Boundaries and Psychic Protection – Revisited

Boundaries and Psychic Protection – Revisited

This is a long post, I hope you will hang in. I revisited a post from a while ago titled “Boundaries and Psychic Protection” because it is a place where people frequently land on my site. It’s also a topic that is increasingly relevant, nuanced, and urgent.

At the end, I’ll tell you how my current views on energy boundaries have changed.

Since the writing of the original post I have many more resources about this topic, so if you want to jump right to those here are a few:

Current Resources:

A class on Energy Boundaries and the Energy Ecosystem, with a longer group planned.

An audio course you can download at any time from Sounds True: Shining Bright Without Burning Out: Spiritual Tools for Creating Healthy Energetic Boundaries in an Overconnected World

Individual guidance to support you in determining the best methods, practices, and patterns to create healthy boundaries for yourself.

Multiple levels of clearing and protection work for individuals and spaces. Contact me directly to see what’s the best way to proceed. Or set up a short info call.

Excerpt from the original Boundaries and Psychic Protection post :

“The idea of setting energetic (and practical) boundaries and creating safe psychic space is increasingly important, so I intend to write more about it. For now, here is an excerpt from my book Inner Divinity: Crafting Your Life with Sacred Intelligence.

We communicate with each other all the time, engaging each other’s bodies and energies. Setting boundaries on that energetic contact can be challenging; however, limiting the degree to which you allow others into your energetic space can be crucial for your mental health. People, especially sensitive or empathic people, often have difficulty separating themselves from others, once their energies have mingled. If you are sensitive and don’t make an effort to protect yourself from other peoples’ energy, you will pick up thoughts and emotions from everyone you are near—either physically or emotionally.

There is a time and place for this type of connectedness. In an intimate relationship it can be bonding. In a therapeutic relationship it can yield positive results through deeper understanding. But allowing strangers or more casual acquaintances to have such an impact on your energetic system can be unhealthy. A clear sense of what it feels like to be you—alone, inside your body—is important. If you have this baseline conception of yourself, it can help you understand why you feel certain things at certain times. If you’re an easy going person when you’re alone, but after spending the afternoon with a friend who is more edgy and uptight you come away feeling nervous, you can separate that person’s feelings and characteristics from your own. This is one reason why spending time alone is important. Emotions are easier to pick up than a cold if you’re sensitive. Just being around others can become overwhelming for sensitive people who haven’t learned to set up boundaries. Half the battle is simply acknowledging that you are picking up other people’s energy. If you can identify that influence, you can choose who you want to let that close and when. It’s not always that easy, but once you have a clearer idea of who you are alone and are aware of the effect of other people on you, it is much easier to bring yourself back to your own center and release the energies from other people that attach to you.

I once had lunch with a friend who was feeling very sad. I loved her dearly and wanted very much to help her. My empathy allowed a transference of emotions and for the rest of the day I was miserably sad. Even though I’m aware of this dynamic, it took me more than a day to shake an emotion that I’d clearly picked up from her. Our deep connection and my willingness to listen and be supportive were helpful, but it wasn’t helpful to either one of us for me to become sad too.

The goal is to be able to consciously choose to experience another person’s energy and then to clear that energy away from your own. In a personal relationship, close connectedness can help you see a person’s perspective more easily. It can help you be sensitive to their needs. It can help create an atmosphere of understanding and empathy. In a professional capacity, you want to be able to connect closely to a person in order to give them a helpful counseling session, or to be able to understand what expectations they have in your business dealings. But you need to be able to return to your identity relatively clear of anyone else’s. This can be hard, but it gets easier with practice.”

Boundaries and Psychic Protection Now – A More Complicated Ecosystem

I don’t disagree with what I wrote in Inner Divinity. The dynamics I described above are all still relevant. What I didn’t understand at that time was the increase in kinds and intensity of the spheres of energy we would be dealing with over time. I wrote from a perspective of personal intensity (and even then I hadn’t developed the Energy Ecosystem because it was not as much a focus of my life and what I saw my clients needing). The intensity, speed, and volume of energy most of us need to process now takes a much greater toll on the system in a more consistent way. To be effective, how we work with boundaries and psychic protection needs to be more consistent too.

I also did not focus as much then on the profound responsibility we have to be honest with ourselves about what we are putting out energetically rather than what is coming towards us. Everyone we come across who is challenging is not “toxic.” Sometimes we are the problem, or at least contribute to a problematic dynamic and are not aware of it. Understanding our native energetic temperaments better and being willing to be honest with ourselves is part of creating healthy energetic ecosystems.

I could go on at length! But that’s enough for here and now.

Natural ecosystems are wild. It is getting stormy and wild inside and out right now and there are no signs that it is going to let up. We need to up our games. As a sensitive, naturally introverted person, this work is constantly evolving for me. I’m challenged to practice what I share with you.

It may be the time for you to rest, but it’s not the time to crawl under the proverbial covers and pretend things are not as they are. If I can help in any way – with concrete suggestions, with an ear for the things that are hard to share with friends or traditional providers, with groups, courses, or books – let me know or look around the website. I offer this work because I have needed these tools myself. Having them have made all the difference.

Wishing you a peaceful heart.

Mara

©Mara Bishop 2024

Boundaries and Psychic Protection – Revisited