I Am An Empath

I'm barely starting to realize I'm an empath and I still learning how to make "walls" around me. Any ideas? Also, I don't know how to control all of these emotions around me. When I ask my friends why they are feeling upset, or sad, or etc they always ask, "how do you know" and its hard to explain to them because they'll think I'm crazy. So I just say, "I can tell by the face you just made". I also get vibes from people and can read their aurora. Any suggestions on how to handle these things?