Knowing how to efficiently and quickly protect yourself from energy vampires comes handy for all of us at some point or another.

Each day we have a certain amount of energy to go by. When we feel out of balance and tired, then we become more stressed and even sick. We also lack energy in our daily lives as well as energy for loved ones.

Who is an energy vampire?

An energy vampire is someone who has long-term low energy and therefore they need to replenish the energy from someone else. Most of the times, they do it unconsciously and unintentionally. You might be energy vampire to someone you know without even realizing.

The important thing to keep in mind about energies is that we always pay back whatever we take. It’s also true the other way around; we receive a “positive interest in our energy investment” when we uplift someone.

How to read other people’s energies?

Think of someone you love and who is usually positive and kind. How do you feel when you’re in their presence? Light? Happy? Energetic?

Positive people have a gift to uplift others naturally. They help you feel better when you lose hope, and they inspire you when you want to give up. In this case, they give you energy from the place of energy abundance. The “giving” is more like sharing and extending positive energy than giving and lacking it afterward.

Now think of someone who is complaining and always negative. How do you feel when you interact with them? Not so well?

The feeling of unwell in their presence warns you that something is off and their energy has a negative impact on you. They’re lowering your own energy levels and trying to steal energy from you.

The moment you emotionally react to energy vampires, they begin stealing your energy.

Read 15 Signs and Symptoms Of Negative Energy In Your Body

Who are energy vampires in your life?

1.  It’s your best friend who MOST OF THE TIME talks about her difficult life and problems.

She doesn’t care about you much, the only thing that she wants is you to feel sorry for her and try to uplift her (giving her energy). If you don’t do it, she accuses you of being selfish and not sympathizing with her suffering. She might even stop talking with you entirely if she sees that you don’t energetically invest her drama.

Just to be clear, I don’t speak here about situations when your friend is going through difficult times, and she needs you to support her – sometimes it’s alright, and it’s human. But what I refer to is if she is continuously down and she doesn’t seek real help, but she wants to complain about her situation.

Read 12 Plants That Can Create Positive Energy in Your Home

2.  It’s a boss who pushes you to the limits and minds if you speak up.

He wants your energy and obedience so he can do with you whatever he likes. If you speak up, he gets upset and makes hard times for you in the company. At the moment when you speak up, you refuse to give your energy to him, he – as an energy vampire – needs to find another source of energy instead of you.

3. It’s a partner who manipulates you always to do what they want.

Instead of supporting your dreams, they push you down. When you need to hear that you’re beautiful, he tells you that you have terrible lipstick. When she wants to “secure” a relationship with you, she gets pregnant. When you want to change your life, they tell you that it doesn’t make sense and it will not work out.

4. It’s a drama queen who always needs attention.

She – but it can also be him – enhance even the smallest things to extremes. She wants you to react and be emotional because only then you give her your energy. These people like to argue just for the sake of arguing. It doesn’t matter so much what the topic is.

5. It’s a victim who always feels like the whole world is against them.

These people take everything personally. It doesn’t matter to them why people did something; they feel like it was directed against them. They can give you 1000 reasons why they have it harder than you and why they cannot change it. All of us has been at some point in the position of a victim (it’s one of the four archetypes that we all share as Caroline Myss talks about) but if we stay feeling like victims, we deprive ourselves of power to change it.

I could continue for a very long time, but I want you to get the main idea of who the energy vampire is. It’s a very real thing, and we all encounter them often. Therefore it’s vital to understand the dynamics between you and the energy vampire.

Read 12 Ways to Prevent Energy Infiltration and Reclaim Your Energy

How do energy vampires drain you?

I want to give you a little background about how this dynamics work. In our bodies, we have energy centers called chakras.

If chakras are balanced, we have balanced energy, we feel good, and we’re healthy. If one of them doesn’t function properly, then we feel the imbalance almost immediately.

