Well, have you ever walked into a room full of people(for exapmle a party) and got an overwhelming feeling and a mix of emotions?
With my friends and family I have a deeper emapthic bond with and can tell whats going on with them. Also if my partner were to have a drink and get slightly tipsey and i hadnt, i would pick up his emotions on this and end up just the same lol. A way to practice it or at least one way. Is when you go to meet a group of freinds, before you speak to them, reach out with your own power and see if you can pick up on there emotions. When with friends we always ask how we are so when you get your answers see if your "feeling" match up.
Meditation is a good alrounder for power focus and development.
Hi I am an empath and whilst growing up I could not handle all those emotions, it took years to shield and protect myself from other people's emotions, it can be a good thing and also a bad thing!!
Becare when tapping into peoples emotions (I do still struggle, but not as bad as I use too, its also fustrating when other say 'oh im fine' and you SO know that they are not fine!!)
My advice is when doing this do it real slow, start with the basic, but first, learn to shield yourself, this protects you from others invading your aura and becoming how they are feeling!! once you have learnt to shield then start to meditate and find your inner emotions then test other peoples, its kind of like feeling for something that you cannot see!
if you learn to totally control your bodily emotions and energies as well, practice, by meditation and feeling deep within your body, feel your soul kind of let itself loose while you are 100% controlling your imagination and unconcious sences. you should feel a covered sensation on your forehead, and the emotions of the person(s) slide through your body. your energy and mood will feel like its changing too.
Sounds like a lot of work, but I only write too much. Just remember to kind of, become the person at that split moment.