This realization can be the beginning of deep healing and empowerment. And for some, this realization is so empowering, that it takes your life from being reactive to proactive by asking yourself one simple little question… is this mine? It can also mark the point where your intuition becomes clearer, you finally differentiate your energy from others, and you feel more grounded.

The Absorber’s Dilemma

Empaths and intuitives are often walking around the world wide open; sensing everything and everyone! From mood shifts in loved ones to the energy of a public space, we walk through the world with our antennae always engaged. We are natural absorbers, energetically porous, and deeply attuned, making us great listeners, sensitive children and the friends people turn to when they need a warm and compassionate presence. And while these gifts are beautiful, they can quickly become burdens when we don’t understand how to work with them.

When you go around absorbing energy unconsciously, you lose track of what’s truly yours. You might find yourself reacting to other people’s pain, anger, or fear as if it were your own. You might feel responsible for other people’s emotional states. You might even start doubting your instincts, mistaking intuitive knowing for emotional reactivity. And in some cases begin to think that spiritual interference is involved.

This is why discernment is a core skill on the spiritual path. And goes hand in hand when it comes to developing your intuition. Discernment is our ability to recognize what belongs to us and what does not and to respond accordingly.

Emotional Contagion vs. Intuitive Knowing

It’s important to differentiate between emotional contagion and true intuition. Emotional contagion is what happens when you absorb someone else’s emotional state. It’s often quick, unconscious, and very overwhelming. You walk into a room where someone is angry and suddenly you’re on edge. You talk to a friend who’s anxious and now your chest is tight. There’s no clear message here, just entanglement.

Intuition, on the other hand, has a different quality. It has a uniquely peaceful quality to it, that we can sometimes overlook when it comes in quick. It’s grounded and often comes quietly. It brings insight or clarity, not chaos.You should never feel a panicked quality to this guidance. Intuition might alert you to someone’s hidden emotions, but it doesn’t require you to carry them; it informs you without flooding you.

The really big challenge when living life with the antennas on is learning to stay open enough to receive intuitive guidance without absorbing energetic debris.

Why This Matters for Your Energy and Wellbeing

When you constantly carry what isn’t yours, your system becomes overloaded. You might feel:

• Chronically tired or emotionally depleted
• Overwhelmed by other people’s needs
• Confused about your own desires or boundaries
• Prone to anxiety, mood swings, or burnout

Just to name a few…

This isn’t just emotional, it’s wholly spiritual. It becomes harder to hear your own inner voice when it’s crowded by the noise of everyone else’s energy. And that’s the risk: we confuse noise with guidance. And in the messiness of all these entanglement, we stop trusting ourselves. And the weight of our intuitive gifts begin to feel like burdens instead of blessings.

But here’s the good news: you can learn to sense without suffering. You can hear without holding.

Building the Muscle of Discernment

Discernment is like a spiritual muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it gets. Here are a few practices to help you begin:

1. Ask: Is This Mine? This simple question is powerful. When you notice a sudden shift in mood or energy, pause and ask, “Is this mine?” Sometimes just the asking is enough to create space between you and what you’re feeling.

2. Daily Clearing Rituals Energy hygiene is essential for intuitives. Use practices like smoke cleansing, salt baths, breathwork, or even a simple visualization to clear your field at the end of the day. Imagine releasing anything that isn’t yours back to Source.

3. Strengthen Your Grounding The more grounded you are, the easier it is to stay centered. Spend time in nature, connect with your body through movement or breath, and call your energy fully back to yourself each day.

4. Get to Know Your Own Energy This may sound obvious, but many of us are more familiar with the energy of others than our own. ESPECIALLY EMPATHS. Start noticing how you feel when you’re alone, rested, and emotionally neutral. Learn the signature of your own intuitive knowing. That way, when foreign energy shows up, it stands out like a sore thumb.

5. Practice Spiritual Boundaries You can be open and compassionate without being a sponge. Visualize energetic boundaries around you,like a soft, luminous cocoon that lets in light and truth but filters out emotional clutter.

Reframing Sensitivity as Strength

For many, sensitivity has been misunderstood as weakness. Blind to the sacredness of sensitivity. The openness of such gifts can become overwhelming without understanding the responsibility of discernment that comes along with it.

You don’t need to shut down your gifts to protect yourself. You just need to learn to honor them with skill and clarity; And when you do, you stop absorbing and start intuiting, instead of  drowning in feelings you begin to empower yourself by navigating them, finally returning to your centre.

Want to Go Deeper?

The Intuitive Path workshop explores all of this and more:

• How to differentiate between true guidance and emotional entanglement
• How to clear and protect your energy field
• How to strengthen trust in your own intuitive voice

This is for anyone who wants to feel more steady, sovereign, and spiritually connected in their daily life. You don’t have to feel overwhelmed by the world anymore. You can learn to move through it with clarity and grace.

Carolina has been in spiritual practice to the public for over 20 years. Her spirits first began working with her in childhood. Her work as a Curandera is considered a sacred calling. She is formally educated in Social Work and her spiritual work informs her private practice. Her only goal is to use her many gifts to empower her clients so that the clearest voice they hear is the one from within.  

Her spiritual practice has worked with clients internationally. She also works with religious/spiritual leaders as a consulting medium. Her private practice includes readings, divinations, energy healing, energy clearings, herbalism, spiritual counselling, hypnosis, past life regression and prayer petitions. Service areas include but are not limited to Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Oakville, Orangeville, Caledon, Bolton, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Markham, Scarborough, Ajax, Pickering, Milton, Dundas, Georgetown, Maple, King City, Etobicoke as well as online.

Phone: 289 910 0688 | Email: caro@curandera.ca| www.curandera.ca | curanderabotanica.ca