Published October 28, 2026 04:27AM
In Yoga Journal’s Archives series, we share a curated collection of articles originally published in past issues beginning in 1975. This article about empaths first appeared in the July-August 1986 issue of Yoga Journal. You can find more of our Archives here.
Everyone is sensitive to some degree, but some people are more sensitive than others.
“Sensitives,” also known as empaths, are finely tuned individuals who feel external stimuli acutely, as if they had delicate antennae that picked up the subtleties of the objects and energies around them. They see colors vividly and hear sounds acutely. They easily sense the feelings and, in some cases, the physical symptoms of others. All psychics are sensitives, as are most artists and poets.
Sensitives are unusually intuitive, but they may not be aware of their intuitive abilities or know how to use them. They are often keenly aware of spiritual reality and frequently devote themselves to yoga or meditation. They are particularly sensitive to Nature and feel strongly connected to the earth and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These empaths tend to be visionaries: they can see beyond the assumptions and accepted limits of their professions, religions, and the society at large, and so are often innovators. And, if they pay attention to their first impressions, they usually know what to expect from others: they know who will be friends and lovers, whom to trust and whom not to trust.
Unfortunately, such acute sensitivity often gets these people into trouble. Sensitives feel other people’s emotions so directly and personally that they often don’t realize that the feelings they are experiencing are not their own.
Too Sensitive for Your Own Good?
Empaths “merge” with other people. What’s worse, they will often carry the foreign feelings home. A sensitive person can go to a friend’s house feeling fine and come away with the friend’s headache, depression, or financial worries. An ultra-sensitive may go to a party feeling cheerful but within minutes may feel unusually self-conscious, then uncharacteristically flirtatious, and then somewhat tipsy—even though she hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol. Attributing it all to unpredictable mood swings, she may not realize that she talked to, glanced at—or even stood next to—a shy fellow, a woman on the make, and the party drunk, in turn.
Sensitives may also be discomforted, to varying degrees, by sensory stimulation that others simply consider the stuff of daily life—or example, crowded supermarkets or noisy traffic. Movies and song lyrics may “play back” in their heads for hours or even days. This over-sensitivity to stimulation, including sensory, emotional, and “vibe” input, can be disempowering, to say the least.
Other people’s remarks may penetrate to the core; other people’s opinions may seem like unassailable truths; other people’s realities may seem more real than one’s own. Pulled by stimuli in every direction, these people may feel amorphous and overextended, as if they were everything and everyone around them, but with no solidity, no sense of self.
Sensitives, and especially ultra-sensitives, often shut down in self-defense, “short-circuiting” from information overload much as a house with too many electrical appliances blows a fuse. As an unconscious but necessary act of self-preservation, these people may withdraw emotionally and energetically, as if they were retracting their delicate antennae from the world. Overloaded sensitives and ultra-sensitives in withdrawal are often not entirely present in their bodies, especially in the legs and feet; they don’t seem to be in very firm contact with the ground.
Emotionally they may also feel apart from others, as if there were a dense, invisible wall between them and the rest of the world. They may become emotionally overreactive, or “touchy.” Because they don’t feel a part of their immediate physical surroundings, people in this condition can’t seem to fulfill their responsibilities or be on time for anything. They don’t know where the time goes, in fact, and may have lapses in the day, during which they can’t quite remember what they did
Sensitives in overload and withdrawal often don’t function well in their jobs or relate well in their families, and they are often seen as irresponsible or “spacey” by others. The real tragedy, however, is that these people often have no idea what’s happening to them or what they can do about it.
Of course, the degree of withdrawal will vary greatly, just as people vary greatly in the degree of their sensitivity. And not everyone who can’t seem to “get it together” is a sensitive in disguise.
Sensitivity is a gift, meant to help you understand the world around you (including its non-physical aspects) and to help others do the same. Unfortunately, many sensitives become limited or handicapped because we live in a society that doesn’t recognize or understand this phenomenon. And most sensitives are not fortunate enough to have been raised by highly conscious parents who understand their unique needs and vulnerabilities.
How to Manage Your Empathy
The first step toward freeing yourself from foreign emotions and energies is to learn to recognize when you are in empathy with someone else. Ask yourself if there is any logical reason for feeling this emotion or symptom, especially if it has appeared suddenly and for no apparent reason. This can be tricky, because sensitives will tend to create logical justifications for their sudden feelings—for example, blaming the world situation for sudden depression or anger, or blaming the boxes they lifted two months ago for a sudden backache.
