Have you ever had one of those days where you feel emotionally drained after an encounter with someone? I was talking to a friend recently who couldn’t understand why he felt mentally exhausted every time he spent time with certain people in his life. He wasn’t sick, running himself ragged at work, or experiencing a lack of sleep. But every time he’d talk to certain people, he’d end up feeling anxious, frustrated, and emotionally drained.
That conversation stuck with me because we often worry about taking care of our physical health but forget the importance of guarding our emotional and mental well being.
When people mention toxic energy, some think about it from a spiritual viewpoint. Others look at the emotional aspects. But either way, you cannot spend endless amounts of time around negativity without it impacting the way you think, feel, and even live your life.
Being around constant criticism, toxic friendships, gossiping, fear based news, and unresolved stress can slowly leak your peace away without you even noticing it.
The beauty is that you don’t have to let that become your normal. You can create healthy habits that allow you to guard your mind, improve emotional strength, and live at peace despite what is happening around you. Below are eight simple ways you can protect yourself from bad energy and stay at peace.
8 Ways to Protect Yourself From Bad Energy
1. Be Careful About Who You Allow Into Your Life
Bad energy can spread from the people you allow into your life. Just because someone needs your time doesn’t mean they deserve your time.
Not everyone should have unlimited access to your ears, emotions, and personal space. Some people are constantly complaining, stirring up drama, gossiping, trying to manipulate others, or finding something to criticize about anything.
Time spent with these people can pollute your own thinking without you even realizing it.
Protecting yourself from bad energy doesn’t mean you have to be rude to people or cut everyone off who tries to bring you down. It means becoming intentional about who you spend your time with. When you start feeling drained after being around someone, ask yourself if you feel encouraged, inspired, loved, and respected, or if you just feel drained, anxious, and inadequate.
Healthy friendships will encourage your spirit more times than they drain it.
Read also: The Ultimate Mid Year Life Audit Checklist to Reset and Refocus Your Life
2. Guard What You Feed Your Mind
Your mind is like fertile soil. If you constantly feed it negative news articles, online arguments, toxic social media, or listen to music filled with anger and frustration, you can’t wonder why your view on life is so grim.
Again, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore the bad things happening in the world. It means limiting how much of that input you let yourself consume. Fill your mind with uplifting books, podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels, and conversations that encourage you to become better instead of scared.
You must guard your peace by guarding your attention. What you choose to think about has the power to control your emotions. Let your emotions control your decisions, and you’ll soon find yourself living in emotional turmoil.
Read also: How to Really Enjoy Being Alone (21 ways)
3. Learn to Say No Without Feeling Guilty
Over time, many people lose their peace because they try to please everyone else around them. They give in to others’ demands when they really want to say no. They overwork themselves to meet everyone else’s expectations and take care of others at the expense of their own well being.
The truth is that one tiny yes you don’t want to give can become an anchor around your neck and steal your peace. Learning to say no is not selfish when you do it to protect your emotional and mental health. In fact, it takes maturity and respect for yourself to know your limits.
You do not owe anyone unlimited access to your time, money, emotions, and attention. Sometimes you need to say no (even if it feels uncomfortable) to free up space for the people and responsibilities that do matter.
Read also: How to Kindly Say No to Someone: 8 Tips
4. Spend Time Alone to Recharge
Loneliness and alone time are two completely different things. Alone time is healthy and allows your mind to slow down, clear your thoughts, and recover from the chaos of life.
If you’re constantly surrounded by people, your phone, work, kids, or life distractions, your emotional bucket becomes drained over time. Taking time by yourself to clear your mind allows you to realize what things are affecting your peace.
Use your alone time to journal, pray, listen to music, meditate, take a walk, or simply sit and be with your thoughts. All of these simple practices allow you to clear your head and improve your emotional intelligence, which will help you respond to life instead of reacting to life.
5. Stop Carrying Other People’s Problems
Empathy is a wonderful gift, but you cannot allow yourself to carry everyone else’s problems as if they’re your own. People often dump all their stress, anger, anxieties, and problems on others without any intention of solving them.
You can be there for others and still maintain boundaries. It’s okay to listen, encourage, and support others, but understand that we’re all adults responsible for our own lives.
