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The Empath's Journey: What Working with My Dreams, Moving to a Different Country and Learning About Carl Jung Taught Me About Being an Empath.
Were you called "too sensitive" as a child? Were you told to "toughen up" and not be so soft? Was your sensitivity looked at as a weakness even though you knew it was the best part of you? Have you tried to numb your sensitive self, not feel as much as you do, and become more "normal?" Highly sensitive and empathetic people can internalize the faulty beliefs that other people have about being highly sensitive. They can feel like outsiders and as if they don't quite belong in this world. The world's voice can poison their inner sense of knowing. Instead of seeing that people's perceptions are broken, sensitives can start viewing themselves as faulty." Of course, being highly sensitive comes with its own unique set of gifts and challenges. For highly sensitive empaths, it's easy to feel their own deep feelings and even other people's feelings intensely. This can make it hard to set boundaries. It can also blur the lines of healthy empathy and codependence for some highly sensitive people. In The Empath's Journey , San Francisco Bay Area-based author Ritu Kaushal takes you on an intimate journey to crack open the brittle shell of false cultural stories and discover the pearl of your sensitive self. Combining personal stories from Ritu's own life as a highly sensitive person with practical tools, In The Empath's Journey will hold up a believing mirror for your sensitive soul. It will also give you practical insights to make your journey easier. If you are a highly sensitive person who wants to cut through the weeds of faulty beliefs and come home to your sensitive self, The Empath’s Journey is your helpful guide. It will give you clues and tips for your own journey and be the believing mirror that your highly sensitive self needs Come Home to Your Sensitive Self!
- GenresNonfiction
301 pages, Paperback
Published March 18, 2019
47 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 2, 2019
This book affected me on more than a few very deep levels, so I’m hoping I can do justice to it in my review. It pushed me to examine my own soul and belief systems, while at the same time offered so much comfort and reassurance about things I’ve struggled with my entire life. Like the author, I am also an empath, a Highly Sensitive Person, and an intuitive personality type, so I have experienced many of the things she has, but the perspectives offered in The Empath’s Journey are so refreshing that I felt like I was able to see these things in an entirely new light.
The author uses her own personal experience of emigrating from India to the US as a backdrop and tool to explore what it means to be an empath, and also someone who embraces and draws power from the energy of the feminine. This spoke to me so deeply because I have found a real lack of material out there on how to shift into the power of the feminine. Western society is so overtly masculine in its approach to almost everything that even working with the strength of the feminine tends to be discussed in masculine terms. The Empath’s Journey is not a book about how to “kick ass” or how to “not give a f***”, which seems to be so popular in our culture these days. Instead, it is the total opposite. It is a book about how to go within, how to explore your own inner realms gently and with kindness, and how to use your natural empathy and empathic skills to care even more deeply about yourself and others. It is a book about how to receive, how to play, and how to love.
Most of all, it is a book for people like me. INFJs, INFPs, HSPS, empaths, intuitives, introverts, whatever you call yourself, however you identify, if one of those terms speaks to what you are, then you will find great sustenance in this book and I know you will be revisiting it over and over.
It’s a beautiful book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in any and all matters of the soul.
The author uses her own personal experience of emigrating from India to the US as a backdrop and tool to explore what it means to be an empath, and also someone who embraces and draws power from the energy of the feminine. This spoke to me so deeply because I have found a real lack of material out there on how to shift into the power of the feminine. Western society is so overtly masculine in its approach to almost everything that even working with the strength of the feminine tends to be discussed in masculine terms. The Empath’s Journey is not a book about how to “kick ass” or how to “not give a f***”, which seems to be so popular in our culture these days. Instead, it is the total opposite. It is a book about how to go within, how to explore your own inner realms gently and with kindness, and how to use your natural empathy and empathic skills to care even more deeply about yourself and others. It is a book about how to receive, how to play, and how to love.
Most of all, it is a book for people like me. INFJs, INFPs, HSPS, empaths, intuitives, introverts, whatever you call yourself, however you identify, if one of those terms speaks to what you are, then you will find great sustenance in this book and I know you will be revisiting it over and over.
It’s a beautiful book and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in any and all matters of the soul.
April 21, 2019
The only way I can review this book is in a highly personal way, because this is the power of The Empath’s Journey, in bringing your own experiences into line with it. And I’m very confident that any kind of reader, by virtue of simply being human, will derive valuable insights and personal benefits from this book. I class myself as a moderate ‘highly sensitive person’ and certainly I’m an introvert type, but until reading the author’s journey, I didn’t consider myself as an empath, however this book has made me question myself over this as I related so much to Ritu’s inner psychological and spiritual journey. Recognising and accepting your inner nature, getting it to work for you instead of against you, is the key to a happy, centred-in-yourself, authentic life.
There are so many ‘me too's' for me within the pages, I simply lost count. Me too as an artist and a writer, as someone who loves to dance, as someone who always doodles spirals, who has always dreamt in colour, who has always worked on myself with masses of reading and learning since I was in my twenties, as someone who has always searched for meaning in life and from what I put myself into, and as someone who has also recently spent around 6 years of my life going through a midlife transition full of thinking and feeling revisions, of letting go of old patterns that just weren’t working for me any more, and thankfully this has been all for the better – all this resonates loudly and is so relatable. And because I’m now in a far better place, this is exactly why I know there is so much ‘truth’ in what the author has to say and what she draws upon to become free of the inner and outer conflicts that can weigh us down.
