In this age of negativity and distractions at every corner, it’s becoming more and more important to protect your energy.
In this article, we cover 21 ways you can practice protecting your energy in order to live a full and intentional life.
Why Do You Need to Protect Your Energy?
Your quality of life depends largely on your level of energy.
So it’s important to recognize areas of stress that are sucking your energy and leaving you unhappy and unfulfilled.
If you have big goals outside of your day-to-day schedule, keeping your energy at optimum levels is the key to achieving them.
How Can You Protect Your Energy?
You can protect energy in a number of ways. It all boils down to conserving your mental and emotional battery power, and recharging whenever you have the chance.
Also eliminating or greatly decreasing sources of negative energy and energy vampires.
1. Tune In And Listen To Your Own Energy
The first step to protecting your energy is to build awareness.
Practice paying attention regularly throughout the day, and especially in times where your stress levels are affected.
Simply observe how you’re feeling at any moment, and notice how much energy you have.
If you’re content and happy, you’ll find that difficult tasks won’t be as draining as when you’re tired or discontent.
So practice taking a deep breath and trying to stay present and mindful of what’s going on in your mind, heart and body.
2. Disengage From The Source of Negativity
If you’re in a highly stressful environment or conversation, it helps to quickly disengage.
Take a step outside of the office for a few minutes, or excuse yourself from a heated conversation.
You’ll find that when you have even just a few minutes to breathe, the negativity won’t affect you as much as if you stayed.
Don’t underestimate the power of social media either.
Be aware that often these apps thrive on negativity, so try to log off often, and if you can, simply quit for the sake of your mental health.
3. Practice Mindfulness
Similar to the idea of observing your own emotional state, it helps to practice mindfulness as often as possible.
You could observe your own breathing (no need to take a deep breath, just breathe naturally) and the sensations you feel in your body.
Observe your actions as you make tea, type, walk, or do any automatic actions. This practice is great, as it helps you to get out of your own head and focus on the present world.
4. Take a Deep Breath and Observe
Building onto the mindfulness practice is observing situations and conversations that affect your emotions.
Simply observe them, as if you were an outsider looking in.
Take deep breaths, and let the emotion pass through you and disappear eventually. Never deny your feelings, but don’t let them control you.
5. Try Body Scan Meditation
A great way to conserve your energy is by meditating. It doesn’t have to be sitting in a lotus flower posture while taking deep breaths (although that helps too!).
You can try this form of meditation almost anywhere. Simply scan your body mentally from head to toe, and observe how each part feels.
Checking your physical state like this helps you to relax. You’ll have the ability to calm yourself in most situations and expend less energy.
6. Watch Your Ego
Often the things that deplete the most energy are caused by our own egos.
A lot of stress comes from a perceived idea of what others want us to be, and the obsession with how we come across.
Letting go of others’ opinions is a big step to positive change. You’ll always be filled with negativity if you live life by others’ standards.
If you start to step out into the world living true to yourself and your purpose, you’ll find boundless energy reserves.
The important thing is to discard your ego, because it ultimately doesn’t serve your happiness.
Related: 51 Ways How To Spot An Empath
7. Clean Your Outer Environment
There is a strong connection between how you keep your home space (be it your bedroom, office, or anywhere you go to be alone) and your energy levels.
Having too much mess results in mental fogginess and depleted energy. It’s hard to focus when distracted by the clutter around you.
De cluttering your space can do wonders for your energy. When you live and work in a clean space, you’re less likely to be affected by negative energies.
8. Cleanse Your Inner Environment
One of the number one causes of mental stress is social media. It started out as a fun way to connect with loved ones and share your daily moments and memories.
But the constant negatively-focused articles and clickbait can leave you drained before your day even begins.
Try deleting your social media and taking a temporary digital detox.
Replace social media time with productive quiet-time activities, such as reading, journaling, or listening to music.
9. Limit Your Exposure to Negativity
One of the simple ways to protect your energy is to delete as many sources of negativity as possible.
But life isn’t always this simple. Some things that drain your energy are necessary. For example, meetings at work may drain you, but they are important to your career.
In such cases, you can make a pre-ritual for whenever you encounter such a situation.
Take deep breaths, do a quick body scan, and think of your intentions before you step in, and you’ll find it easier to deal with these situations.
10. Look After Your Physical Health
It may be common knowledge, but it’s so valuable that it bears repeating. Look after your physical health daily, and your energy levels will thank you.
Exercise daily if you can, even just light to moderate exercise.
You’ll also sleep better, which tops up your energy levels for the day.
Top this off with a healthy diet, filled with whole foods, fruits and vegetables and you’ll give yourself a major advantage.
11. Trust Your Gut
If a person or situation causes you to be stressed, often your body will warn you beforehand. Learn to trust your gut feeling more.
Many lives have been saved by people’s gut feelings, and our ancient ancestors needed to rely on their instincts to survive.
Not to be dramatic, but protecting your energy is also a big part of keeping you alive.
Anxious and negative energies can slowly kill you, so when in doubt, trust your gut to avoid them whenever you can.
12. Use Visualization To Go To Your Happy Place
If you’re in the middle of negativity that’s draining you, and you don’t have a moment to disengage, then rely on the power of visualization.
Our minds are powerful – take advantage of that fact. Practice escaping mentally from a negative situation into a positive space, whatever that looks like to you.
Perhaps you imagine a deserted island with a scenic beach and palm trees, or being in the embrace of someone you love.
This space is entirely personal to you, so create one that truly helps you to find peace.
Related article: Where Focus Goes Energy Flows
13. Imagine a Shield Surrounding and Protecting You
Sometimes you can’t escape fully from the situation, especially if it’s a work task, or a conversation with the boss.
So an effective way of protecting your own energy in these times is to visualize being insulated against the negativity.
