I started out my spiritual career (11 years ago this month) as an Akashic Record Reader. Back then, I had a website I was a bit embarrassed about – it had a banner at the top where I looked really sultry and unapproachable, and a blog that hardly anyone visited.

My work at that point mostly involved doing Akashic Record Readings, which I loved doing.

I attracted reading clients at that time who wanted to learn to channel their Spirit Guides and asked me to teach them.

I could channel my own guides at that point, but I didn’t know how to teach anyone else how to. So what I decided to do was run a 1-on-1 coaching program with people, where I’d tune into their guides and channel tips and exercises from the guides on how the client could better communicate with them.

It worked really well, for two reasons — (1) we are all different and we all connect with Spirit in different ways. And (2) our Spirit Guides are the ones communicating with us — they know us well, and so they are best placed to teach us how to become more aware of their guidance. 

I took what I and my students learned in this coaching program and converted it into an online course, which is now the Intuitive Awakening Course which has been taken by thousands of students.

Soon after creating that, I noticed I had many clients showing up who were very empathic and energetically sensitive. And they wanted me to advise them on how to rein in their sensitivity. 

Again, this was not something I could really help with at the time, and the reason for that was…

…I too was an energetically overwhelmed empath.

I had been very empathic since childhood, and the older I got, the more porous and energetically ‘undefended’ I felt. I read books and online articles on how to become less sensitive — and through these I learned how to shield my energy and attempted to establish better boundaries in my relationships. I also tried to act more like a non-empath in the hopes some of that ‘closed off’ energy would stick. But none of those approaches got to the root of the issue.

Once again my clients’ Spirit Guides came to my aid – and theirs. At the end of our readings, clients would say, can you ask my guides why I’m so empathic and what I can do to tone it down?

The answers the guides gave were interesting, surprising and they made so much sense. Over a period of several years, I collated these channelled recommendations from Spirit Guides, along with insights from my own path as an overwhelmed empath, and a book started to form.

This book, which has been years in the making, is everything I and my clients’ Spirit Guides appear to know about how to be a balanced empath, and it’s now finished.

If you’re reading this and wondering if you’re actually an empath you might like to take the quiz in this article.)

And for those of you who already know you’re an empath but are not sure if this book contains any insights that might help you, I’ve got a quiz below for you, too.

Are You An Overwhelmed or a Balanced Empath?

Here are some signs you’re an overwhelmed empath (see how many you agree with…)

★ You feel other peoples’ emotions vividly and profoundly, and have trouble shaking off the energies afterwards, even after the other person has moved on

★ You often have a hard time working out whether you’re feeling your own energies and emotions, or someone else’s

★ You have become a hermit and withdrawn socially in order to avoid other people’s energies

★ You cannot visit crowded places such as shopping centres, stadiums, train stations, or nightclubs because the energies are so overwhelming

★ You feel physical aches and pains, or manifest physical signs of nervousness or sickness, around certain people

★ When it comes to movies, TV and books, you do not like watching or reading anything that features sad or difficult experiences for the characters

★ You often find yourself playing the role of counsellor and caretaker in your relationships and friendships, but you find it a draining role to take on

★ You often wish that other people would follow your advice and get their lives back on track

★ Your relationships are a source of obligation and stress, either because you self-sacrifice, have a hard time saying ‘no’ to people, or take it upon yourself to help others with their problems 

★ You feel like your empath gifts are a curse, and you wish you could be less sensitive.

If you agreed with several of the statements above, you’re out of balance with your empath gifts, and this book was written for you.

On the other end of the spectrum is the balanced empath. 

Here are some signs that you are actually in balance with your empath gifts – make a note of how many of the following statements you agree with:

★ You do not absorb, or feel affected by the majority of the negative energy that crosses your path 

★ You can walk through a crowded mall without feeling totally overwhelmed. You “mind your own business” energetically speaking, when you’re out and about in the world.

★ You have learned (or developed) ways to let go of the negative energies you do encounter or inadvertently absorb

★ For the most part, you allow your own emotions to pass through you, and most of the time you are able to tell what is your stuff and what is other people’s stuff

★ You feel other people’s pain sometimes, but you do not sacrifice your own needs or over-extend yourself trying to solve other people’s problems

★ You do not feel the weight of the world’s pain on your shoulders, nor do you feel personally responsible for healing it

★ You can take in news and current affairs in small doses, without feeling drained or sad in a prolonged way (however, as a sensitive person, you will still sometimes be upset by world events which are indeed upsetting)

★ You do not predominantly play the role of the counsellor or the caretaker in your personal relationships 

★ You don’t feel aches and pains (emotional or physical) around certain people 

★ You can enjoy fictional stories, movies or TV programs even when protagonists are experiencing something difficult (but you still may find gory, traumatic or disturbing scenes to be too much for you)

★ You value and honour the gift of your sensitivity – you know that it is an amazing ability that is sorely needed in this world.

Balanced empaths, you may still benefit from this book to help you to understand your gifts better and to ensure you remain in balance in the future.

If you identified with some of the statements in both the ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘balanced’ categories, this book is also for you.

Why this book is different from everything else out there written for empaths

At the heart of this book is a concept that that has startled and fascinated me and many of the people I’ve worked with:

The vast majority of empaths are not born empaths — we become empaths. This often occurs in early childhood (there are several known common triggers for becoming an empath.) And in this book, I explain what they are. 

The fact is, if the original triggers for us becoming empaths in the first place pop up again in our adult lives, they can really aggravate our empathy and cause us to take on and absorb too many foreign energies. 

The key to becoming a balanced empath is in working out how you became an empath in the first place. And then applying that knowledge to the here and now – to ensure that you are not still being triggered.

Frankly, as a solution it is not as easy and quick as using a shielding technique, but it is a lasting solution that can make a big difference.

I am happy to say that I believe this is the first plan for overwhelmed empaths that really cuts to the heart of the issues that affect them.

In this book I do not give you an energetic shielding exercise and then ask you to pretend you are a non-empath (‘faking it till you make it’). Instead I go deeper than that – I get to the root issues of overactive empathy. More specifically, I talk about how your relationships, and past experiences have shaped you as an empath, and how they are the key to coming back into balance. I also look at the role of past lives, and psychological/emotional projections.

And finally, this book shows you how to do an ‘empath aura cleanse’ (I do some variant of this exercise daily to maintain my energy field)

In my intuitive work, I have found that when I tune into empaths’ auric fields, they tend to be carrying certain types of ‘energetic debris’ that non-empaths do not. I have come to the conclusion that when an empath feels other people’s emotional experiences so deeply – as if they were her own – these experiences tend to accumulate in her energy field: they leave an energetic residue, essentially. 

So what are the five types of energy we often collect as empaths? I have listed them below:

1. Earthbound spirits
2. Unwanted influencing energies
3. Psychic ties
4. Emotional residues 
5. Negative thought forms

In this book, I teach you about these forms of energetic debris that are commonly picked up by empaths, and I also show you how to clear them and even protect yourself against some of them.

This book also teaches you how to make the most of your empath gifts (in this article, I’m focusing more on the negatives of being an overwhelmed empath, but there are definitely some big positives to being an empath too, and we’ll cover how you can bring the positive aspects more fully into your life.)

The book is available via this website, Amazon and Kobo. It costs $9.99.

You can purchase it here.