The loveless ways are crumbling as I write this. And yet, we are in the thick of it. When we lean inside to the depths of our souls, we feel a love that is beyond time and space. A love that is beyond the chaos. 

If you have felt a sense of deep empathy, that is something we have in common. Empathy arises from an intuitive energetic connection. It means more than being someone who cares, but being someone who feels deeply. We are quite porous. It becomes natural for us to take on others' energy and mistake their energy for our own. Sometimes we want to rescue others. Sometimes it is codependency. Sometimes it is a spiritual calling. Other times it takes contemplation and discernment to decipher where our energy ends and where another's energy begins. Boundaries become blurred. We will do what we can to alleviate our own discomfort by doing what we can to save the world.

Anchor Into Your Center: Self-Care Practices for Empaths

It is even more complicated now, because the world we live in at this time needs love. Big love. And the lack of love hurts. What is required is to anchor into one's own center. 

Leaning inward takes discipline and work. Inside can be scary. It feels like where the pain lives. But in the center of our being is where the peace lives. Deep within each of us, beneath the sound bites, news for hire, extremist viewpoints and personal traumas is a clear perpetual electric spark of divine essence. Like luminous liquid it shines within each of us and within each of our cells. It hums a song of love that animates our bodies. Lean in. 

To get to that center we do sometimes need to step through a circle of pain. Sometimes the pain is not even ours, but we feel it because it is collective. But something shifts when we move into that center. The calm center. The universal center. The electricity flows intensely through there.  

When we move away from the center, our energy starts to cling to the chaos. We begin leaning into more of the external insanity. Our mind may tell us that we need to be there, but our hearts know that the only way to bring love to this world is when we use our voices and energy from the inner spark of light.

Love Can Be Fierce: How Empaths Can Set Boundaries With Compassion

If love and light come from our center, they become like an authentic energy orb. It might be loud. It might be disruptive, It might call out a game or a system that worked in the past. Love can be fierce. Love does not only pacify. Love can cut through the illusion to find the truth which is often hidden somewhere in the mess. Love can be tricky, but from our center, we have a strong discernment. 

How do we witness the collective shadow without being completely consumed by it? 

Can we hold our softness and our sadness in the same breath? The rage along with the grace all in one deep inhale? When we exhale, we can let go. And then it all begins to blend and we ask the divine: "What will you have me do?"

Breathing Techniques for Empaths to Release Stress and Regain Balance

We can breathe anywhere we are. I love watching the ocean waves and synchronizing my breath to the in and out of the current. But at other times I will just remember to breathe deeply just standing in my kitchen.

Breathing in, we fill our ribcage. We hold it. We cherish it. As we release it, we exhale slowly and notice how it feels. Then we do it again. Bringing our life-giving breath deeply into our abdomen. Holding it as long as we can, feeling its energy and then slowly releasing it as we exhale.

Then one more. Bringing ourselves to our center. Connecting to the timeless divine within our own being. Connecting to our core. Connecting to each other. It can feel like ecstasy if we allow it. And it is time to allow that ecstasy. The waves of breathing keep coming.  And as soon as we pay attention to our breathing, our energy changes. We begin to feel closer to our truth. And the truth of who we are, with our own idiosyncrasies, fears and longings, that truth is real and is sacred. You are the only one who can live your truth. 

Lean Inward: How Empaths Can Thrive by Connecting to Inner Peace

Remember, if you feel lonely in that inner being of yours, it may be because you are working a new muscle. In time it will feel like home again. We are never alone. Leaning in brings us closer too.