Empathy is a huge topic to discuss and this is just a brief description on the subject. There is a message board devoted to empathy where you can leave your feelings and experiences and it can also be discussed in the chat room.

Many of us have experienced walking into a room and sensing an atmosphere whether it is something happy or an argument that has just taken place.  Maybe someone in the room is feeling miserable or ill right now and you can pick up on this. 

As everyone is empathic to a varying degree it is important if you are working as a healer or in any psychic field to ground and protect properly.  Without proper grounding and protection the feelings you sense can become transferred to you making you feel out of sync, angry or unhappy.

Empathy is very closely linked to healing and clairsentience and in healing it can be very useful to gauge exactly where to focus your channeling of energy. 

To understand empathy you need to think about the aura, which surrounds each and every thing on our planet.  As you come into contact with another person you exchange energy, if you come into contact with many people during your day there can be an accumulation of auric energy, which is not yours surrounding you. 

If you learn to use cleansing techniques you will find that this will help rid you of any unnecessary debris of energy left within your aura.  When you shower or take a bath use this time to wash away from you of any connections you have made during the course of your day. 

Going for a walk outside is also very cleansing as getting near to nature is always a great healing experience.  Pine trees especially have extremely healing energy for your aura.

Another cleansing technique is to imagine cords connecting you to a person whose energy has affected you, normally these cords are connected to the solar plexus area, imagine cutting these cords and giving them back to that person.  This in no way hurts the other person it just releases you from their energy field.