Do You Need to Protect Your Energy?

Article by Paula Vanderzon

Many Reiki students find that they have trouble dealing with the energy of the world after an attunement. They become hyper-sensitive to energy, which can be a little unsettling if you are not aware of what is going on.

Those Reiki students who are naturally empaths or sensitive to energy may have “turned off” their energy sensitivities when younger because they were too difficult to deal with. If you were sensitive you may have seen or sensed so much more than what was around you physically and found this very confusing. Without adequate support, a young person will desensitise themselves by repeatedly ignoring these energetic connections or over focus on the physical world so that their sensitive or psychic abilities are no longer dominant.

A Reiki attunement opens up our ability to sense and connect with energy that is around us. It is not just limited to channelling energy through our hands and sensing our client’s energy, but in all areas of our life we can become more sensitive to energy after an attunement. This can be very difficult to navigate especially for someone who has “turned off” these abilities in the past, to now have to learn how to manage them in the world. It can also be quite scary as they may have negative feelings towards what they could sense and feel when they were younger.

The teachings of energy protection become a priority for many sensitive people after an attunement. Some people are taught that if they open themselves up to universal energies (including Reiki) that they then become susceptible to negative energies as well, which they feel they need to protect themselves from. Unfortunately this idea of “protection” can create more fear and therefore more “protection” is sought after, causing many Reiki practitioners to become quite disempowered and fearful of turning on and using their energetic abilities.

I have found in my own Reiki practice and when mentoring my students that it is so important to learn how to empower your own energy abilities, rather than protect yourself from the energy of the world. There is a very subtle difference between empowerment intentions and protection intentions, but the difference is so important for long term management of energy.

Most energy protection techniques use something that is outside of you (or separate from you) to use as protection. This may be a crystal, a “white light” bubble of protection, incense or calling in an Archangel or other spirit being to do the protection work for you. These techniques are all valid and effective but if the belief behind the intention is that you are not able to protect yourself from energy and therefore need to use something outside of yourself to do it for you…. then this can create disempowerment long term, which then requires even more protection techniques.

The cycle of disempowerment won’t stop unless you bring the power back to your own inner energy and recognise that you are powerful and in control of what energy you choose to take on or connect with. This is not easy at first but when you work with Reiki for a while and start to recognise the power that Reiki ignites within you it can become easier.

Some subtle changes in your energy management intentions can also be used to bring the power back to you. For example, you could use a bubble of “white light” protection, not to protect you from the energy around you, but instead as a way to shine your inner light out into the world (which creates a type of bubble of light – your light – around you). Your natural energy field, empowered with this intention will then not allow anything to penetrate it unless you want it to.

If you are an empath feeling the energies (including thoughts, emotions and pain) of others around you or constantly trying help everyone around you; then an empowerment tool you can use is to focus on yourself. This actually prevents your energy from going to other people unconsciously which can leave you feeling drained, and it also prevents other peoples energy from being taken on by you. Focusing on yourself actually strengthens your energy. You could even give yourself Reiki with the intention of powering up you inner light – this brings the power back to you! Then if you choose to help someone or connect with someone’s energy, you do it from a place of power with full awareness.

Instead of calling on an Angel or Spirit being whom you see as more powerful than you to come and protect you; instead call on them as an equal to stand by your side and help you. Know that you could only call on them and feel their energy if that energy is already a part of you! They are then not separate from you, but rather a representation of the powerful energy that is awakened within you.

So if you are feeling a little over sensitive to energies after a Reiki attunement or because you have further opened up your energetic and psychic senses, know that you, and only you, have the power to decide what energy you will and will not connect with. It takes time and practice but don’t rely on tools or techniques that are “outside of you” to do the protection work for you for too long. Find that power within you.

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Paula Vanderzon is a Reiki Master/ Teacher from Adelaide, South Australia. Facing a debilitating health condition in 2006 Paula was lead to Reiki for self-healing and has been on a deep spiritual energetic and physical transformation since. A teacher of Reiki since 2008 and Isis Seichim since 2009 Paula also teaches Soul Writing and is passionate about helping people discover who they are at a Soul level so they can be their unique selves in life. Connect with Paula through her website www.paulavanderzon.com.au or Facebook www.facebook.com/paulavanderzonhealing.