How to Shield Yourself from Negative Energy: A Soul Recovery Guide

As a recovering codependent, people pleaser, or sensitive soul, it’s easy to be affected by the energy of others. In this episode, we dive into how negative and dark energies can impact our well-being and the spiritual practices that help protect us. I’ll share practical tools and insights that will empower you to reclaim your energy and attune to your highest self, without letting outside forces disrupt your peace. Today, we’ll explore ways to shield yourself, bubble up, and shift your energy, so you can stay in alignment with your true, authentic self—no matter what’s happening around you. 

Join Rev. Rachel for an upcoming Soul Recovery workshop or retreat—an opportunity to deepen your healing, release old patterns, and reconnect with your true self. Learn more and register at https://www.recoveryoursoul.net/inperson

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Chapters

• 0:00 Empowerment Through Soul Recovery Energy
• 10:18 Navigating Energy in Work Environment
• 22:50 The Tools: Energetic Boundaries and Vibration Shift
• 34:39 Join the Recovery Your Soul Community

Transcript

Rev Rachel Harrison: 0:00

It's very likely that as a recovering, codependent or people pleaser in your soul recovery, you are affected by the energy of other people and there is some intense and dark energy out there. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how that energy affects you, what kind of tools and skills that you can use to really take your power back and make sure that you are attuning to your best, highest self and not letting other people's negative or dark energy affect you. Enjoy the episode. Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. My name is Reverend Rachel Harrison. I started Recover your Soul after having profound changes in my life from my recovery of alcoholism, codependency and control addiction. I was guided to share the tools and principles of spirituality and soul recovery to help others transform their lives, as mine was transformed. For us to overcome external circumstances, we need to turn the attention to ourselves, focusing on our inner change and healing. Positive results in our lives will follow. Welcome back to the Recovery your Soul podcast. I'm Rev Rachel and welcome to the Soul Recovery community. Thank you so much for being here. I am so honored to be in your life. I'm honored to be here to lead this amazing community that, indeed, is helping each other to heal from codependence, maybe from addiction in your own life, maybe from people pleasing, maybe just turning the attention to yourself and being ready to let go of what no longer serves you and stand in your authentic being. We're here to truly, truly step into a spiritual path to have a happy and healthy life.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 1:52

Buzzsprout is the company that hosts my podcast, and they're always adding new features. They have all these great ways for us to connect, and one of them is this new text me feature. Now, if you look in the show notes, it says send a one way text to Rev Rachel, and I don't know who sends the text. Then there's no way for me to send them back, but it's been really, really fun to get your responses. It also does the same thing in Spotify, where you can leave a comment and then I can see what's happening in those comments, and they mean everything to me, that you're sharing how the episode felt. You're sharing with me what's going on in your life, because I'm in this together with you. We're here doing this work together, and it really, really reflects this part of us that has this ability to connect, no matter where we are. I know I'm in your ear. I love hearing all the stories about how I'm running with you or on hikes or doing your commute to work or when you're doing chores. It's so fun to hear how people listen to me. Some people listen to me when they go to sleep. We are here together.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 3:00

It's energy, and so I'm actually going to be talking about energy, and this is kind of a far out concept for a lot of people, and so I just ask you to allow it to be and just be present with it. Take whatever you need and leave the rest. But I wanted to talk about it because it is a response to one of the questions that I got in these one-way texts, and I think it's important because the more spirituality that I incorporate into my life, the more I truly, truly feel this vibration, this alignment, this resonance whatever the word that you want to hear in that relates to you, whatever way you want to feel that, that we are indeed actually changing how we see the world, how we perceive the world, and from that we're actually changing our vibrational structure. And there's so much evidence around this concept of energy and vibration. There's actually some measurement that they do of the entire earth, that is, of the earth's energetic vibration low vibration being low emotions and higher vibration being higher emotions. And there's a lot of science around this as well. So it's not just the far out woo, woo spiritual stuff, it's actually based in science. So there's this meter that they've been really calculating for a long time about the energy of the planet, and it is indeed raising, it is indeed shifting and changing.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 4:41

So this conversation, I thought, was a great reflection based on last week's episode, which is how do you handle chaotic times? And today's episode is going to be around how do you deal with intense, negative or dark energy that you can feel? And it's a response to one of the listeners in Hawaii who said here I am, I've been affected by the Lahaina fires and I can't move, but there feels like there's dark or difficult energy around me and my neighbors. And when I thought about that I thought, gosh, there's just so much dark. What feels like dark energy? Not only maybe in your neighbors, maybe it's in your family, maybe it's a coworker. So I wanted to talk about this because it's something that I'm opening more into my own life, to having the ability to have dominion over how I feel.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 5:37

