We are continually interacting with other people’s energies, positive, negative, high, and low. Depending on the nature of your boundaries, you might be letting in and carrying more foreign energetic “material” in your field than you realize, affecting your mood, emotions, energy levels, and even thoughts.

We pick up energies as we move through the world, and sometimes they stick like lint on a nice pair of black pants and don’t come off in a regular wash. Even when fear, grief, worry, anger, and despair are ours to experience, analyze, and process, it’s all a lot more challenging when obscured by environmental gunk. A good energetic lint-roller can do wonders to alleviate fogginess and pressure.

With temperatures dropping, indoor crowds increasing, stress levels spiking, and viruses multiplying, below are a few of my go-to practices for keeping blood circulating, lymph moving, and energy flowing. If you have a favorite time-tested practice I would love to hear it!

This time of year can be particularly challenging as many of us transition to spending more time indoors. Our systems have to contend with a thicker stew of energies end emotions in the vicinity. You might be noticing the effects of “energetic detritus” in your kids or in yourself — overwhelm, crankiness, emotional swings, and general over-saturation. We are exposed to more than we realize. While things like hand-washing are important, making a practice of also tending to “energy hygiene” can do wonders for your overall well-being.

Are you experiencing the surging energy of spring as jarring and destabilizing? Try space clearing and see what a difference it makes. Here are a few different techniques to energetically clear space.

In effect, I had gone swimming in a murky stew of panic, mistrust, fear, anxiety, and grief and had come home without cleaning off. (Hand sanitizer doesn't touch it!) I could have gone on feeling bad and radiating bad feelings to my family. These things are contagious. But it has made a big difference in my life to learn to distinguish the emotions and thoughts that are mine — up to me to experience and process — and the "debris" that is floating around and can glom on to any of us. Just awareness of a percentage gives me relief and perspective. What's mine I can deal with. The rest, I know to release.

None of us is immune to the collective energy field -- its impact on our state of mind is often more profound than we realize. Cultivating groundedness, calm, and balance can make a real contribution to the health and well-being of all. Below are a few different exercises to help you find your center. Links are to previous blog posts where I go a bit more in depth about each exercise.