My Experience As An Empath

I am in high-school, around literally thousands of other teenagers nearly on a day to day basis. When I am in class, naturally I am around thirty or so people up close. When I am close to seriously hurting people (people physically, or emotionally hurting) I get a lot of different side-affects such as vibrations in the fore head, that 'gut' feeling, uneasiness, I get saddened, and have ringing I'm my ears.

Id like to be able to be able to focus in class but I feel like I often need to help the person. I have read several books on how to help but feel as if I have ignored my senses long enough to make them dull. Id like to sharpen them to help people and myself. I am unsure how to I guess, start from the basics. I have no problem locating the distressed person. I just don't know how to help. Several times I have cleared my mind, and have tried to project my positive energy outside of my body, with one of my hands instinctively placed over my heart area, but it has only worked once.

Id like to have direction. I was told about a year ago by another teen friend that I might be an empath. I never thought about it until one day I clearly saw the, I guess, 'aura' around the people bodies I was with, what weird is my eyes were closed. I haven't seen it so well since. During my 'quiet time' I have been praying for answers and found this site.

The only progress I have seen within the amount of time I have been trying to sharpen my skills is that I can 'read into' what people are feeling a bit better, and I have been more sensitive to everything around me. Can someone please help?