Part of soul recovery is recognizing that for far too long we have been giving our power away. We've been determining how we feel based on how other people feel or how other people treat us or what's happening in someone else's life. I just felt happy in my own life, happy in my own, spending this time in the car worrying about and thinking about everything else that was happening. I would have been worrying about what was happening with my sons. I would have been replaying the conversation that I had with my husband that morning. I would have been worrying about what's happening in the world. My energy would have been consumed with what is happening on the outside and I thought you know, if we didn't have cell phones, we wouldn't know what was happening at any given moment. We'd have to wait and either turn on the news when we got home or have someone tell us. But in this actual moment, if we can recognize that we're okay, then we actually have more strength to be able to bring that okayness into a bigger part of our world.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 7:11

So this concept around energy, one of the things that really changed me in understanding more about this. I had been studying this and looking into this and feeling this for a long time, a long, long long time all through my upbringing as a Buddhist, all through attending a unity church for over 20 years. So it's something that's been in my wheelhouse for a long time. But it isn't until I've been doing my deep soul recovery that I am clearer and clearer around this concept, around energy. Are you ready to step into your soul recovery? Well, I am here to support you as your spiritual coach. Visit the website to book one-on-one coaching sessions with me as we transform your life through working the nine steps of soul recovery. You can also choose to work the steps on your own through the modules at your own pace. I'm excited to also be announcing that there are retreats every year, both in Colorado and other places in the country, workshops and events, and I hope that you also will join us the first Monday of every month from six to 7pm Mountain Standard Time for the free Zoom support group. This is an amazing place for us to connect, learn and share our stories. And don't forget to join the private Facebook group for soul recovery, inspiration connection, answering each other's questions and giving shout outs. I thank you for supporting this podcast, either by being a Patreon member, apple podcast subscriber and getting that extra episode every Friday, or by your one time donations or your small monthly donations that are found in the show notes, you are helping spread the soul recovery message and supporting this community. Visit the website recoveryoursoulnet for dates, times, everything that's happening, register for the support group and how to stay connected. Together we can do the work that will recover your soul.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 10:19

Now I'm going to tell a story about a co-worker, and I can't remember if I've told this story before, so if you've heard this story before, I apologize. And if you're new, well, here's a new story. I worked at a home care agency for about nine years and when I first started as the office manager of this home care agency, there was this woman who was the scheduler and she was a little bit older and she was this amazing person who had a intense temper. She was one of the most kind hearted, loving people that I had ever met. Her energy was warm. When she was in a good mood, she was gracious, she was concerned about how people felt, but the stress of scheduling all of the visits for this home care agency laid on her shoulders and as soon as she took on that persona, there was a heaviness and intense energy. That happened and she was incredibly reactive.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 11:25

Now I turn out that I'm somebody who has empathic feelings. I can feel the feelings of the people around me, and this is the case for many of us that are codependents or people pleasers or are uncomfortable in our own skin or trying to figure this out. It's because we actually feel the feelings of the people around us. We're very sensitive to that. There's also a concept of people who are highly sensitive people and for them what one person feels is like eh no big deal. For them it's a huge deal.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 12:03

So we worked in a room that was one room with five desks, so the scheduler was on one side of the room and I was on the other side of the room, and then the director and then an open, a couple open desks. We ended up at one point we ended up having five people in there. So when I first started working in there, I was highly affected by her energy and what I didn't understand at the time was the amount that I understand now around, really, this resonance of energy that if you think of us as vibrating beings and someone comes in with an intense vibration, it is going to affect you. It absolutely is going to affect you because we are our own vibrational being. So when she would be happy and everything would be going smoothly, she was one of the most wonderful people to work for and I, my heart, just flowed with joy in working in this environment.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 13:09

But if it was a hard day or people weren't accepting shifts or clients needed extra and it was intense, she would blow up either with the caregivers on the phone or afterwards and it started to be a real issue in my feeling okay at work, because I didn't have any of the tools yet to be able to handle how to allow her to have her own energy. And what I recognize now is that it actually was reflecting what was happening in my house. So at this very same time, we were drinking. Is that true? No, no, that isn't true. That's interesting that I think that when I started working at that home care agency, we were sober. That's right, we were sober and so my energy was more clear.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 14:00

But Rich had stopped going to 12-step or doing any AA meetings with me and our life at home was starting to get really chaotic. At home was starting to get really chaotic and we were fighting a lot and we were complaining and fighting and having a lot of discord over how we were going to handle Alex, who was at that point a teenager, and things were starting to really go off the rails for him, right. So what I can see now in looking back is that where I had wanted safety in this work environment, where I just wanted just to go and just be Rachel and just do my job and do a good job, there was this energy that was intense. And then when I went home, I felt like there was an energy that was intense with Rich, and especially in how he interacted with the kids, and so I never had a place to re-regulate myself. So this is the concept of being dysregulated that when you are highly affected by the energy of somebody else, it can dysregulate your nervous system, because our nervous system is this energy right, it is a vibration, it is how we are aligned within ourselves. So what ended up happening was that I could deal better in some way with the work environment because I didn't have as much emotion invested in it as I did in my home environment, and so that was the first time that someone taught me how to bubble up.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 15:38

