Protecting Your Peace: Part 2 - Implementing Energetic Boundaries for Protection

Have you ever felt drained and exhausted after interacting with certain people? You might have encountered what I like to call "Qi Suckers." These individuals can make you feel as if they're sucking the soul right out of you, leaving you tired and even like you’ve taken on some of their emotional or physical pain.

Recognizing when you're dealing with a Qi Sucker is crucial. After an interaction with them, you might feel fatigued, and you might even absorb some of the negativity or suffering they're experiencing. However, it's important to understand that you can protect yourself energetically from these draining encounters. It feels a little non-consent-y to be a victim of these folks without proper protection. It is your responsibility to protect yourself against them! Additionally, if it’s too late and you’ve already taken on someone’s negativity, there are helpful and practical ways to discharge energy. As someone who often interacts with people who are suffering regularly, I have developed some tried and true techniques for energetic protection.

Regardless of whether the soul suck is mild or intense, here are some techniques I use and recommend. Many of them are visualization, movement, or sound techniques and must be practiced regularly so you can develop the muscle memory to use them on the fly. The first two techniques are preventative. The rest of the techniques are used to discharge.

1. “Feel Your Edges”: Bring awareness to your body's edges. Notice what sensations are yours and what might belong to others. This practice helps you distinguish between your energy and external influences. It also helps your body stay rooted in the present moment.

2. Visualize Energetic Boundaries: Similarly to “feeling your edges,” this technique provides a stronger boundary. Imagine yourself as a mirror during interactions. When facing outward, you reflect the person's energy back to them, allowing them to see themselves. You can also flip that mirror inward to create a cocoon of protection. I use this on days that my energy is low. Pretend that you are wearing a full-body suit that consists of a mirror facing inward to reflect back to you your own body and therefore your boundaries.

3. Energetic Cleansing using water: Use water as a tool for cleansing. Visualize negative energ: What does it look like? What color is it? What’s the consistency? For me, I visualize it as a dark, gooey substance. Imagine this substance being washed away as you cleanse your hands or take a shower. You can also simultaneously visualize white or golden light replacing the cleared energy. I think it’s helpful to imagine the negative energy washing down your body and into the earth, meanwhile, positive energy flows into the top of the head and down to replace the negative OR you can imagine that negative energy washing down to your heart and out through the hands as you wash them, meanwhile imagining the same positive energy replacing it. If you feel ungrounded, use the first option.

4. Energetic Cleansing Using Other Tools: Burning sage or palo santo are ways to help clear and move stagnant energy, and/or bring positivity to spaces. Sage is more powerful to clear negative energy, meanwhile palo santo brings positive energy. Use what you feel most called to in that moment.

5. Shaking or Intuitive Dancing Practice: Engage in shaking or intuitive dancing to release stuck energy from your body. This can be as simple as shaking your limbs or doing full-body movements to shake off negativity. Be aware of what types of repetitive movement feel good. It’s not important what the movements look like to the outside world. Put your focus inward and move your body in a way that feels good to you. Steady-state exercise such as walking, biking, and running is great to discharge energy, but keep in mind because it’s repetitive in the same motion, it might not actually discharge as much as doing an intuitive practice where you are actually tapping into your sense felt experience.

6. Exercise/Movement Awareness: During any movement, pay attention to where you feel energetic stickiness and focus on discharging that energy through movement. You can practice and actually do this in real-time while walking to your car or going grocery shopping.

7. Meditation Practice/Static Awareness: Doing a seated meditation practice is a great way to body scan where you are holding stuck energy. Just noticing is the first step to understanding. You can dialogue with your body and/or the stuck energy and ask it: Where are you from? What do you need? How can I help?

8. Discharging Energy Through Vocal Toning: Vocal toning is a form of vocalizing that uses your voice to express whatever is inside you. Take a deep breath in and on the exhale, let whatever noise come out. This could be as cute as a regular or audible exhale, however, it could also be a cry, grunt, groan, scream, or hum. I like to do this in the car.

9. Scrub your skin: Sometimes, on the most challenging days, one or more of these techniques still don’t quite do the trick. In that case, try getting in the shower and scrubbing your skin, meanwhile using the same water cleansing visualization techniques in #3.

Implementing these techniques can help you maintain energetic boundaries and protect your well-being. Remember, it's your responsibility to protect your peace!