An empath, or, someone who is highly sensitive to other people’s feelings, intentions, motivations, and the general the energy that surrounds them, often don’t realize that they are until they’re in such emotional/mental turmoil, they go looking for the cause.

The difference, of course, between simply being “empathetic” and what one would define as an “empath” is that the latter doesn’t quite have control over it, or it affects their lives to an unhealthy degree.

1. You are a bonafide “over-thinker,” and often times become absolutely convinced that there is something more at play in the situation (even when other people would say you were totally nuts).

In reality, you are picking up on the motivations, intentions, feelings and reactions that most people are not sensitive to; you can naturally feel the multi-dimensional nature of anything.

2. You’re constantly tired. You’re worn out from so much emotional exercise that you’re not even conscious you’re doing. Until you’re aware that you pick up on other people’s feelings and adopt them as your own, you’ll do so and just believe they’re yours to cope with.

3. You’re extremely sensitive on the inside, but very distant and emotionally reserved on the outside. You have an incredible need for intimate, human contact, but only allow it for yourself sparingly.

4. You’re naturally a peacemaker, and often compromise your own feelings or needs just to “keep the peace” because discord bothers you so much. You actually believe that quelling your own feelings about the situation heals the situation, because it changes how you perceive it. So you force this on yourself incessantly. Continue reading →

To be intuitive is to be self-aware. To be self-aware is to be able to grasp the immaterial parts of yourself that exist within the physical doing and being.

The benefits to this kind of understanding are obviously endless, but seldom discussed are all the challenges that come with being very attuned to your intuitive, inner ‘knowing.’ To speak to it and more, here, all the things highly intuitive people have to deal with every day:

1. We always know when someone is bullshitting us, even when we aren’t able to say anything about it.

For the sake of maintaining our family structures or keeping our jobs, we can’t always call people out on their absolute lack of awareness, and that becomes really frustrating when we see them being tripped up by the lack of insight that they’re closed to having.

2. Almost nothing is as infuriating as when people fake emotion, because we can pick up on that as much as we can pick up on the real stuff.

And it’s something people do all the time: feign emotion to get a certain reaction from others (usually attention or love.)

This is as physically palpable as any real emotion, and is endlessly frustrating, because we end up feeling as though we have to fake a response and feigning our own emotional experience is essentially the antithesis to our existence.

Continue reading →

Less than 100 years ago, women’s rights were still largely unheard of in Western nations, and there are still fights worldwide for the equal rights of women.

While feminism still has a long way to go in this battle for equality, we thought we would take some time to celebrate a select handful of historical figures who refused to be downtrodden in their quests for a life worth living.

Hildegard of Bingen

Saint Hildegard was a German Benedictine abbess, composer, philosopher, writer and mystic. She is widely considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.

Born around the year 1098, Hildegard was a sickly child who was cursed with strange visions. It was for these reasons, perhaps, that she was offered as an oblate (or person dedicated to God’s service) to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg at the age of 14. She was able to attract many followers due to these visions, ironically, as they were a source of struggle in her life. Continue reading →

The science studying the moments before death has long thought that the heart stops beating, ceasing blood flow, and causing the rest of the body to shut down. But new research has shown that the prevailing wisdom regarding this could be wrong.

In a study published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers studied the heart and brain activity in rats that were dying from lack of oxygen.

They found that the rats’ brains sent a series of rapid instructions to their hearts just before dying, causing fatal damage to the organ. However, when researchers blocked this signal from the brain, the rats’ hearts survived longer.

The methodology included subjecting rats to carbon dioxide or lethal injection, inducing cardiac arrest. Brain activity was scanned by EEG and hearts were monitored via EKG. Also, signaling chemicals were measured throughout the experiments. Continue reading →

The hormone oxytocin is commonly known as a substance that deepens our connections with one another, particularly in loving relationships. It is released through human touch (hugging or even hand shaking), by gazing at someone (or even thinking about them) as well as during labor and orgasm.

New research, however, suggests that the hormone plays much more of a role in our lives than previously thought. Here are some of the most fascinating ways that oxytocin assists us in life.

Pain Relief And Healing.

Studies show that oxytocin has pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties. The trick is getting some when you need it, which can be tricky.

The hormone can be produced synthetically and administered as a drug, but it may be easier to ask your partner for a hug, massage, or simply some good lovin’.

It Aids Social Anxiety.

Oxytocin can increase self-esteem, induce feelings of optimism, and help to build trust between people, and is therefore regarded as an aid to overcoming inhibitions and fears in social engagements. Studies also show that the hormone can ease the suffering caused by PTSD, and even help people on the autism spectrum with their communication skills. Continue reading →