How to Stop Taking On the Energy of Others

We are energy, we feel the energy, we give off energy, and sometimes, we unintentionally absorb the energy of others. To some, this is considered being empathic or overly-sensitive. While you do not need to identify as an empath to experience energy absorption, to stop taking on other people’s energy requires understanding the energetic body and why you may be taking it on in the first place.

The energetic anatomy underlies the physical anatomy. Many physical symptoms have roots in the energetic body. We are made of energy at the cellular level and we are impacted and affected by the energy of other people and our environment.

Within the energetic body, there are seven chakras or energy centers in the body. The three chakras in the lower body are closely linked to feeling the subtle field in our social constructs and relationships. They also carry immense personal history, power, and unprocessed wounds.

[Read: “Leaning Into the Back Side of Your Chakras.”]

When we are vulnerable due to unprocessed energy in our lower bodies, we often absorb energy into the lower body, without realizing it. In this same area of our bodies, we live with cultural and societal conditioning that has suppressed and invalidated our truth and intuition in the lower body.

For example, the empathic sense in the body relates to the second chakra. The second chakra is the power center for feminine energy (no matter a person’s gender) which includes feeling subtle, creativity, sensitivity, sexuality, and empathy. This area of the body also holds collective shame about our sensitivity, sexuality, race, culture, way of being, and intuition. Essentially, when we are taught to feel shame and not our true self, we lose the capacity to stay with ourselves when emotions arise in others. We lose our ground and center and absorb the energy around us.

To stop taking on the energy of others grounding is important. Grounding includes connecting to nature and the earth beneath us, but it also means anchoring ourselves more deeply into our lower body and becoming present to our lower chakra system. There are many exercises you can do to stay grounded, but in a pinch, I recommend simply feeling your feet on the ground, taking deep, full breaths all the way down into your belly, and letting a beam of light or tree-trunk image extend from your hips into the ground and sprouting roots. This tree image can help with the feeling of being rooted.

[Read: “20 Affirmations for Empaths Who Feel the Pain of the World.”]

Grounding can help us feel settled and calm, but it also can help us feel some true feelings. Being real with how we feel builds the capacity to stay present around the energy of others. When we know ourselves because we can feel ourselves, we know what is not ours.

Emotional boundaries strengthen through the awareness that we are grounded and secure with having our own emotions, and therefore, it is also OK for the other person to have their emotions. Energetic boundaries also relate to the strength of the aura, the energy field around the body, and how grounded we are. Essentially, our auric field strengthens when we are grounded and radiating light from the core of our being. That radiance strengthens our aura and our energetic boundaries. Energetic boundaries also relate to personal space, personal energy, and discerning between your own energy versus the energy outside of your auric field. Emotional boundaries specifically relate to our emotional responsibility in relationship dynamics.

It is important to know that if you are living a pattern of taking on the energy of others, then you most likely have an intuitive ability to feel the energy. The triggers that happen when you take on the energy of others are a gift because they are pointing you in the direction of going deeper within you.

This journey involves inner healing, understanding the energy you’ve been carrying, healing your past traumas, and living your gifts in this life. Validating your intuition and the truth of how you feel helps break the pattern of absorbing energy at the expense of your own. Standing in your truth radiates powerful energetic boundaries.

Are you interested in learning how to develop your intuition with Wendy De Rosa? Download your free course here!

Want more? Read: “Strengthening Porous Boundaries.”