Oops, I picked up terrible energy

I've had a shit week. Partially because something bad happened that I could do zero things to prevent. Partially because I exposed myself to bad energy on accident, and if you do not get that stuff off of you, it will linger. So let's talk about that part.

My least favorite bad energy places:

• Hospitals/medical facilities

• Public transit (including aviation)

• Bars, especially late

• Graveyards

• Casinos, payday loan places (never been in one, but a safe assumption), car dealerships (any place people are trying to take advantage of you). I hated my car dealership so much. The free oil changes did not feel worth it.

• Places where everyone is downtrodden for emotional, oppressive, or economic reasons, or a mix (it's usually a mix)

I spent a lot of time around someone with an addictive personality who I realized had substance abuse problems partially for social reasons, partially to treat neurodivergence, and partially because they were really sensitive. I don't judge and I don't really care what you do with your body, but if you're already sensitive to energy/vibes, etc., if you put yourself in an altered mental state, that is going to open you up to psychic hangers-on, which was the case with them. It's not slam-dunk-definitely going to happen, but if you're around sad people, that attracts sad spirits like flies. If you're at a wedding where everyone is joyful, that attracts joyful spirits. I can keep repeating myself, substituting the words "angry," "oppressed," "desperate," etc. If you're sober, it's much easier to retain the stance of "nope, keep that shit away from me," the same way that if you see a bee, you duck the bee. If you're not sober, these things can sneak up on you. If you're someone who is very sensitive and you drink about it, then attract negative energy that you don't get off of you, you're going to feel more compelled to drink about it more, and it can cycle like that. I doubt this is the root cause of alcoholism or drug problems, but there are probably a few people for whom it's true.

The giveaway of having picked up bad energy, in my experience (sober or otherwise), is amplification of a given state. Like if you're suddenly way angrier or sadder or more despairing than a situation warrants, and you can rule out existing neurological conditions, that's when you want to begin to suspect you have energy onboard that doesn't belong to you.

Think of it this way: imagine you're in a public place where there's a weird dude in a trench coat, and he looks all kinds of wrong and creepy. If you're sober, you're going to monitor his whereabouts and naturally not want to be around him. If you're not sober, you might not see him when he walks in or walks up behind you, and your instincts of "this guy feels weird/bad" (in addition to how he looks) will be diminished. I was once at a bar with the aforementioned addictive personality when a real-life creepy dude sat on the other side of me, who I clocked but tolerated the presence of until he put his hand on my thigh. EW. (I hadn't spoken to him at all, or even really looked at him. He also wasn't wearing a trench coat, but he *was* wearing sweat pants.)

This week, I put myself in an altered state trying to help someone, without enough defenses up, and I attracted a hanger-on, and it took 4 days of feeling unlike myself for me to figure it out and get rid of it.

Here's how you get rid of it: you meditate, you connect with positive energy, and if your attention is drawn to bad energy in your own field, you imagine separating it out the way you separate an egg yolk from the whites. Do that several times if you need to (the intent here needs to be to separate the not-yours from yours), imagining pulling the bad energy off of you, and sending it somewhere extremely far away. Also, tell whatever it is that it needs to go and is not allowed near you anymore. If that still doesn't work, request help from spirit guides (or guardian angels, since the human concept of angels are basically spirit guides—doesn't matter what your terminology is, just ask for help/protection and you'll get help. Actual angels are hardcore and pretty terrifyingly intense). "Help me get rid of this thing, please." will do nicely. Give yourself 10-15 minutes, which should be ample. If you feel better after, success! If you don't, wait a few hours and try again. You have control over your own energy field and you don't need to tolerate energy that's not yours, so don't cry about it, just fix it.

Here's where it gets tricky: if you live with sad people or if you live/work with a revolving door of people coming to you for their emotional needs. You can do your best to be all love-and-light but it's going to impact you unless you're on a dedicated program of spending time out and away (and around happy people). The instant you walk in (or they walk in), the bad/sad/depressed/desperate energy is going to hit you, and you're going to have to work to get back up out of that again. Something to consider. My point is: you can't be around negative stuff and expect to feel great for no reason. That doesn't make any sense. Choose wisely who you let hang out around you and limit your exposure when possible.

Here's what I tell people with temporarily shitty energy who aren't into the woo (my loving term for this stuff) and aren't big meditators: go do something you love and are good at. You don't make improvements here by focusing on what's wrong. If you focus on the fact that there's bad energy around you (human or other), guess what you're attracting.

What snapped me out of my 4 day stupor was watching a Tiktok of a woman who works in a prison, who talked about praying/meditating in her car for 10-15 minutes before going in to work and for 10-15 minutes before she goes home, for protection and so that she doesn't bring anything home with her on accident. Most of us don't have that level of extremity in our lives (she stated she sometimes works on death row) but it's something to consider if you're in a bad situation you can't do anything about. I saw that, connected my own dots, which were hospital-related, and went "oh shit I gotta fix that." I did; I felt better immediately.

One other thing: if you have a friend/relative/person close to you who died tragically, please do not think for a moment that continuing to reflect on sadness and tragedy is doing you or them any good. Sometimes they are fine and at peace, but if they are stuck in their own terrible place and you are, too, you're just feeding each other bad vibes. If you are doing that, cold-turkey this immediately, and replace it with loving them, thanking them for being in your life, and hoping they are okay wherever they are (hint: usually closer than you think). Missing them? Wonderful opportunity to love them and wish them well on their next adventures. This can help them a LOT, and they will be grateful to you for it. We're all more powerful than we might expect in this vein, so if you suspect you have a dead person around you who might be sad, start loving them and insisting they move on. I had to do this for years with one of them, but it started making a difference.

I understand that shock and grief is a process, and I'm not saying to ignore it, but if it's been a while and you're still doing the "I need them here in order for me to be happy," take a hard look at that. Personally, I think it's selfish to prevent people from moving on to the next thing after death by telling them they're needed or their presence is demanded here, because that's what some people do (I do so much internal cringing when I encounter this). Better that they stop by on happy occasions (they will) than be requested as a constant presence, trust me. If you’re sad they can’t be with you and they’re sad they can’t be with you, you’re creating an echo chamber of sad. If you're stuck on how they died, consider whether you'd want that for yourself: to have everything you did in your life overshadowed by how it ended. No, right? Finally, if you suspect that they might want forgiveness for something they did while alive (or even for their entire personality, which is sometimes the case) and you're able to muster that, DO IT. "I forgive you, I love you, please move along to the next thing." Their presence here very rarely does anything for either party. Trust me on that.