Shielding Yourself The Right Way – For Beginners

Understanding how shielding protects you from energy in the area lets you make better shielding.

Many sites tell you to “visualize a bubble of energy around you.” That’s like heating your house without closing your front door while you cook food in bear country. You’re still letting outside energy in, and you’re broadcasting yourself to aggressive spirits.

Here’s everything you need to know to shield yourself right, with example visualizations. It’s targeted at beginners just starting with energy meditation.

The Question

Kol Drake left a great comment on a recent post:

A friend has been trying your beginning exercises.  As they become ‘more open’ to energies around them and make basic connections to things, they are getting lots of ‘incoming noise & emotions,’ which can be distressing.

Does learning energy meditation help to mitigate the incoming overload or should they be looking at shielding methods similar to your ‘cap a connective link’ in the attack/defense posts?

Thanks for the great question, Kol!  (Read the original, un-paraphrased version here).

The Answer: Yes and No

Kol’s intuition is correct: You need shielding, not just energy, to protect yourself.  The techniques in the post he referenced will solve this problem, but they’re pretty advanced for someone just starting with energy meditation.  Since you only need to block unfocused energy from untrained people, rather than attacks from spirits, the shielding in that post is overkill.

Here’s a simpler method.  It won’t stop a trained mage or spirit.  But it will help against untrained energy drainers* and the overload you can get from ambient energy in the area.

*Sometimes called “psychic vampires.”  I think the name is too flashy for such basic magick.

Why Ambient Energy Bothers You

Energy moves like heat, flowing from hot (lots of energy) to cold (little energy).  But it’s not that simple.

Heat is monolithic, while energy has different types (called signatures).  Building a lot of energy with one signature won’t prevent energy with another signature from entering you.  If your body has energy with signature A, and the area around you has energy with signature B, you will radiate your energy A and absorb the ambient energy B of the area.

Nerves, in particular, are sensitive to energy signatures.  Absorbing the area’s energy B will change the state of your nerves, leading to headaches, fatigue, and other problems.

You can absorb energy B but resist the changes by flooding yourself with energy A.  But that’s like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.

Avoiding Unwanted Attention

As a beginner, you’ll want to go unnoticed by spirits who want to drain your energy.  It’s much easier than fighting them off.

Countering the effects of the area’s energy by flooding yourself with energy will also push your energy into the area.  This is very noticeable to draining spirits, and will probably lead to more problems for you.

You can avoid this by closing your connections before balancing your energy.

Two Goals

1. Block most energy
2. Counter the energy that gets in

Like keeping your house warm in the winter, you use insulation to keep most of the cold out, and you use a furnace to counter drafts and the natural loss of heat through your walls.

You block energy by closing your connections.  Both connections you intentionally make and connections that are passively open by default.

You counter energy that gets in by building your own energy, in your own signature, to keep your body in its normal state.  You might also dissolving energy that enters you.

See “Example Visualizations” below for some ideas on how.

What About Grounding?

Grounding is releasing energy from your body back into the environment by opening your connections to let energy flow freely.  It’s a common way to handle having too much energy.

Grounding works well if you caused the overload by building too much energy in yourself.  Like opening a window after a hot day to let the cool night air in.

But grounding will not help if the energy in the area is the problem.  You will just let more energy in.  Don’t ground until you’re out of the situation that’s overloading you.

Some energy workers may find their grounding visualization helps in all situations.  Remember, visualizations just communicate intent to your unconscious.  Through practice, your unconscious can learn that the grounding visualization means  “normalize my energy,” and figure out the right way to handle it in different situations.  But you’ll have success faster by using visualizations more aligned with what your unconscious mind actually needs to do.

Example Visualizations

Here are some example visualizations drawn from what I used to do, from adapting what I do now, and from friends.

Feel free to use them, change them, or throw them out.  Remember, visualizations aren’t what’s actually happening.  They’re just a way to communicate intent to your unconscious.

At first, practice at home when you can focus.  Once that becomes comfortable, practice using them when you’re out and feel energy bothering you.

Closing Connections (Insulating Yourself)

• Imagine connections as very fine tubes, like hollow hair, poking out of pores in your skin.  Imagine pulling the hairs back inside you, and each pore closing.
• Imagine a geodesic dome made of triangles, with some triangles open.  Close them.

Resisting Energy (Heating the House)

• Imagine a small glow inside you, just enough to make your body glow faintly.  If you feel outside energy bothering you, imagine that as a different color, and imagine your energy pushing it out, dissolving it, or eating it like Pacman.
• Imagine a dim light coming from inside your geodesic dome, doing the same things.

Avoid visualizing bright lights.  Too much energy of any type will give you a headache.  Avoid extending the light outside you (or whatever symbolizes you, like the dome).  Sending energy out will broadcast you to energy draining spirits.  Your shield is only intended to stop ambient energy from untrained people, not a hungry spirit.

If you get a headache, ground (release the energy).  If you’re in an area with energy you need to shield against, only open your shield a bit (a few pores, or one triangle) so you don’t flood yourself with the area’s energy, or the area with yours.

Retracting Connections (Maintaining Insulation)

Every time you connect to something, withdraw the connection when you’re done.  Reverse the visualization you used to make the connection.  Otherwise, your connections are hanging out in the world, leaving openings in your shielding and inviting spirits to trace the connection back to you.

Got A Question?  Leave A Comment

This post was in response to a reader’s comment.  Leave a comment on any of my posts.  I’ll reply, usually within a day.

Tagged as: Energy, Protection/Safety, Quick Tips