If you feel like your emotional tank is running empty by helping others, it may be time to create better emotional boundaries. Guarding your peace isn’t selfish or rude. It allows you to stay emotionally available to help when it truly matters.
6. Practice Gratitude Every Day
Negativity thrives where we allow it to fill up our mind. When you practice gratitude, you change your mindset by recognizing that even during the hardest seasons of life, there is still something to be thankful for.
This doesn’t mean that you should ignore the pain you’re feeling or force yourself to pretend like everything is okay. It means learning to recognize the hard seasons of life while acknowledging the blessings surrounding you at the same time. Even on your worst days, you can be grateful for your health, family, friends, job, lessons learned, or simply having another day to start fresh.
Establishing a consistent gratitude practice allows you to improve your emotional strength and makes it difficult for toxic people and bad energy to steal your focus.
Read also: 30 Gratitude Prompts to Help You See the Bright Side of Life
7. Strengthen Your Spiritual Life
For many people, peace is more than positive thinking. There is nothing wrong with having a strong spiritual foundation either. If faith and spirituality are important to you, allowing yourself time to pray, read your Bible, listen to worship music, and trust in God can help you stand firm during the times when bad energy surrounds you.
Life will always have its ups and downs. You will face unexpected challenges, severe disappointment, and rude people who know nothing about your life. However, when you allow your spiritual life to grow, you are better able to face life with wisdom instead of fear.
Building daily spiritual habits will empower you and guard your peace.
8. Take Care of Your Body
Your body and mind are connected. When you’re tired, hungry, dehydrated, and experiencing high levels of stress, you’re more likely to let bad energy affect you than normal.
Exercise, drink plenty of water, eat nutritious foods, and get enough sleep. Taking care of your body allows you to take care of your mind. When you feel better physically, you’re better equipped to face stressful situations without losing your peace.
Don’t underestimate how powerful a healthy lifestyle can be when it comes to living at peace. A lot of “bad energy” could simply be your body telling you that it’s tired, hungry, or drained. Remember to take care of your whole self when you guard your mental wellness.
Conclusion
Life is going to throw you curveballs whether you’re prepared for them or not. However, you can choose how you react to them.
Guarding yourself from bad energy doesn’t mean you have to walk around with people radar strapped to your chest or think everyone is out to get you. It means you choose what you allow to penetrate your life.
By surrounding yourself with healthy people, guarding your thoughts, setting boundaries, practicing daily gratitude, strengthening your spiritual life, and taking care of your body, you can live at peace no matter what life throws your way. The more you invest in protecting your inner world, the less others can affect your outer world.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can bad energy from others really affect your life?
Whether you think about it from a spiritual standpoint or an emotional one, other people’s negative energy can affect your mood, decision making, stress levels, and emotions.
How do I stop someone from bringing bad energy into my life?
Create healthy boundaries. If someone consistently makes you feel anxious, drained, or stressed after being around them, it may be time to take a step back and limit how often you see that person.
Does putting up boundaries mean I don’t care about others?
No, setting boundaries helps you care about yourself. You can love and care for others without allowing them to run over you emotionally.
Is it wrong for me to want to stay at peace?
Not at all. Everyone deserves to find peace. Sometimes finding that peace requires you to make positive changes in your life. That doesn’t make you selfish or uncaring.
How can I stay at peace when everything around me is stressful?
Start by taking care of the areas of your life that you can control. You can’t control the actions of others, but you can control how you react to them. Guard your thoughts. Exercise. Spend more time alone. These are just a few ways to start bringing more peace into your life.
Can prayer help me stay at peace?
If you are spiritual or religious, prayer can help you seek guidance, comfort, wisdom, and better peace than you can provide for yourself. Many Christians believe that by staying connected to God, we are better able to handle the negativity that comes from others.
What is the quickest way to eliminate negative energy?
As soon as you notice something making you feel consistently stressed, angry, anxious, or drained, make an effort to create healthier alternatives. If watching the news stresses you out, watch less news. If your job brings you down, start looking for a new job. Make positive changes by replacing your stressors with more enjoyable alternatives.
Save the pin for later
