Hi Sikux, you're very clearly a classic empath. You feel like a sponge yes? Experiencing the feeling of people thinking of you is very common to me. I don't know if other empaths experience the same thing. I always know when someone is going to message me something important, as I can feel it. I wasn't in contact with my mother for two months. I felt nothing... suddenly an entire week I felt unease and longing. I got a message from her that week. It's been the same with me with everyone I have attachments to, I've known it since I was 19 when it first happened with an unrequited love
I had not heard from her for like half a year, she'd blocked me everywhere. I felt nothing (again, as usual, I tend to feel nothing unless it's other people's stuff). Then one day I very intensely could not stop thinking of her. That night I got a message. I was dumbfounded. That was just after my awakening. I very quickly learned to take heed of it. Even if I don't get a message I know well enough that specific feeling that they're at least thinking of me.
Untangling your own emotions from others takes some work, but you sound like you're really doing well with it and finding yourself more centred and grounded as a result. I certainly remember that feeling. When I slip, I always take time to ground out all the trash from my system into mother earth as an offering. It's amazing how much of it isn't mine.