Like the author, I’ve always been considered ‘too sensitive’ and felt like an outside because of it. Not tough enough, not resilient enough. And when I wrote my first novel, my first book, I also had some disparagement from a few people that crushed me for a time, who’d never even read the book. The support was wonderful, the lack of support stunned me, in my ‘naivety’. But like the author, I rose out of this negativity from people who don’t put their work, themselves, out there, a real believer in me, whilst appreciating the ‘gifts’ that can come from being a sensitive ‘outsider’ who picks up vibes to help oneself and to help others.
Now if I found so much in common with the author, it makes me confident that many other thinking orientated people will also find something relatable, thought provoking, and wonderfully illuminating within the pages of this beautifully written book, and that it will be well worth the discovery.
There are so many ‘me too's' for me within the pages, I simply lost count. Me too as an artist and a writer, as someone who loves to dance, as someone who always doodles spirals, who has always dreamt in colour, who has always worked on myself with masses of reading and learning since I was in my twenties, as someone who has always searched for meaning in life and from what I put myself into, and as someone who has also recently spent around 6 years of my life going through a midlife transition full of thinking and feeling revisions, of letting go of old patterns that just weren’t working for me any more, and thankfully this has been all for the better – all this resonates loudly and is so relatable. And because I’m now in a far better place, this is exactly why I know there is so much ‘truth’ in what the author has to say and what she draws upon to become free of the inner and outer conflicts that can weigh us down.
Like the author, I’ve always been considered ‘too sensitive’ and felt like an outside because of it. Not tough enough, not resilient enough. And when I wrote my first novel, my first book, I also had some disparagement from a few people that crushed me for a time, who’d never even read the book. The support was wonderful, the lack of support stunned me, in my ‘naivety’. But like the author, I rose out of this negativity from people who don’t put their work, themselves, out there, a real believer in me, whilst appreciating the ‘gifts’ that can come from being a sensitive ‘outsider’ who picks up vibes to help oneself and to help others.
Now if I found so much in common with the author, it makes me confident that many other thinking orientated people will also find something relatable, thought provoking, and wonderfully illuminating within the pages of this beautifully written book, and that it will be well worth the discovery.
August 26, 2019
This is a moving and honest read. It serves as a loving mirror as well as offering thoughtful, tried-out suggestions and personal insights to (artistically inclined) Empaths, INFP's and HSP's, who, like we sadly tend to do, struggle with endlessly questioning and doubting ourselves. I recognize myself in so many respects: being too "nice", suppressing emotions like anger (needed for boundary setting) for too long, and in that constantly scrutinizing mind, seeking answers to profound questions. Helpful and comforting when on a healing journey toward authenticity and self-acceptance. A true gem of a book.
September 7, 2020
I’m sorry. I have no idea how this book has five star reviews. I gave it multiple chances but I just could not connect with the author. Absolutely boring. Writing style was just so flat to me, I felt like I was endlessly trudging through these dry, boring personal stories with no pay-off. I am also an HSP INFJ who also moved from a different country to live in the Bay and I just...... could not connect to this at all.
July 1, 2020
An Empath’s journey is a deep, insightful, healing and uniting read! Loved the fact how the author shares her personal experiences, her explorations and navigates one to HOME, yes, that home which is being comfortable with one’s authentic pure self. Her journey of emigration from India to America and how she tries to notice the subtle differences and is able to build her bridges and unite with the collective spirit. I found resonance with many of her journeys be it, defining your culture, rituals and God, breaking the stereotypes, building her own connections. I completely agree with her in language of signs and symbols this universe shows up and being a well-travelled person, she is able to connect various symbols and the spirit underlying. Her explorative journeys with Indian and other spiritual systems are quite helpful for the readers who are also on the same path of seeking that very essence of the supreme.
She doesn’t shy away from being vulnerable and sharing the fall outs, the lows and is courageous enough to not filter those and that is quite humanly and striking the chord.
The victory that one starts believing and embracing the characteristics of oneself as gifts…like transforming her perception of being sensitive as a flaw to see the golden gift that is…It’s a journey of triumph…finding a home, a cocoon with in that nobody could sabotage…that is protected with self-love, intuition and practices and pursuing art. The language is very vivid and fluid and the book was unputdownable for me…And my daughter is just waiting in the queue to read it as soon as I finish….The author has a very scrutinized, perceptive, sensitive sense of observation…and the experiences she shares about various stalwarts of philosophy, sociology, somatics, alternative new age therapies, quantum physics and Mandala art, Brainwave music etc. is quite informative. I really congratulate the talented and authentic author Ritu Kaushal for birthing this book and look forward to more of her work in future. - Reviewed by Meenakshi M Singh
She doesn’t shy away from being vulnerable and sharing the fall outs, the lows and is courageous enough to not filter those and that is quite humanly and striking the chord.
The victory that one starts believing and embracing the characteristics of oneself as gifts…like transforming her perception of being sensitive as a flaw to see the golden gift that is…It’s a journey of triumph…finding a home, a cocoon with in that nobody could sabotage…that is protected with self-love, intuition and practices and pursuing art. The language is very vivid and fluid and the book was unputdownable for me…And my daughter is just waiting in the queue to read it as soon as I finish….The author has a very scrutinized, perceptive, sensitive sense of observation…and the experiences she shares about various stalwarts of philosophy, sociology, somatics, alternative new age therapies, quantum physics and Mandala art, Brainwave music etc. is quite informative. I really congratulate the talented and authentic author Ritu Kaushal for birthing this book and look forward to more of her work in future. - Reviewed by Meenakshi M Singh
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews