Highly Sensitive People & Healers ~ Protect Yourself

BLOG SESSION

June 2017

We're back from our Evening Coffee Break to continue our fascinating discussion.

When we were last here on the Blog, we were all given a Quiz to take to find out if any of us were Psychic Vampires.  We did so because many of the Readers here had discovered to their surprise that after reading the traits of a Psychic Vampire that they may in fact be one.

Our discussion today also includes "Energy Vampires". Those are people who suck your energy, and drain you as well.

If you found the Quiz to be helpful, please make a Note of your results in your Journal.  You are free to share any comments you may have here on the Blog in the "Comments Section" at the bottom of the Blog, or by replying to any of the comments that I have posted, or any of our other Friends here have posted.  Your input is always appreciated here.  We can learn a lot from each other.

At this point, we are getting our Journals out so that we may take more Notes about the topics of Highly Sensitive People (HSPs), Healers, Empaths, those who have high empathic levels, and jot down further information about how to protect ourselves from Psychic Vampires, Energy Vampires, and others who suck energy from us.

Journaling our Notes & Thoughts

If you are an individual who has a high empathic level, then you will be interested in reading further.  If you are an empathic person, it means that you have the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person.  To be highly empathic is to add on the additional ability to share the feelings and understand the nature of a person's problems, pain, and in many cases illnesses.

As we all know, "empathy" is the exact definition of "empathic".

EMPATHY:  the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.

EMPATHIC:  of, relating to, or characterized by empathy, the psychological identification with the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of others.

EMPATHETIC:  showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Whatever definitions you come up with, please write them down in your Journal.  You'll be able to come back to your Journal and get information about our topics, and also about your feelings about the subject matters we discuss.

You should also dedicate a Journal page to the list of those people in your life who you believe may be Psychic Vampires or Energy Vampires.

Your Journal Page of the list of people

who you believe could possibly be Psychic Vampires

or Energy Vampires ~ those who drain your energy

At this point, you should have identified all of the people in your life that you believe may be Psychic Vampires or energy drainers.  Jot their names down in your Journal.

A Psychic Vampire is someone who feeds off the energy of others.  They are often negative and self-pitying and spending time with them leaves us exhausted.

PROTECTION:  How can we protect ourselves from psychic vampires?

Ideally, we would avoid these kinds of people like the plague. However, we can’t always cut them out of our lives, nor would we necessarily want to.  When we have a family member, boss, or colleague who is a psychic vampire, we can’t avoid spending time with them.  There may also be people in our lives who have this trait but also have positive aspects that we love.  In this case, we must learn to deal with the vampire energy without being sucked dry.  Additionally, people can sometimes, understandably, get very needy when they are going through a difficult time in their lives.  We want to be able to support them without exhausting ourselves.

Unfortunately, psychic vampires can easily spot who will give them the most attention.  They are drawn to kind, generous,   compassionate and empathetic people.  If you are this kind of person, (you may find to your surprise) that you have many energy vampires in your life.  Because of the fact that you are compassionate, you don’t want to cut these people out of your life.  You want to help them.  But unfortunately, no amount of compassion will be enough for these kinds of people and if allowed, they will suck you dry.  They may try to make you feel sorry for them or they may try to guilt trip you into spending time with them.  They can be very manipulative and play on your good nature.

So, it is important to set up some healthy boundaries to prevent energy vampires from taking all your time and energy.  This way you will be able to keep enough for yourself to use towards your dreams and goals or just for fun.

Here are five ways to set up healthy boundaries so we can treat psychic vampires (or energy vampires) with compassion without getting drained by them.

1. Limit time spent with psychic vampires

Firstly, and most obviously, we might need to limit the amount of time we spend with energy vampires   wherever possible.  If you have a particularly needy friend or colleague, you might limit your interactions with them to, perhaps, one phone call or meeting a week.  Also, it’s worth having an end to the interaction planned, such as another meeting or activity that you have to leave to attend.

