How to Protect Yourself

In our previous article “How to Reclaim Your Energy” we talked about how giving away our power throughout the course of the day can leave us feeling depleted.

This depletion of energy happens in different ways. We can give it away, for example, when we are caring for someone, we willingly give our energy to them, putting them first. We know that there will be an emotional cost to ourselves, but it is a price worth paying when someone we care about needs us.

In other circumstances, we feel that our energy is taken from us by difficult or toxic situations and the behaviour of people who irritate and trigger us.

We know from all our research into self-awareness that when someone bothers you it is your stuff.

When we accept this, we are able to take responsibility for our feelings and work on the part of ourselves that has been triggered.

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to appreciate this at the time, during a busy day when we are being bombarded with everything that contributes to our stress.

When walking a path toward self-awareness, we should aim for bolstering the Self so that we are not triggered by the external environment. This can be described this as shifting the “locus of control,” a term first coined by the American psychologist Julian Rotter.

When we have an internal locus of control, we know that we are responsible for our response to everything that happens to us. When our locus of control is external, we make others and the environment responsible and so give away our power to change things.

We will explore this in more detail in a later article.

During a stressful day, when things are not going well and we feel overwhelmed by the number of plates we are spinning, it is not always easy to go down the self-awareness route and we find ourselves plunged into our usual responses.

What then?

It is entirely possible to take measures to protect yourself.

Below is an easy meditative exercise which will help you to shield yourself from harmful outside influences so that you can go about your day calmly avoiding the provocation of your stress responses.

Try this:

Begin by bringing your attention to your breathing.

Take your awareness to the tidal in an out of your breath

As you do, this begin to slow and deepen those breaths taking the air right down into the bottoms of your lungs

Now as you breathe deeply and slowly, just begin to allow the out breath to become just a little bit longer that the in breath

Let go of any tension that you have been holding in your body.

Now set the intention that you are going to protect yourself from any harmful outside influences

Anything that might have a negative impact on you

Anything that might drain you or cause you irritation or discomfort

Now ground yourself

Imagine roots like those of a tree emerging through the souls of your feel and reaching into the soil connecting you with the earth

Now imagine a fine silver thread connecting the top off your head with the whole of the cosmos

And Place yourself inside a bubble

The bubble is warm and light, flexible and buoyant

It can expand and contract and it can bend and change shape in the breeze

Feel its warmth

Its stillness

Listen to its silence

Breathe

This bubble is made of an incredibly special material which can allow in anything that is helpful or useful

But it can filter out anything harmful

Anything which feeds and nourishes your spirit is allowed into the bubble

But anything that might drain, irritate, or upset you simply bounces off and away back to its source

Inside the bubble you can be the observer

The wisest version of yourself

Here you can observe any situation as it actually is

Time inside the bubble seems slow down too

Allowing space between words

and thoughts

And you can see the big picture

It allows you to act accordingly in a measured way

To choose how to respond

Without being clouded by emotion

Sit in your bubble and breathe

Resolve to make use of your bubble

It is easy to find

And it is your safe space to use at any time

Remember to begin with your breathing

And the rest will follow

If you liked this please share it with family friends and colleagues. Thank you