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This year has made me learn a lot about myself, and the ways in which energy can leak out of my body without my permission.
What’s an energy leak? It’s when we feel tired, run-down, depleted, and forgetful of who we are and what our purpose is, because our energy is wrapped up in matters that aren’t ours to invest in.
We forget to be in our body, and our hearts connect more outwardly rather than inwardly. We lose contact with our sense of self and find that we are always needing to recharge and do grounding practices to come back to our primordial essence.
This is common with empaths; we experience burnout, sensory overload, or “frayed nerves” because we we absorb the emotions of others when we are around people.
In my line of work, as a physiotherapist, I deal with patients describing their pain to me all day. On most occasions, I can successfully detach and be able to preserve my own energy, but sometimes, it all becomes too much. This is probably a feature of being a healthcare worker in a complex, difficult world with a pandemic on top. I’ve found that in order to be truly embodied and aware of where I’m expending my energy, I need something to quickly snap me out of that state (that doesn’t involve a 15-minute meditation or taking a holiday).
So, I asked our readers last month on Elephant Journal: How do you deal with absorbing too much energy from others?
One of the responses I received was a profound affirmation, and I found myself using it many times. I could instantly feel like my energy would return back to my body again and I’d feel at peace.
This reader said she had read this affirmation somewhere online, but couldn’t locate the source:
“I return this back to the sender with consciousness attached.”
What I love about this affirmation is how forgiving and compassionate it is. It says, I give you back what was never mine to begin with and I hope you find clarity moving onwards. It gives us permission to not hold onto the pain of others or the frustration of the world too close to our heart. It reminds us to keep room for ourselves, too. We deserve to carve out a space in this world for ourselves and for our dreams, and to continually be able to have enough energy for that.
I will continue to repeat this affirmation in times of need, and I thank this anonymous reader for her insight. Our energy may be delicate, but it is sharp and intelligent. It takes time and practice to learn how to tuck our energy field in, but when learned, we can use our empathy in a much more healthy, grounded way.
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