Learning how to protect your energy is a valuable skill for those of you who are sensitive to other people’s emotions. It can be difficult to distinguish between your own pain and the pain of others. Acquiring these skills will help to decrease burnout at your job, increase your own energy levels, give you a deeper feeling of inner strength, and establish a greater sense of control over your life. This is an important skill to learn, especially if you are an empath (an empath is someone who is sensitive to other people’s energy) or are in a healing profession. Some methods of energy protection to use are setting healthy boundaries, being assertive, using protective energy, and essential oils or crystals. With the many avenues available to protect yourself, it is important to learn which ones work best for you. Protecting your energy will help you to be more in tune with yourself and provide you with a better understanding of your personal power.
Often times, people who are living at a lower vibration or are going through a rough time will try to take the energy of someone whom they view as calm and centered. This can be done consciously or unconsciously in an effort to illicit healing. It’s natural for this to happen. Compare this to being around someone with a positive quality you admire. You may want to acquire that quality, so you mimic behaviors which appear to bring about success. Energy works the same way.
Setting Healthy Boundaries
This can be both verbal and mental. Setting healthy boundaries verbally, can involve telling a person who is asking you to do something that you don’t want to, that you are not going to complete the task. Or it can be mental, meaning if you feel that a person is trying to drain you of your energy, you can say in your head “I extend my love and compassion towards you, but my energy is for me.” These boundaries help to prevent your energy from being taken from you, while leaving you available to be as involved as you choose to be in this person’s journey.
Being Assertive
When you feel as though your energy is being drained, be firm in your boundaries. It is okay not to give your energy freely. This doesn’t make you selfish, it makes you assertive. You are not required to give your energy to anyone, much in the same regard as you are not required to do something you don’t want to. It’s your energy/time/resource to do with as you please. There are many other ways to help or be involved that doesn’t require giving up so much of yourself. Learning to say “no” can be very empowering.
Asking for Protective Energy
If you know you are going to be in a stressful situation, you can ask for extra energy protection. This is done by visualizing a white (protection) or golden (healing) light surrounding your body prior to entering the conflict. This puts an energetic suit of armor around your body making it harder to be affected by what is going on in your environment.
Essential Oils, Crystals, and Smudging
There are many different things you can use to protect yourself. First you need to decide what you want to be protected from. Then, you select your medium. You can use sage (both the oil and the plant) to take away any energy around you. If you selected this option, make an intention to replace the energy with something positive. Essential oils like frankincense, vetiver, and rose are good to keep away negative energies. You can put them directly on your skin, mixed with a carrier oil or in a diffuser use aromatically. Lastly, you can use crystals like smokey quartz, jet, obsidian, and amethyst to help protect your energy. In order to work with crystals, you need to clear them and then set an intention for their usage. Clearing crystals can be done in many ways like holding them under running water, leaving them out under a full moon, reiki, sound, or putting them in salt & rosemary. Find which way is best for each crystal (i.e. Don’t leave quartz out in the sun or put selenite in water).
Whichever method of energy protection you use, make sure to do so with a positive intention. Meaning, rather than coming from a place of fear and feeling as though you need the protection in order to feel safe, come from a place of strength. For example, I practice energy protection as part of my self-care routine. My intention behind it comes from a place of self-worth and knowing that I need to be my best in order to help others. As an energy worker, maintaining positive energetic boundaries is essential to my health. I practice all of the methods mentioned above depending on the situation and whatever my intuition tells me is the most beneficial. Listen to your intuition and follow its instructions. It will always steer you in the direction of what best serves you.
XOXO,
Devin