Protect Your Energy
People will try to take whatever they can from you, even your peace of mind. You must learn to protect your energy from those that seek to rob you of it. One way to protect your energy is to remove the negativity from your life. Removing negative sources from your life might include removing negative people from your life. You might find it a bit difficult to do this because these negative people might be close friends and family. Often times, the people with the most access to you are the ones causing the most damage to your energy. It may not be their intention to be a source of negativity, but it happens.
Friends and relatives are the ones that come to you to share their problems. They might simply need someone to vent to or someone to give them advice. What they see as an innocent shoulder to lean on, could turn into you taking on their stress and suffering secondary trauma. This can affect your mood and drain you of your joy and motivation. You must protect your energy at all costs. Who in your life is causing you secondary trauma? One way to identify these people is by the way you react when you receive a call or text message from them. Do you sigh and wonder what it is they want from you now? Or do you hesitate to answer because you know they are going to complain about a situation that you’ve heard too many times before? Or do you anticipate a confrontation will take place if you try to offer them advice?
If someone came to mind in any of those scenarios, I suggest you take a good look at that relationship. Start to pay attention to the types of interactions you have with this person. Are the interactions fair? Or do you end up giving more than you receive? Are the interactions positive or do you regret dealing with the person? Are the interactions respectful or do they cause you to act out of character? Are the interactions beneficial or do you feel like you’ve wasted your time? You should monitor your feelings after an interaction with this person. If you feel anything other than positive, you need to re-evaluate the relationship.