If you say things like; today isn’t my day, or I feel burdened, then if I’d be you, I’d check chakras first. We feel the energy all the time, but the funny thing is that it’s so simple that we think that what we feel is stupid or we’ve made it up. In reality, our feelings inform us very well about our energies.

The energy vampires steal our energy mostly from the first three chakras. Your second chakra located below your navel connects you with everyone in your life. It creates an energy tunnel between you and the person. When you interact with someone and also think of someone, there is an energy exchange between you two through this tunnel.

Ideally, it’s more or less balanced exchange of energy. Your friends help you and uplift you, and then you also support them when they need it. However, when it’s more like the one-way stream (one of you is mostly giving), then you’re very likely just losing your energy.

Guess how many people can you energetically feed before burning out or feeling thoroughly exhausted?

Read 10 Signs That Tell If You Are Being Struck By Negative Energy

Energy vampires in relationships

This is the reason why it’s better to have few real friends than hundreds of not so good friends who only take or gossip about you behind your back. Gossiping and envy are natural in our times with perfect social accounts. Also, your virtual friends can steal energy from you if they’re secretly jealous of you or envious.

If you’ve ever been in a disharmonious relationship, you’ve probably felt unhappy, heavy, or perhaps like being caught in a cage. If there is manipulative or controlling energy or if one partner gives more than the other, the relationships cannot last long.

At least it cannot be a happy relationship for a long time. One of the partners is literally sucking the energy of another which makes the other person lose self-confidence (3rd chakra) and makes them feel like it’s difficult to change the situation. They feel trapped because they’re leaking the energy which they need to change their condition.

Energy vampires steal our energy from our chakras. The first chakra corresponds with social norms (you should study this and become this), the second chakra is all about money, work, sexual energies, and personal relationships, and the third chakra which is responsible for our self-confidence and our boundaries (inability to say no also leads to energy leakage).

You leak your energy when you have a negative emotional reaction to something.

Read What a Relationship with a Narcissist Actually Feels Like

How to protect yourself from energy vampires?

There is a lot of information about energy protection. I would like to share with you what I do and hope it can serve you.

1. Learn to say no

When you say no to someone (and you mean it), you stop the energy flow between you two. Your energy always obeys your command.

Think about the moment when you were proud of yourself for saying no to someone. Did you feel more empowered? The reason is that you stopped donating energy to them and instead stopped the flow. Having clear boundaries is essential for creating a balanced life. When you say yes, and you know that you shouldn’t have, you betray yourself.

2. Become aware of your energies

The reason why I’ve written so long article is that I want you to become more aware of your energies. The moment when you know that someone is stealing your energy, you can change it. They cannot do it against your free will, but it’s also true that they might have a stronger will so it can take a bit more effort to stop the flow. Yet it all begins with awareness.

3. Your energy stays with you

When you feel that you’re leaking your energy, you can put your hands on one of the chakras (usually the 3rd chakra, above your belly button) and simply say in your mind that your energy stays with you. This will give the energy a clear intention to stay with you instead of leaking through the energy tunnel to the other person.

4. Love is the strongest energy

Just like in fairy tales, love always wins. If you manage to feel love and get yourself into this highest vibrating energy, then no one can affect you. I know that it’s difficult to stay there all the time, but you can also feel love for some period when you’re consciously dealing with the energy vampire. They don’t want your love so they’ll fall away.

Read 6 Types Of Energy Vampires That Emotionally Exhaust You

5. Cord-cutting.

You can consciously cut off the energy tunnels – ties – connecting you and the other person. Imagine them right in front of you and envision the cord connecting you. Trust your inner guidance – whichever shape or form it comes to you is the best. And then imagine a big sword (or ax) and cut the cord. Sometimes you may have to repeat this exercise.

I hope this article helped you to understand the fundamental energy dynamics. One thing that I wish you take away from this article is that you’re not weird if you feel like someone is stealing your energy – someone probably is doing just that. Listening more to our inner guidance can help us make smarter and healthier choices in life.

Sylvia

Written by Sylvia Salow
Originally appeared on Sylvia Salow.com
Republished with permission.