Carrying Other People’s Emotional Energy is a Drag

Holding Other People’s Emotional Baggage

If you’re like most people who are attracted to energy healing, you conceivably have an awareness of the implications of taking on and holding other people’s emotional energy. Carrying other people’s emotional baggage is akin to carrying their luggage…in addition to your own!

You’ve probably had multiple direct experiences, and felt the impact of taking on other people’s emotional baggage. Typical ‘symptoms’ include:

• having your mood shift spontaneously when interacting with someone who is down, angry or anxious
• feeling amped up or depleted by certain people
• overstimulation, or a desire to isolate
• emotional volatility and/or reactivity
• feeling emotionally flooded, for example, having a cry…that goes on for days without a specific, triggering event or reason
• emotional flu, feeling ill or nauseous after spending time with people who are depressed or down

These symptoms are indicators of an energetic imbalance, a way in which your energy is focused on attracting other people’s stuff instead of containing and managing your own.

It’s Not About Them

It’s important to get really clear about where the responsibility lies for carrying other people’s emotional baggage. There’s lots of victimized thinking and language that goes on in spiritual and New Age circles, blaming people for their ‘negative’ or ‘bad’ energy and how it affects those who come into contact with them.

It’s not about them, dear friend. It’s about you. It’s your energy body, and no one can take better care of it or have more control over it than you!

I often find it useful to help clients and practitioners who study with me to hone in on where other people’s emotional baggage shows up in their energy body.

A Quick Exploration

Take a breath.

Take a moment.

Tune inward and ask yourself:

When I’m holding other people’s emotional energy, where do I feel it in my body?

Put your hand on that spot.

Ask yourself:

What emotions am I holding that belong to other people? Ex: rage, sadness, fear, anxiety, shame, invalidation, making note of what you discover.

Ask yourself:

Are the emotions that I’m holding for others similar to my own emotional patterns?

Ask yourself:

Where do I feel my emotional patterns in my body?

(Sometimes different emotions are experienced in different parts of the body. Make note of what you discover.)

OK, bring yourself back to present moment awareness.

What did you notice in the exploration of your emotional awareness? Are you holding different emotions in different parts of your body? Is there a difference between where you carry others baggage vs. where your own resides?

There’s no one right answer to these questions. However, often people find that the emotions they’re carrying that belong to others are in separate places in their energy body from the places where their own, genuine emotions are held. If that’s the case, the sensations you experience in those parts of your body can be clues for when you’ve gotten bogged down carrying other people’s emotional energy and need to do some clearing work.

The Case for Dropping Other People’s Baggage

Know this: if you’re carrying others stuff, it’s not likely to go away on its own. You’ll incorporate it and integrate it into your energy field, and lose track of it as belonging to someone other than you. Losing track of it doesn’t mean letting it go. It means losing awareness.

While no one is ever fully immune from taking on others emotional baggage, it can be significantly minimized. You can learn to clear it from your chakras and aura to enable greater autonomy, authenticity and self-awareness.

Traveling Light