When I was growing up, I wished that I didn’t feel so much. Especially during my dark decade of the soul when I battled suicidal depression in my 20’s, I didn’t want to feel anything anymore. I didn’t even care to feel joy or happiness.

I just wanted to STOP feeling altogether. It was too much.

My emotions were my greatest weakness and curse.

And then slowly, day by day, month by month, year by year, I learned to first, tolerate them, then accept them, then love them.

Then finally, I learned to understand them.

And today, I recognize them as my greatest strength and gift.

No longer my kryptonite, my emotions are my superpower, affecting everything from my business to my personal relationships to my life.

Without them, I wouldn’t be able to help thousands of other sensitive, empathic people to find their own strength and power.

That’s why I do what I do.

This video is part of a talk I did at the Evolutionary Empath Summit with The Shift Network. 

This is one of my favorite interviews with one of my favorite topics – becoming an empowered empath!

In this 16-minute highlight video, I answer some of your most popular (and painful) questions as well as offer insight into what’s next for an evolving empath.

Here are just some of the questions and topics we cover:

• “Why do so many empathic people struggle with emotions?”
• Why sad movies affect us so deeply.
• Emotions 101: A basic lesson in emotions and what they really are.
• The #1 thing we do that causes our emotional pain and drama.
• “In addition to feeling our own emotions so intensely, empaths tend to absorb other people’s emotions, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously. And we have a hard time figuring out what’s mine and what’s theirs, so how can an empath determine whose emotion is whose?” (I have a simple answer to this popular dilemma – when you hear it, you’re gonna kick yourself for having wasted so much time and energy trying to sort out all those emotions).
• Why shielding and imagining protective bubbles weakens you.
• An unpopular, counterintuitive approach to feeling negative feelings (you won’t want to do this, but if you ever want to be free of the grip of negative emotions, you MUST!)
• When you feel like your emotions are a curse.
• If you’re still trying to make your emotional pain go away, you haven’t yet learned this.
• Our emotions are calling us to be present, to exist here and now, to serve as a witness to this moment, which, ironically is the last thing we want to do when we’re hurting.
• The gift your emotions give you – Going deeper to see the beauty, wisdom and grace in our sorrow and pain.
• Can we really control our emotions?
• The beginning stages of your evolutionary journey when you’re still trying to stop your tears, tame your anger, anxiety or otherwise wrestle your emotion to the ground like it’s an alligator.
• It’s not a curse to feel so deeply, it’s a calling. Are you listening?
• What’s next for the evolving empath? What does that look like?

All that, and more.

This interview is part of the Evolutionary Empath Summit, a free online event featuring leading empathy experts, authors, and inspiring teachers sharing how to turn your sensitivity into your superpower. For more information, please visit evolutionaryempathsummit.com. This recording is a copyright of The Shift Network. All rights reserved.

If you want to learn how to master your emotional energy so you can become the force of light you were meant to be, click here to learn about our Emotional Resilience course.