An Empath's Survival Guide to COVID-19

     Fellow empaths, have you been noticing things are more turbulent these days, emotionally?  On a global scale, we humans, during this challenging time, have been sending out some pretty heavy emotions, mainly fear, anger, and sadness.  I know that for me, the emotions that are bombarding me have affected my health and close relationships.  After talking to a wise friend, she reminded me that my physical ailments and personal stress are directly related to the emotions that are running amok these days.  We talked through the steps of how to deal with them, and I have boiled it down to this five-step guide.  Ready?  Here it is:

• Come to your sense of self.  It doesn't matter how you do it -- wiggle your toes, stomp your feet, count your breaths, chant, meditate, do a yoga pose -- it doesn't matter, as long as you can come back to your inner self, with its unique emotional landscape.
• Observe your emotions.  You may find that there are layers of emotions there; some are weaker and some are stronger; some may feel familiar and some may feel like an ill-fitting, itchy sweater.
• Visualize these emotions as having separate layers.  The more familiar ones may be in your core self.  Others may feel like they hover on the outer part of your emotional sphere.  Do they have colors?  Wave shapes?  Weight?  Notice as much detail about them as you can.
• Inhale, reaffirming the emotions that truly belong to you.  The ones nearest your core may feel more stable, familiar, and part of your world outlook.  Keep those.  Then, exhale, releasing the ones that do not belong to you.  Repeat.  Repeat again until you feel calmer and more at ease in yourself.
• Do this process as many times per day as you need -- even 19 times, if that's what it takes.

     We are all in this together.  So let's keep even-keeled, focused, and at peace.