An empath describes someone who has a supersensitive ability to feel compassion and understanding of something else.
The word is basically derived from the word empathy which means an ability to put oneself into someone else’s shoes and feel what is being felt by the other person. Be it sadness, anger, elation or vengefulness, etc.
While empathy is usually a descriptive word in reference to the emotional or mental state of a person, the word empath can be used in reference to all categories of tangibles and intangibles.
While there are various types of empaths that are being discussed today at the research level, experts tend to agree that they all share many common personal traits.
It’s like naturally athletic individuals who can be very good at different types of sports but discovers later that they truly excel in a particular one. And has therefore chosen that path, either knowingly or unknowingly.
Some of these common traits include having an open mind, being good listeners, an ability to immediately tune into someone’s mood, a personality with a preference to introverted behavior, totally adept at solitary journeys, highly intuitive in decision-making, etc.
It’s worth noting that an empath is not necessarily aware of his or her gift. But those who are aware can make a huge difference in the lives of others.
In most discussions, there are typically 6 types of empaths.
1) Emotional empath
This is generally someone we describe today as a person with empathy.
Because of how often we use this word today, it is can be said that emotional empaths are the most common types of empaths. Another big reason is that most people would be able to identify with the feelings of someone else at some level if they train themselves to be more aware.
Those who fall under this category are able to easily pick up on the emotions of others, including why others think a particular way.
Those are truly gifted in this sense are are able to experience what it feels like for someone without ever having that experience before.
For example, someone might not know how it really feels like to lose a father when his parents are still around. But is able to experience how it feels like for a friend who is going through the trauma.
2) Physical empath
The physical empath, or sometimes referred to as medical empath, is someone who has ability to pick up on the physical strain experienced by others.
This means things like pain, side effects, symptoms, irritations, and other forms of bodily energy.
Be mindful that this does not necessarily mean that they feel the same physical pain as as someone, but they are definitely able to sense what type of pain and where is the location it, or even absorb them.
It is understandable that healers often fall under this type of empath.
Healers who develop this ability, perhaps further than necessary, can often suffer from the same health problems as the people they are helping.
Which is why those who are trying to hone this skill should learn about detachment before going too deep.
3) Geomantic empath
This is a person who is able to tune in to the energies of a physical place, and even have visions that pop up in the mind.
Physical places most often refer to houses, land, and natural landscapes.
When looking at a picture of a house for example, he or she would emotions like happiness, sadness, excitement, sacredness, or sombreness. High level experts who have developed their talent would even be able to tell what type of history a place has encountered.
They often find a deep connection with nature and with things that originate from nature.
Geomancers or even feng shui masters are often geomantic empaths.
4) Plant empath
As the title suggest, plant or flora empaths are those who are are able to feel empathy for plants.
They have the knack of putting together great arrangements of different types of plants and have it look magical. They naturally know how to care for each plant and have it thrive even when it seems unlikely.
For example, some homeowners are just green thumbs good at gardening. The somehow manages to nurture lush greenery in their yards when the neighbor next door is unable to.
Some people with this ability claims that they are even able to communicate with trees and flowers. Mostly in the form of listening.
If you are someone who naturally wants to have plants around you all the time, you might just be a plant empath who intuitively needs them to be close by to feel secure.
5) Earth empath
The earth empath is like a class 5 mutant in X-men.
They have a connection to the planet on a macro scale. Able to sense and be affected by earthquakes, weather changes, hurricanes, solar flares, etc.
You feel bright on a sunny day and gloom in a city with bad air pollution. The tide affected by moon’s gravity affects you.
Natural wonders delight you and man-made structures somehow looks deplorable.
You need to be in nature to be truly happy.
6) Animal empath
An animal or fauna empath is someone who just “gets it” with animals.
They can understand the body language of animals, intuitively knows what they mean when make a noise, and truly cares for them like another human being.
For example, a forest guide who just knows that if he stands still, a charging elephant would stop in it’s tracks. Or an animal rescuer who just knows what to do to and how to react to avoid getting attacked by stray dogs he’s trying to rescue.
People who fall in this class often naturally find themselves working with animals in some capacity.
7) Dream empath
Ever had weird dreams and wondered what the heck was going on in there?
Dream empaths have a heightened ability to read into what dreams mean. They are able to decrypt or decipher the complex messages in dreams.
For example, you dream of a man talking to you. A dream empath would be able to tell that this man is actually your grandfather.
8) Intuitive empath
People who are considered intuitive empaths are often confused with emotional empaths.
The key difference is that the former is about intuition while the latter is about emotion.
Intuitive empathy is like thinking or knowing that someone is sad. While emotional empathy is like feeling the sadness that someone feels.
Intuitive empaths, or claircognizant empaths, have an uncanny ability to tell whether a stranger is a good or bad person. They are able to walk into a seminar halfway in and tell how well the event is going. A one-worded answer from someone can be judged to contain a hundred different sentences.
9) Psychometric empath
This is one who is able to receive and make sense of information from objects they choose to focus on.
They are often called psychics.