How to Understand & Work With Your Sensitivity & Empathic Nature

We are all intuitive. Of course, some of us are more sensitive than others! For many of us who are highly sensitive, empathic, and intuitive, life on planet Earth can be a daily challenge. My journey was on taking this challenge and turning it into a gift. 

Over two decades ago, my high sensitivity left me in chronic pain. I was 28 years old, and I had everything going for me. I was a physician, married to the (then) love of my life and living the dream in glorious Vancouver, Canada. Within a few years of reaching my goals, I got slammed with illness. I was crippled with debilitating pain and was unable to walk ten feet without a limp. I developed recurrent hives, allergies, bladder infections and more. It was a horrific place to be. Being a physician, I knew that the allopathic medical route would not take me to healing my body, so I searched into holistic realms. 

After a deep dive into yoga and meditation, my illnesses started to alleviate. It took many more years for me to realize that my sensitivity was “picking up” the energy of my patients and the environment and literally landing on my body! 

Being highly sensitive can be a roller coaster of a daily experience. For some of us our sensitive nature can show up as an illness (physical or mental). For others, it can show up as being labelled as highly emotional or even called crazy! Other people may feel like they never fit into society and /or have difficulty in relationships. 

The hardest part of being highly sensitive is understanding that it is a GIFT. It is probably the biggest gift you could have on the planet, but it is not well understood by most of us until you start to dive in and work with it. 

Our sensitive and empathic nature picks up messages, receiving intuition about the other person is also a message for ourselves. So, if you are wondering what to do about this and how to turn these sensitivities to help you, rather than help you – continue reading! 

The Universe is talking to us 24/7. We look like these little physical bodies, but in fact we are energy beings transmitting and receiving energy waves all day and every day! 

Here is a short step by step overview on how to understand and work with our sensitivity and empathic nature:

1. The first and most important step is to become aware of YOUR emotions and thoughts. As intuitive creatures, it is so easy to pay attention to out there, to the world and to others. When in fact, we first need to pay attention to our own emotional realm and what exact frequency we are emitting. This is a journey of slowing down, meditating, journaling, being present and being honest with ourselves about our thoughts and emotions.
2. Become aware of the Universal Laws. A great reference for an overview of the Universal Laws is in our book You Don’t Look Psychic – by me Dr. Divi Chandna and Lynnette Brown. Understanding the Universal laws is pivotal to the next few steps.
3. Become aware of your dominant mechanisms of receiving information, also called your “clair’s”. The most common clair is clairsentient meaning you are receiving information through your feeling body. You can however also receive messages through visions (clairvoyance), through hearing (clairaudience) and through thought insertions (claircognizance). Opening our four clairs is necessary to attune messages we are receiving. 
4. Begin to set sacred space, meditate, and clear your energy field
5. Start to notice what you are picking up in your environment. So, for example, if you are in the mall and feel fear around a certain person, notice it. 
6. ASK – this is probably the most important step and one that is often overlooked. Ask your guides. By asking, we receive an answer. If we don’t ask, it is just a jumble of fear we are receiving. If I were in the mall, and felt fear in a store, I would ask “why am I receiving this?”
7. Listen for the answer. Many times, the Universe is trying to teach us something through something we are witnessing. This is why it is essential to understand the Universal Laws. There is a message in our receiving this information. 
8. Integrate the message and that may mean we have to change thought patterns, forgiveness or heal something within us.
9. If the messages we are receiving are “too much” in the physical body (a very common thing with empaths with physical illness), ask your guides to turn the volume down! Each of our clair’s has a volume button. So, one way for me to reduce the input into my physical body was to ask for the volume of physical information to be turned down, but I ask now for the volume switch on the visual dial to be turned up! For myself, it is easier to see the messages than to feel everything!
10. Get training. Work with a certified Intuitive coach, get training and learn how to interpret the messages. This was pivotal for me. I would receive all these messages, but proper intuitive training taught me how to understand them. In all the intuitive classes that I teach, I witness people who struggled with their overloaded systems learn how to manage their intuition and receive the messages without the side effects!

I know – I make it sound easy and it is, but it is work! Please understand, this is an overview. Each step can take months and years to really get comfortable with. We have the rest of our lives.

What would your life be like if the gift you were born with could help others? What if the daily difficulties you are experiencing can be spun to be of service to humanity?

Our intuition, our sensitivity & our empathic nature is within us to be of service to others. 
  

Author and keynote speaker Dr. Divi Chandna believes our power lies within us. She loves to help clients shift, heal, and transform their lives through intuition, love, and waking up to their own power. Divi started her career as a family physician, but after becoming sick herself, she discovered the power of yoga and mediation, practices that unlocked her intuitive gifts. After studying intuition, and now practicing as a Professional Certified Intuitive for the past ten years, she clearly sees the link between our thoughts, emotions, illness and health. Divi founded and runs a program called Intuitive Coach Training (ICT) to help people awaken to their own gifts, and heal themselves.