I've only told two people that I have this ability; my sister, who has it as well; and my husband, who is a double Pisces and knew anyway. I have no ability with whole thoughts, ie. I can't tell you what number you're thinking of...lol.
For me, every single person feels things in a very specific way. My husband's feelings roll like an enormous paint roller over a wall. My father feels in light rain drops, separate until they mix below. My mother feels things in huge, violent stamps. My sister feels things like spilling a glass of water over a level floor. My son feels things in vertical lines, etc. I could go on and on.
Each person has colors that they've assigned to each feeling, and none of the colors are the same between each person. Some people feel anger as red while others feel love as red. Some people feel sadness as green while others feel it as blue or purple.
I suppose it comes in handy to distinguish between my own feelings and those of others as well as distinguishing between one person's and another person's.
How do you distinguish other people's feelings? What do you "see" to make you know it's not yours? Do you just know? Do your empathic feelings have a female or male "flavor?" Old or young "flavor?" Just curious.
Cheers