Since my early teen years I have battled the black dog of depression and anxiety. There were times when I was completely depleted by the heavy on set of emotion. I was stuck in mind-sand for many years sinking deeper into dis-empowerment and self pity. In a desperate search to uplift myself I searched for helping hands to pull me out of the goo. I began to learn ways I could navigate myself back to empowerment.

The most life changing discovery for me along my journey was the realization that my depression was linked to my inner energy. I learned that all emotion is energy. Emotion equals energy-in-motion. What this meant for my depression was an understanding that the heaviness I felt was actually depleted and negative energy, not necessarily an emotion from within me.

This had such a massive impact on my healing as instead of my focusing on why I was feeling depressed (which was always the same disempowering self-pity sob story) my focus shifted to understand what energy I had taken on and how I can lift it.

Being a highly sensitive person and an empath by nature, I realized that I was like a sponge to my world, absorbing emotions all around me. Without awareness of this process, negative emotions were being depressed into my system causing a depression of negativity. By redefining my depression in this way, I discovered powerful tools to clear my energy and avoid the burnout of empathy fatigue.

I noticed a pattern to emotion. It began with a thought which created a feeling in me and my mind would then define that feeling into an emotion. For example, if I had the thought, “I have no one to support me,” a feeling of despair and self-pity would follow. Because those emotions held negative energy, as I indulged in that conversation with myself, more dark and negative energy would be pushed down into my being. The dark cloud would leave me drained, depleted and depressed. I had no energy, could not think clearly and felt heavy.

So learning to manage my thoughts taught me to catch negative thought and turn it around.

Before I share some tools to clear and uplift your energy, let’s first identify how to realize when you have taken on negativity.
This involves a process of self-reflection and checking in with your feelings after certain experiences.

• Begin to notice how your energy feels after you have eaten certain foods. If you feel an energy drop, you know you have taken on negativity from that food.
• When you are around certain people, notice how you feel while you are with them or just after you leave them. If you feel that drain after you have been with them again they are draining your energy and you will take on negativity.
• Begin to catch yourself in certain thoughts. After you have had a negative thought, notice how it effects your feelings.
• Notice conversations you are having, in particular gossip, blaming or complaining. Notice how your energy feels after that.
• Notice certain places which may be draining your energy – shopping center, gym, work, home, restaurants etc.

Awareness of your energy drainers is the first step to plugging up your drainers and managing your energy.

So here are some ways to uplift and clear your energy:

1. Protect your energy. There are so many ways to do this with crystals and essential oils. My favorite way to protect my energy is to bath myself in white light. Imagine an effervescent bubble of light above your head and imagine beams pouring around your body hugging you safely in a bubble.
2. Manage your thoughts. Stop those negative thoughts in their tracks. Literally say STOP! Click your fingers, clap your hands, visualize a stop sign or whatever you need to throw in a thought circuit breaker. This stops the flow of energy and allows you to reframe your thoughts and turn them into more uplifting and empowering thoughts.
3. Cut ties. Let go of people or conversations that drain you. Visualize the cord of energy that connects you to that person and notice where in your body they are hooking in and how those claws are draining your energy. Creatively cut that cord and feel the attachment to your vampire release.
4. Turn your empathy into compassion. There is so much I can say on this point that I will need to make it into a future blog article. For now notice how when you empathise with another person you feel what they are feeling. When you feel what they are feeling you have to take on their energy and when you take on their energy you trigger those same emotions in you. Down into the mind sand you will sink! Compassion allows you to detach and accept and understand that other person mindfully, as the observer rather than the experiencer.
5. Fill up your cup. Think about what you can do to uplift your energy and feel happy. Yoga, exercise, dancing, walking, etc are a few examples. Think of what you did as a child to feel happy and DO THAT! When your inner fuel tank is full you have the energy to manage yourself, your awareness and your actions.

And as you focus on managing your energy and lifting the dark cloud of negativity, the heaviness, confusion and depletion will lift. As you release, cleanse and purify your energy your inner light will have the space to shine brightly again and connect with your inner power.

In the space of inner power you can discover authentic happiness which in turn gives you the strength, the focus, the desire and the capability to live your life to your best potential.

The reason why angels fly is because they take themselves so lightly 🙂