Create a protective shield in your mind, and imagine it surrounding you and your energy.
Let negative and draining words bounce off this shield, creating peace for your mind.
With this visualization technique, you can still be present in the physical sense, but you’ll feel protected against the effects of these situations.
How To Protect Your Energy As An Empath
As an empath, you are more sensitive to negative energy, so you might need extra help to protect your own energy from situations and people that could make you anxious.
Here are some tips that everyone could find useful, but especially works well for empaths.
14. Stop Giving Away Your Energy
It may come naturally to you as an empathic person to try making others feel comfortable, to make sure the environment doesn’t affect you negatively.
But what you may not realize, is that this is sucking up your own energy reserves, and leaving you stressed in the process.
Learn to create clear-cut boundaries for spending your energy. Prevent yourself from relieving other people’s stress where it affects your own.
Related article: Ways Balancing Masculine And Feminine Energy
15. Be Aware of Your Triggers
In order to protect your energy from the triggers that cause it to deplete, first you need to know your triggers.
Empaths react to and can absorb the emotions of people around them, whether they are positive or negative.
As an empath, you can surely list people close to you that are generally in a bad mood, and can cause a damper to your own state.
Be aware of how someone’s energy affects your own, and then decide how much time you have to be in the presence of people who drain you. Shorten this time as much as you possibly can.
Related article: Empaths Protection Tools – How To Deal With Being An Empath
16. Set Aside Time Just For You
For empaths, someone else’s energy will inevitably affect their own if they stay in their space long enough.
And that includes the social media space, and even movies and TV programs.
As a rule to protect your energy and peace of mind, it’s essential to create pockets of time in your day to enjoy solitude.
That means no friends, family, social media, or screens. Use this time to reflect, journal, and recharge.
You’ll be better prepared to face the negativity of the world if you have daily quiet time.
This is non-negotiable for optimal energy levels. Try having boundaries around this time and protecting it.
17. Release What You Cannot Control
Many people, but especially highly sensitive empaths, are prone to obsessing over something they cannot control. Namely, other people’s emotions.
Protecting your energy means that sometimes you’ll have to let go of this impulse.
You cannot control the mental state of the other person, and you shouldn’t have to take on that burden.
Learn to release this need, and your energy will rise to serve you and your own needs.
How to Protect Your Energy From Family
In many cases, it’s hard to protect your energy with solid boundaries if you live with your family, or whenever you are around them.
Unfortunately, we can’t control who we’re related to, no matter how much they can drain you. Here are a few tips for protecting your energy around family.
18. Build a Solid Social Circle
Good friends are the family that we choose. Make sure you surround yourself with positive people that support you and want the best for you in life.
This is especially true if you grew up with a toxic family. The reality is that not everyone is blessed enough to have an understanding family.
If that describes you, it’s important to find your tribe.
If you can’t rely on your relatives to give your support, have a solid friend circle that you can go to to get your emotional needs met.
19. Set Boundaries and Don’t Overextend Yourself
It’s not wrong to say no sometimes – especially if doing so will save your energy.
It might hurt your family at first, especially if you’ve made yourself too available for them in the past.
But after some time and space, they’ll likely get used to and respect the firm boundaries you have set in place.
Being around your family doesn’t have to be unpleasant.
Once you’ve set boundaries, you’ll find that you can focus on the positive energy you get from spending time with them.
20. Take a Pause Before Responding
Addressing family problems in the heat of the moment can make you feel drained.
If you don’t have an action plan before these issues arise, you’ll be feeling drained of energy all the time.
Set an intention before such issues occur.
For example, if a family member usually calls you to vent about another family member, rehearse how you’ll respond before the call comes.
Pay attention to how you’re feeling whenever she calls, and take a brief pause before answering.
You can set a boundary about how much time you’ll spend attending to their needs.
For example, tell them you only have five minutes to talk, then set a timer, and make sure to end the call politely when it goes off.
21. Make Your Space A Soothing Sanctuary
If you’re lucky enough to have a space to sit down and rest, be it your home, or even just your bedroom, make it as relaxing as possible.
Seal it from other people’s energies that drain your own. Create it to be a place where you can take a deep breath, calm yourself, and shake off the troubles of the day.
Treat it like an energy field that recharges your physical and mental state.
Paint it in a color that is pleasant to you, and do activities you enjoy while in this space. Make it a place where you feel good and can escape.
FAQs
How can I stop people from stealing my energy?
The first step is always to identify what drains and what recharges your energy.
Try to have the former minimized or dismissed, and maximize time in the latter.
This often means that you’ll have to enforce some boundaries, which some people may not be happy about at first.
What can you do to avoid negative energy?
As long as you’re alive you can’t completely avoid negativity.
But you can do your best to avoid the situations that are not necessary, and learn to manage the ones you can’t avoid.
Schedule the unavoidable negative interactions in between events and habits that are pleasant and calming to you.
Whenever you can, find more info before the situations occur, so you’re more prepared for them.
This is a form of energetic protection. It allows you to calm yourself and preserve your energy throughout the day.
What does it mean to protect your energy? ‘Protect your energy’ meaning
Protecting your energy is a matter of minimizing interactions and activities that drain your energy.
This includes making more time for activities that uplift your energy in a positive way. Consider it to be a form of emotional self preservation.
Why is it important to protect your energy?
It’s important to protect your energy, because your energy levels determine the quality of the life you’ll live.
If your supply is always low, you’ll be full of stress, and it will be hard to focus on the things that truly matter to you, such as your relationships and goals.
Conclusion
In this article, we covered 21 ways of protecting your energy (and living your best life!) that you can try today.
Have you tried any of these tips? Which one resonated with you the most? Please share and let me know what you thought in the comments!
