Kari Johansen's Gaia Update: Empath focused content

Posted on April 21, 2022 by Dannika Soukoroff

                                     Kari

                          Kari Johansen's Bi-Weekly Gaia Update 

I’d like to offer a series of supportive, perspective broadening & ideally, guiding, contributions for you through Gaia’s newsletter. This series, focusing on Empaths, the ‘Empath’ in all of us, Healing & Growth, will unfold with each entry…

From personal experience, being an Empath kinda… sucks!  Oddly, I wouldn’t trade it for anything though.

When I was a kid, I was called "sensitive" a lot, it was always said with a negative tone. Funny enough, they head no clue just how sensitive I was.  I could see and feel things others couldn't, that was clear to me at a very young age.

Based on the lack of interest or sympathy for my “sensitive” nature, I learned that sharing my perspective didn’t help my sense of belonging. For e.g. when I tried to tell my mom about seeing, hearing, feeling ‘stuff’ in my room at night, she barked back, "what are you telling me! You're crazy!?" 

I was ten. That was enough for my abilities to ‘shut off’ for several years, it was strange how they seemed to do so on their own. I took this as push to change, so I did my best to ignore my abilities if or when they showed up.

I was just a kid, I know now that ignorance was a form of lying to myself. I betrayed myself, in order to be who society & the people around me expected me to be.

Betraying your Self is the worst kind of betrayal.

My abilities began to sneak back in by my late teens. First shown to me through synchronicities, then dreaming the future in astonishing detail. The door finally re-opened with full acceptance & curiosity when I began studying Conscious Dreaming at 18. The point of no return was the day I was shown the book “Messages in Water” [Dr. Emoto, 1999]. The images spoke to me an undeniable Truth that, yes, I could feel, but what was more was the relief! Someone was proving (at least to me) that everything else I felt was not only okay, but worth acknowledging.

Like all Empaths, I’ve been one my whole life. What matters most is when we begin to acknowledge and honor our unique abilities.  My first Empathic experience in this life was as a baby. It was an emotional trauma I carried with me until I was in my late thirties. This is an example as to why Spiritual & Energetic Healing is an important part of an Empath’s Well-being, AND why we need to learn (once able) how to protect ourselves Energetically, both inside and out.  But one cannot do either without first, fully acknowledging & accepting their true nature.

… In what I’ve briefly shared here there are 3 Emotional traumas (with my mom, myself, as a baby) – and I wasn’t aiming to write about them!  (These have nothing on the more significant trauma’s I went through, nor are they to be compared to your own or what others have endured).  My point is this; for the Empath in all of us, Emotional trauma is common and it’s a given.  We’re taught to dismiss them, “grow thicker skin”, “get over it”, etc. But Emotional trauma is the most common root of illness. As one teacher of my teachers and mentor says, “illness takes root in our emotional blind spot”. That blind spot occurs when we ignore, band-aid, or ‘self-medicate’ an Emotion that was not honored in the moment – be that moment last week, 10 years ago, as an infant, or, in a past life.  Problems can arise in some of the simplest ways, for example;  A parent lies to as child, the child feels the lie, senses the truths in the situation, has responding Emotions to both the truths and the lie, neither of which the child is ‘allowed’ to honor… This (very simplified example) seeds resentment or a lack of self-trust, or both. Over years becoming stronger to shape parts of character, like anger, anxiety, and inability to Trust others. Unaddressed, physical illnesses manifest, like allergies, arthritis, compulsive disorders.

 I often say, life is a continual process of Healing & Growth and that Healing & Growth go hand-in-hand. These points are even more applicable to Empaths in order to be strong and ideally, Thriving in every way. I learned this by mistake. Starting with my personal journey to heal Physical ailments and chronic issues, then, Mental and Emotional struggles, traumas and PTSD.  All were Energetic and Spiritual at the core and inevitably, once one thing is healed there is always another just around the corner.

Healing is a process and Growth is the progress. Healing doesn’t mean there is something “wrong” with you, it means you’re on a path of discovery – willing to Grow… accepting you “don’t know what you don’t know” – even about yourself.

As my education and personal healing path in the Natural Healing Arts has unfolded over the past 24 years, a pattern has emerged. I call it the 7 Stages of Healing & Growth, and I guide many of my clients through them. For this newsletter series, I’d like to take a small journey through the Seven Stages with you. I won’t be able to go into detail in these articles of course, but at a high-level I’ll aim to provide a mechanism for personal transformation, at least in a small way.

Let’s get the ball rolling today with a couple of internal questions… It may be helpful to jot down your answers in a notebook and use the same book as the series unfolds.

Note: this is an exercise of total honesty with Self, and it is for you & only you:

  • Ask yourself (without judgement): When have I betrayed myself in a significant way? (i.e. lied to or ignored a part of my true Self)
  • What was my positive reason (at that time) for doing this? [e.g. to fit-in, feel loved, feel accepted]
  • How has this played a roll in my life? Does it still?  … (if not, go back to #1 & search, with curiosity, for something more significant. There IS something. Be 100% honest with yourself)

I look forward to this little journey unfolding over the coming months!  And please remember, I’m always here to help. I can be contacted for questions via my website &/or session booking:

earthsoundwellness.ca

My Best To You
Kari

Posted in education, empath, goddess


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