Bad energy stay far away
We hear a lot about self love and how important it is to take necessary steps to give ourselves some much needed TLC. We are also aware that despite knowing this , a lot of us don’t do anything about it despite how it will benefit our lives. A concept that is innately intertwined with self love is the idea about the intangible entity that is ‘energy’ and how our relationship with energy can affect our thoughts and actions.
The idea is to keep good energy flowing while keeping bad energy as far away from you as possible. Easy enough right? Well before we can defend ourselves from the bad energy we first have to define what bad energy looks like. Negative energy manifests in many different forms, sometimes coming from external parties and other times coming from within.
Channeling negativity into your life
“…But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause you grief.”
The power of our words and how they manifest in our reality is something that shouldn’t be underestimated. Words have the power to dictate the path that our lives take and we should therefore harness them for good. Have you ever woken up in the morning, picked up your phone and seen something bad in the news? Perhaps got a text message that puts you down? or seen a ton of work emails that you ‘HAVE’ to respond to? Your next step is probably to tell yourself that today is going to be a long day, and these thoughts then in fact go on to become your reality.
I recently found myself trapped in this soul draining cycle . I would reach a point of exhaustion , then the voice in my head moves me through my usual daily routine without pause — always a bad idea. Also, like many people, I managed to wire myself to have a short attention span. When something lost my interest or caused me displeasure I would deal with it by moving on to something else to fill that void or make me feel better.
Allowing negative people into your space
I remember back in my corporate days, we had one of those team offsite-bonding day things. As a part of the day we had a talk from a personal branding specialist who spoke about the importance of having more ‘pot fillers’ in you life than ‘pot drillers’.
- Pot Filler — Somebody who is all about filling you up with good energy and giving to you
- Pot driller — Somebody who is all about filling you up with negative energy and taking from you
Just being around a pot driller can make you feel low on energy and motivation. There is something about the aura that surrounds these people that can really kill your vibe. Ideally you would avoid these people completely, but the truth is we have to work with pot drillers and they might also be in your friendship groups or may even be a family member. The aim is to avoid letting your interactions with these people impact you as much as possible.
Three steps for keeping negative energy away
I have been a victim (sometimes still am) from both the external and internal forms of negative energy, but I’m on a journey to surround myself with more positivity. I’ve read a lot of material, listened to and watched a lot of the experts, and spoken to some wellness professionals that I admire to help refine my perspective on the matter. Since then I have started to take small steps towards what I envision as an ideal future state, I will share three with you now.
1.Curate your environment
Our surroundings have a direct impact on how we think and feel. This doesn’t just stop at the people we have around as (more pot fillers, less pot drillers) but is also extended to the inanimate objects that are around us. For example a messy room can be distracting and stressful to the mind. The same can be said about what we can hear, smell and feel in our environment. Often it can be difficult to completely design what our immediate environment looks like but the small things that infuse positive energy into our space can make all the difference. This can start with something as small as constructing your work environment with plants, images of things that motivate you and having a playlist that keeps you in a happy and focused state. We all have different things that work for us, find what you love and surround yourself with it.
2.Renew yourself daily
Often when thinking about rebirth, change and renewal, it comes at specific checkpoints in our lives. When something goes wrong, maybe starting a new relationship or entering some other type of transition period in. Moving that mindset towards one of daily renewal has made the difference for me. In practice this means
- Having a moment every day before bed to reflect upon what has happened that day , realising why things went right/wrong and then thinking of ways to continue the good and eliminating the bad
- In the mornings meditating before I start my day which focuses me on the present moment through breath and an awareness of myself and my surroundings
Realising that every day is a new opportunity to embrace what life has to offer, and that the troubles of yesterday don’t have to shape your future allows you to face each day with optimism.
3.Practice Gratitude
The older I get, the more I’m conscious of ways very small things can make a change in the world. Tiny little things, but the world is made up of tiny matters, isn’t it?
-Sandra Sisneros
Often the small things make all the difference in the world. The truth is that despite how much you curate your environment and renew yourself daily you will inevitably come across negative sources of energy which will attempt to derail you during your day. My way of combating this is gratitude. Realising that despite how bad things may get, waking up every day with breath in our lungs is enough reason to be filled with gratitude can be enough to change the way you are feeling. Give thanks daily!
The above are just three things that I have learnt so far while speaking to some great people who are using their knowledge to improve the quality of many human lives. Starting with my next blog I will be sharing with you what I have learnt from the conversations that I have been having . If you are interested in learning what I have, please subscribe below.