2. Choose the activities carefully

In addition to limiting time spent with a psychic or energy vampire, choosing the right activity can make a difference. Staying indoors with them with a film and a bottle of wine might be a bad choice as they will have you captive.  This means they can command your attention and there is little you can do to prevent them from sucking your energy dry. Choosing a more interactive activity, or meeting up in a group will make it more difficult for them to monopolize your attention.

3. Practice Self-Care

After spending time with an energy vampire you will need time to recoup your energy.  If you know you will have to spend time with a draining person, try to plan a fun or relaxing activity for afterward.  Taking time to look after yourself and practicing self-compassion is especially important if you have to spend a lot of time with one, or many, energy vampires.

4. Protect your energy

When you know you will be spending time with an energy vampire, you must be clear about how much energy you are prepared to share.  As well as limiting time spent with them, be clear about your own worth and value.  Often psychic vampires target us because they are aware that we do not value ourselves as highly as we should.  When you think about the things you want to do with your own energy, such as projects hobbies, goals and dreams, you realize that you do not want to squander that energy on someone who is not going to make good use of it.  If your support isn’t used wisely or appreciated, then it has been wasted.

You might also like to think of yourself surrounded by a force-field that protects you from the energy vampire. Refusing to give more energy is not selfish.  In fact, giving an energy vampire too much actually prevents them from learning to take care of themselves.

5. Check to make sure that you are not becoming a psychic or energy vampire yourself.

Unfortunately, moods are catching. After spending time with a psychic or an energy vampire, you will be emotionally drained and may feel negative and cranky yourself.  Be careful that the negative mood you have caught does not mean you slip into being an energy vampire yourself.  You might notice that after you have spent time with a difficult colleague, you go home and snap at your partner or housemate.  Try to avoid this by taking some time to restore your energy by doing something fun or relaxing, or perhaps meditating or taking a walk in nature.  This way, you won’t need to suck energy from someone else.

Using the above strategies can help us to cope with spending time with psychic vampires.  However, the best way to avoid being a victim of a psychic or energy vampire is to take care of ourselves.  When we are strong and have good self-esteem, energy vampires will realize we are not victims they can prey on.  They will then tend to leave us alone.  This can actually transform our relationship with psychic vampires into ones that are much healthier for us and the vampire.

NEXT SESSION:

Insightful Information

Highly Sensitive People (HSP) and Healers

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

© Copyright - René Allen - JUNE 2017 - All Rights Reserved 

Psychosis: A Misunderstood Illness

Mental Health Awareness Month

MAY 2017

Welcome back to the Blog all Readers, Followers & Visitors!

We are in the midst of a heavy duty discussion about mental health.  We've been using our Journals as a way to take notes about what we have been learning here on the Blog, as well as take notes about what is actually going on with each of us personally.

Mental Health is a very important area of our lives.  It is vital that our well being physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally be in top shape.  The very reason that we get up each day should be so that we may live our lives to the best of our ability with as little stress and strain as possible.  That sounds really nice right?  Yes, it does!  Is it possible?  Yes, it is!

Let's use our Journals as therapy

Right at this moment, while you are here on the Blog, just take a moment to breathe.  Breathe in then breathe out... inhale, then exhale.  Feel your breath, and notice whether you are tense or not.  If you feel tension anywhere in your body, please take a moment now to notice where the tension is and write it down in your Journal.  Then repeat the breathing process and notice whether the tension in your body is decreasing or not.  If it is not decreasing, stretch both your arms out to your sides, then pull your arms in.  Repeat this process and make a note of how your body feels.  Stretch your arms to your back, and then pull your arms back to your sides -- straight out.  Then do the same with your arms moving them from your sides to the front of your body.  Notice how the muscles in your back respond.  Move your head from left to right, then from front to back.  Repeat two more times.  Now back to breathing ~ Breathe in then breathe out... inhale, then exhale.  Feel your breath, and notice whether you are tense or not.  Make notes in your journal of the areas in your body where you feel tension.  Work on those areas of your body to loosen them up.