The second step toward recovering yourself is to discover the source of the sudden feelings. Take a look back through the previous day (or days) and ask, “Whom did I talk to, look at, stand next to, or even receive a letter from?” Once you can name the source of the unwanted emotion or sensation, you can begin to disconnect ourselves from it.
Once you determine the source of the alien feelings, you can disconnect by very strongly affirming who you are. For a sensitive, repeating your own name aloud is a powerful way to disconnect.
However, it must be said with more intention than the attachment has strength. One method I teach is to place your hands over your solar plexus and repeat, “I am (my name); I am only (my name); I am no one but (my name).” Naming yourself recreates your reality, reestablishes your connection to yourself, and allows you to reclaim your psychic space. It may take 5-10 minutes (or even longer), but when repeated with determination, this litany works.
Cutting the Cord
The phenomenon of carrying someone else’s emotions, especially at a distance, is often described as being “corded.” Clairvoyants claim to see non-physical “cords” of energy linking one person to another, particularly in the region of the solar plexus. The process of sending out or accepting a cord is almost always subconscious. When a sensitive is feeling overwhelmed by someone else, he or she has in most cases inadvertently accepted an energy “cord” from that person.
The method for “cutting cords” is identical to the steps just outlined—realizing one is corded, recognizing the source, and saying one’s own name aloud with strong intention. In addition, sensitives must visualize themselves cutting the cord—with scissors, a hatchet, or anything else that seems effective. (Some people will prefer to strongly feel or know that the cord is being cut.
If the source of the cord is someone the sensitive loves or likes, and with whom the sensitive wants (consciously or subconsciously) to be emotionally connected, it is very important to send that person unconditional love after the cord has been cut. Otherwise, the cord will immediately reattach. Also, the will to disconnect must be stronger than the friend or loved one’s need to be attached.
This is especially true when you feel, consciously or unconsciously, that you owe that person something. This sense of guilt or obligation is one of the reasons sensitives are especially vulnerable to their parents, and often find they cannot spend too much time around them, even though they may love them very much.
Ultimately, the best protection for a sensitive is to consciously bring the emotions in the solar plexus up to the heart center, thereby generating a feeling of well-being for oneself and others. When you focus your awareness in the heart and are enveloped by an aura of self-generated well-being, you can still have our intuitive insights, yet remain free of unwanted energies.
The Three Gems Visualization
Visualize an emerald—hard, solid, and a beautiful rich green—deep inside your body, at the level of the solar plexus. Let it expand, still solid, until it has grown to a radius of two feet in all directions. In other words, you are surrounded by a hard green emerald four feet in diameter, anchored at your solar plexus. Visualize bright sunlight shining into the emerald, charging it with light and protective energy.
Next visualize a deep blue sapphire, also hard and solid, inside your body at the solar plexus. The sapphire expands until it has grown to a radius of two feet in all directions, pushing the emerald out two more feet. You are now surrounded by an emerald eight feet in diameter and a sapphire four feet in diameter, both anchored solidly at your solar plexus. Charge both gems with bright, protective sunlight.
Finally, visualize a hard, brilliant diamond inside your body at the solar plexus. Let the diamond expand until it has grown to a radius of two feet in all directions, pushing the sapphire and emerald out further. Now you are surrounded by an emerald 12 feet in diameter, a sapphire eight feet in diameter, and a diamond four feet in diameter, all anchored solidly deep inside your body at the solar plexus. Charge all three gems with brilliant, protective sunlight.
With your gems gleaming brightly, no one’s energies will be able to penetrate or cling to you, although you will perceive their emotions as clearly as ever. And though you will be walking around inside a 12-foot “structure” of your own creation, others will not feel that you are invading their personal space. You will feel protected, yet able to connect with others freely.
Are You an Empath?
If most or all of the following statements apply to you, you just may be an empath:
- I almost always feel the emotional state of my partner or children.
- When I pay attention to my first impressions, I am an excellent judge of character, with the exception of new romantic interests, whom I tend to idealize.
- Movies and dreams affect me profoundly. Sometimes they “play back” in my head.
- I tend to get disoriented and confused in large, busy stores and other crowded places.
- I leave parties early or avoid them altogether.
- If I am sitting in the middle of a crowded room, I have difficulty thinking. I prefer to sit at the periphery, with my back against a wall
- While driving, I may have lapses of time about which I can remember nothing.
- I am often late.
- I sometimes feel vague or “spacey.”
- Psychics and bodyworkers claim I am not entirely “in my body.”
- I can’t hold my own in an argument — I find it too easy to see the other person’s point of view.
