In my post “Atchoo said my intuition“, I described how the sudden rise of my sensitivity as an Empath and intuitive lead to a surge in seasonal allergies.  After 10 years without any spring time sneezing, it was easy for me to notice how the allergies and my increased sensitivity were related!

This problem is especially salient in Empaths because they are hyper sensitive to everything around them.  As Empath skills expand, that sensitivity can become overwhelming and can truly become a problem.

While a few sneezes in the spring time is nothing to worry about, over sensitive Empaths can become house bound hostages when their allergies require mind numbing medication or lead to asthma and chronic fatigue.  By then, it’s not a minor inconvinience anymore…

And yet, the body never does anything without a reason.  All this time, the sneezing is trying to say something…And quite frankly it took me a while to get both parts of that message myself.  It is my hope that your own struggle with allergies may be shorten upon reading about what worked for me!

There is no question in my mind that growth comes in leaps and bounds.  There are times where our Empath sensitivity is growing exponentially while at other times, we seem to be completely shut down.  Learning to modulate this process is a critical skill to make it more comfortable.

But what is it that you are trying to modulate?  Two things: your sensitivity and your reactivity.

Sensitivity is your ability to perceive internal and external stimulations.  As an Empath, your sensitivity determines how easily you can feel other people’s emotions.  For most Empaths, their sensitivity is through the roof to the point where they feel completely overwhelemed by other people’s emotions.

Reactivity is how you react to what you perceive.  For example, Empath can often react to other people’s emotions with extreme sadness (for perceived negative emotions) or hyperactivity (for perceived positive emotions).  Moreso, they often feel compelled to help others as they feel their emotional pain.

In their natural state, Impaired Empaths have very high sensitivity and reactivity.  This can be profoundly painful as they experience the intense negative emotions of everyone around them and immediately react to them with more pain, suffering and powerlessness of their own.  It’s a never ending cycle that can wear you down both emotionally and physically.  Especially when you have no idea how to shut this down…

And so the body tries to complain…Being constantly in a state of over stimulation, it starts to reject everything that adds to this chaos, including loud sounds, strong smells and, of course, pollen!  There is nothing wrong with pollen: it is not threatening in any way.  And yet the body can’t take any more…so it reacts as if pollen was a dangerous intruder that needs to be immediately eliminated.  So begins the sneezing, runny nose and constant itching.

So what can we do?

In the Empath Survival Program, I suggest the use of a volume dial to learn how to modulate how much emotional information we’re picking up from other people (if you have not completed the Empath Survival Program, I strongly recommend that you start there first!).  We’ll use this very effective tool to manage seasonal allergies dues to increased sensitivity and reactivity.

Here is how you can use this:

- When you feel a sneeze coming or the annoying tickle in the ear canal, immediately turn down both volumes for your reactivity and your sensitivity, as described in these pictures.

I strongly suggest that you practice this exercise daily for 2 week to really get the hang of it.  In the beginning, you are likely to turn it down only few a seconds.  So you have to keep sending the message to your own brain that you want to turn this down!  Over and over again, until it becomes a reflex.  This is like physical therapy for your mind: repetition is critical!

But you should feel an improvement in the very first day.  Your body is probably thrilled to see that if was finally understood!  It will do everything it can to help you learn how to modulate your own sensitivity and reactivity so that, in the end, you can be a functional and comfortable Empath!

in love,
Elise Lebeau, M.Sc.
Professional Intuitive
www.EliseLebeau.com

Empaths