Do Arm Stretches

to loosen up

We can work on the arm stretches and leg stretches to loosen up our bodies so that we minimize the stress build up that happens with each of us every day without us being aware of it.  Remember to roll your head around to the left then to the right to loosen up.  Stretch your back by bending your upper body to the right, then to the left...then backwards, then forwards.  Make notes in your Journal daily of how you feel after your breathing exercises and stretches.

Our Journal will open up areas of discovery about ourselves that we had not thought about.  The main thing that we each want to do now is get ready to write about our topic for today.

Take Notes about today's area of mental health . . . 

Psychosis

What is psychosis?

Psychosis is a condition defined by a group of illnesses that disrupt the functioning of the brain to the point where normal functioning in everyday life becomes almost impossible.  Someone experiencing an episode of psychosis is called psychotic.  A psychotic person will lose contact with reality.

Question for you:  Do you know anyone who has lost contact with reality?

What are the symptoms of psychosis?

Delusions:  An idea or belief that someone believes is real but is contrary to reality.  For example; a person experiencing delusions may think that they are an important figure like Jesus Christ – these are called delusions of grandeur.

Hallucinations:  A false sensory perception.  A person experiencing hallucinations may hear, feel, see, taste or smell something that is not there.  Commonly, they will hear an external voice(s) that no one else can hear.

Confused thinking:  Everyday thoughts become confused and sentences may be unclear or hard to understand. Thought can speed up or slow down making following a conversation and remembering things difficult.

Changed feelings:  How you feel can change for no particular reason.  You may feel odd and cut off from the rest of the world.  Mood swings are also common and you may go from massive highs to massive lows.  You may seem to feel less emotion, or show less emotion to those around you.

Changed behaviour:  You may be extremely active or have difficulty getting the energy to do things, laugh when things don’t seem funny, or become angry or upset without any cause.

What are the types of psychotic illnesses?

Schizophrenia:  A complex mental illness with those diagnosed with it experiencing an array of psychotic symptoms.  Contrary to popular belief, a schizophrenic person does not have a ‘split personality’.

Bipolar disorder:  A mental illness categorised by extreme moods being either very high or very low known as mania. These episodes of extreme moods can lead to psychosis.

Drug induced psychosis:  Caused by drugs such as alcohol, marijuana, magic mushrooms, LSD and ecstasy etc. The psychotic episode lasts until the effects of the drugs wear off (hours or days).

Brief reactive psychosis: Psychotic symptoms lasting less than a month and due to a stressful life event.

Psychotic depression: Sometimes depression can become so intense and severe that it results in psychotic symptoms.

What are the causes of psychosis?

Although the exact causes are not yet fully understood, it is likely that psychosis is hereditary.  Environmental factors like drugs and stress, among others, may also play a role in one developing a psychotic illness.

How is it diagnosed?

There’s no specific test for psychosis.  A healthcare professional will determine whether a person is psychotic depending on the symptoms they exude.  Generally, a doctor will perform other tests to rule out another condition.

What treatments are available?

With a psychotic episode early intervention is key and may reduce the length of the psychotic episode.  Treatments usually involve medication, education about the illness, counselling, support from family, friends and community, avoiding drugs and reducing levels of stress.

Key points to remember:

• There is a stigma surrounding mental illness but 1 in 5 people will experience mental illness during their lifetime.

• Psychotic people are often misconstrued as being unpredictable and dangerous but they often only pose a threat to themselves.

• If you know someone that is experiencing a psychotic episode it is important that you offer them as much help as you can so they can get better.

• A psychotic episode can happen to anyone, regardless of age, sex, culture or location.

• A psychotic episode can be very scary and confusing and should be treated with understanding and not criticised or laughed at.

I sure hope you have enjoyed this educational Blog Session about Psychosis.  We'll see you back here for our next exciting Blog Session about mental health, and don't forget to bring your Journal along!

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - MAY 2017 - All Rights Reserved