast…too consumer driven. The world kept spinning and there were never enough of us “in” that feeling at once to sustain it any more, because another portion of the world was always just exiting its territory, headed into Boxing day and back to the shopping malls. A lifetime of living like this, acutely tuned into the collective yo-yo has made the expert of us empaths and its time to put that awareness towards its primary use; as a skillset we possess.

So, we the empaths get to experience both sides inside of us, as us…as ever… and the trick is then to keep ourselves in balance with a lean towards the thriving state. Yes, against all odds, against predictions, against what we might be told by outside sources. That’s not to deny the seriousness of what we are dealing with, the requirements for good health, diligent hygiene and healthy practices to mitigate the effect of this pandemic in our own health, our homes and communities, but to keep in check any feelings of anxiety and fear…and keep one eye, always, on the positives. Once you start to notice these “upsides” to the reigning terror, these too start to swell overboard like swollen river banks, springing into new glistening ribbons of freshly-flowing opportunity and ever more cascades of sparkling light, as though coming from nowhere!

Its a reminder: we have a choice regarding all of this and in each and every moment; which is to be In Fear…or to be In Love.

We can’t be in both at the same time so I chose, as best I can, to be in a state of love. If not directly with the situation then with the people around me, and if I struggle with them because their behaviours are sometimes less than I would like them to be (though I’m receiving some pleasant surprises) then I find reasons to be in love with life and so, inevitably, I then direct my love towards Nature; and when we connect our love with the very source of our existence, that love swells and it grows, giving Her the answer she’s being waiting for…that we are ready for an overhaul, an upshift, a change.

I suspect, when she senses that affirmative from enough of us, she will more than “have our back”, showing us what She can do in an instant; and so, then, we can all heal together, pretty quickly, relatively speaking. These last few weeks have been just a taster of what Nature can do to reclaim in favour of life.  In fact, I think most people would be utterly astonished at how quickly Nature could resolve all the most pressing issues of this planet, the ecosystem, the challenge of so many of us living together, if we only allowed her to assert herself, to take the lead. To do this, we have to keep well out of victimhood in order to learn from all that we are experiencing now…all of it…and so that we are open to liking what we see of this quieter, more harmonious, Nature-inclusive world. Change has to come and we all need to be on board with it, having been made more familiar with the need for sacrifices, and having learned what it takes to pull together and be part of turning things around (with Nature’s considerable help). Its a story of two parts, made whole.

Those of us that are pre-tuned to this can do this work now; on the inside, as we must, to make ourselves as balanced as we need to be in order to to be resilient, healthy and robust for these coming weeks and months, even with our pre-exisiting health challenges, which are often considerable for empathic types. We know, and then some, that when we allow our empathy to run away with us, we generate such deep anxiety that our bodies hurt intensely, they tense-up and lock down and its as though all flow ceases and so we become polluted by our own sense of being the guarded misfit stranded on a crazy planet. Being in Nature is always touted as a great remedy for our overwhelm but never more so than now; to get us out of our sense of isolation and to enable us to more directly tune into the positive upturn that Nature is experiencing (and by this, I mean whatever is at your disposal, if only a balcony or an open window, even by visualising or watching Nature videos). Many of us have developed exactly the skillset that will see us through a time of increased isolation from people and so, in that, we have the advantage to enable us to thrive. Now, sustained by that stockpile of powerful inner resources, is the time for us to visualise how this subtle upturn could be the very leading point of the change…becoming part of that leadership by simply being what we already are and acknowledging it is happening, validating it through our awareness.

At this point, to get sucked into the typical mindset, and assume things will “inevitably” return back to the old ways, would be to shoot ourselves in the foot. Now is the time to be soft as in, not to become vulnerable but, to remain uber curious and adaptable to circumstance, flowing like water around whatever obstacles appear on our path. Try not to assume anything at times like these; rather, be prepared for a shift, so that your thoughts don’t become the very lag that is holding it back! For a long time, we empaths and sensitives have been the silent mavericks; those who think differently, feel differently, experience differently to the masses. We now need to tune into those maverick threads of optimism we are feeling in contra flow to “what seems” and to BELIEVE in their source, to allow that we are receiving the preview of a fresher, more optimistic, regenerating kind of world to come; which may take a little time to settle in, plus some major readjustments from all of us, but at least we are the ones who can say we detected its spring breeze through the crack in the window, even as the winds of chaos still raged all around us.

We don’t know exactly what these times will bring…that’s the point, we can’t know, all is in transition but we can do what we can to hold steady, to keep in sync with the laws of Nature and the frequency of Love; and we can sing our own personal tune clearly, if only to ourselves, when all else is in turmoil.

Yesterday, on my walk, the wind was so strong I was taken by surprise, regretful I hadn’t worn my winter coat and yet, in the midst of all that, a wren sang out so sweetly, with such confidence, so clear and astonishingly beautiful and then I saw her tiny, almost invisibly plain brown shape flit between the overhanging branches of the tangle of tree-fall that had come down in the recent gales. She is nest building, going inwards ready to come out with the new, preparing for some future day, strong in her heart, sweetly optimistic that Nature has her back. That has to be us; it is us…if we dare.

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Are you an Earth empath?

I suspect many of us are; and, at some level, all of us are…if often buried beneath more assertive layers of experience, yet (I suspect) the more we directly tune into the Earth frequency, the more we will thrive, going into the new phase.

For more on what being an Earth empath entails, I recommend books by psychologist, empath and intuitive healer Judith Orloff.  Her article The Power of Being an Earth Empath is a good starting point.

If you feel other’s pain and distress as though it is you, in a physical sense, you may also be a mirror touch synesthete, as am I. For more on this topic, search “mirror touch” in the side menu.

Related:

A story that is all over the internet: Venice canals run clear, dolphins appear in Italy’s waterways amid coronavirus lockdown

““I honestly believe we should take the opportunity of this lockdown to reflect and see how we can be more organised in the future to find a balance between the city and tourism.” Resident of Venice quote in ‘Nature is taking back Venice’: wildlife returns to tourist-free city

Speaking to the BBC, Wildlife champion Chris Packham “encouraged people to turn to nature for “solace and joy” if they were self-isolating.

“It’s an opportunity – it’s spring, learn about birdsong, flowers are coming up – we know its good for our physical and mental health.”

With Chinese markets selling live animals considered a potential source of diseases that are new to humans, Packham called for a permanent end to the trade.

“Surely this will be a point where we think globally to protect ourselves as well as the wildlife – there could be some long term blessing for wildlife.”  (BBC News 21st March 2020)

EDIT:

With perfect timing THIS just showed up in my newsfeed a handful of hours after posting  – SOUL LEADERSHIP FOR EMPATHS DURING COVID-19 – read it, its full of useful advice and perspective.

I also HIGHLY recommend this Mid March Energy Update from Lee Harris for being right on the topic.

Finally, I’m finding many of Russell Brand’s ponderings aloud around this topic resonant and this quote from his video on self-isolation and mental health particularly speaks to me:

….there is beauty, there is a deeper purpose and a deeper meaning and for those of us who found the world a difficult place to be probably from the moment we understood we were in one then change is something that could yield positive results even if we don’t yet understand how that may manifest.

I suspect quite a few of us empaths would agree.