emotional attachment

this happened to me when i was about 13, i was with my native side of the family learning about the spiritual past of the family when i felt this major gut feeling. we were outside on the back patio, and it was getting pretty dark as we were out there for a while. i could feel something standing on the other side of the fence behind where i was sitting. the feeling got worse to the point i started to feel nauseous. out of nowhere, genuinely within a split second, i start SOBBING. like scream crying. i’ve always pictured the spirit as a woman. it felt like a woman’s pain and yearning. i don’t know why, it’s just always been what was shown to me. i was a little on edge before hand, but not nearly to the point of bursting out in painful emotion like that, especially in front of people, with no trigger. i had no idea what was happening. they brought me inside (i was with my 34 or so year old cousins) and gave me one of my late aunt’s old stuffed animals. the second i held it i stopped. i’ve always had a very strong connection to her, and i hadn’t even known it was hers until afterwards. when they gave it to me even i thought “really? a stuffed animal?”.

i’ve always been sensitive to energy, especially as a child, but that’s the most it’s ever attached to me, by far. they (my cousins) had talked about it with me and they had told me they felt it outside the fence too. before i even told them i felt something there. they just didn’t want to scare me.

later they had told me they had a salt ring around the property, which would make sense as to why i felt it directly on the other side of the fence, rather than any closer.

they had explained to me that ‘empaths’ are like a bright light shining in a dark space. it draws things to you. and when a spirit has that much hurt, that much emotion, and no way to express it in the physical realm, they can pass it onto you.

i’ve never really found anything to explain it, but i also know what i felt, and there were too many confirmations that it wasn’t just me in my head.

(edit: added information- the outside patio i was on was my late aunt’s. my cousins had moved into her home after she passed.)