So you might have heard me talk about this concept before, or you might have heard about this concept in other places, this concept of creating a protective bubble, force field around yourself. Now, this is really important because the world is filled with lots of energy and people are entitled to their experience. What was happening with this coworker of mine was her own journey, her own experience, her own upset, her own way of dealing with things. And again, some days were beautiful and nice and some days were intense. But the first time someone told me how to bubble up, they described that you visually create a force field around yourself, that you clean and clear your energy and then you set up a permeable bubble that allows you to truly visualize and recognize that any unwanted energy comes to that membrane of the bubble. And you choose do I want this in or is this not serving me? And so I would.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 16:53

Before I went into work, I would bubble up. I would do this very conscientious energy where I would create my force field and I would hold this force field around myself as if I was walking in a big bubble and I would sit down in my chair and then I would bubble my corner of the room and almost immediately I could feel a change. Almost immediately I could feel the difference when she was being reactive, that it was bouncing off. Now it wanted to come in right. Because I'm a people pleaser, I want everyone to be okay. Part of me is back there thinking how do I fix it, how do I make it better for her, how do I accommodate, how do I make this so that everything is okay? I want them to be okay, for me to be okay, but energetically I could hold space for this and it actually helped shift and change how I felt and I worked in that environment and what ended up happening was that I started having more compassion for her experience and how difficult it was for her, rather than having to be defensive and get caught up in my own spin of being pissed at her for making it harder for me because I wasn't in charge of what was going on for her. And then eventually she ended up moving away from the company and doing something else and new schedulers came in and I was so grateful for that particular skill set. Now, did I take it home and use it in the same way at home? Not at that time, not yet, because I wasn't ready for it, yet I hadn't been able to really understand how to detach from my family situation.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 18:46

Now, what's interesting is, while I worked at that business is when Rich and I separated and if you've heard my stories before, you know that about. It was about 12 or 13 years ago. We actually separated for a year and we both went back to drinking during that time. So what I think is really interesting when I look at my own journey and my own story and my own hero story all of our lives are hero stories of our overcoming the complex nature of being a human being that when that co worker left and then I had space away from Rich and I actually started drinking again you know my story I was sure he was the alcoholic and I didn't have a drinking problem and so I went back to drinking, which, of course, I started heavy drinking immediately, but I became on some level at times in that company that I started working for, I became the toxic one because my energy shifted back to unhealthy ways around my addiction and what that does to me. So that is very interesting to have that reflection that other people in that office needed to bubble up to protect themselves for what ended up being very dysfunctional and unhealthy behaviors that I ended up having that. When I look back on them, I am shocked. I slammed doors, I yelled, I was really not kind to one of the people that worked there. Who was that? Who was that? You know, and I think that this other coworker that I had probably looks back on her life and the stress that she had at that time and whatever was happening in her mind and she thinks who was that right?

Rev Rachel Harrison: 20:41

This is our journey of understanding how our energy affects ourselves and affects others and our desire to actually change and shift our energy into our more authentic whole self, connected with source. Because that negative, unhealthy energy comes when we are reacting and being defensive and trying to control and being aggressive. Okay, so now you have somebody in your life who's aggressive. You have somebody in your life who's aggressive. You have somebody in your life who's defensive. You have somebody in your life maybe it's neighbors, maybe it's an entire town, maybe it's who you work with, maybe it's your cubicle person, maybe it's your husband, maybe it's your kids that are resonating on a dark energy or an unhealthy on a dark energy or an unhealthy or unconnected to self energy. It is real. It is real and it feels a certain way to you, especially when you're sensitive.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 21:44

So these awarenesses are the first step, because when I got out of that situation and I stepped into soul recovery and I got out of that situation and I stepped into soul recovery and I got sober again, I swear that all of these things that I had known, that I had heard, that I had dabbled in started to truly take hold and create what I now call soul recovery. They started to create this way of being consciously, by choice, to determine how I am going to feel, to have sovereignty and autonomy over my own experience and to stop giving my power away to everybody else and to recognize that there is the need for the light and the dark. There is this aspect of souls that is the yin and the yang. I often ask spirit in meditation why there's so much difficulty, why there's so much darkness, and the answer I continue to get back. It's funny that I keep asking. The answer I continue to get back is this is part of the process of awakening.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 22:50

You have to have the difficulty to understand when it is released. We need to be mindful that there's something bigger still happening here, that there is a holding for all of it and this concept of the fallen angel being the darkness, right. So in the Bible Satan is the fallen angel who is choosing the darkness, but at one point that was an angel. At one point that energy felt love and light. And in each moment we're always being offered. Are we going to be choosing the light? Are we going to be raising our vibration? Are we going to be raising our vibration? Are we going to be choosing to see things from a more positive, uplifted place, or are we choosing to fall into the darkness, to fall into victim, to fall into anger, to fall into resentments? And it makes me think of this card that I have from Abraham Hicks and I attended her live twice, once each, in the last couple of years and it talks about how the lowest vibration is the feelings of fear, grief, depression, despair, powerlessness.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 24:05

And then she lists 22 emotions, and those emotions are actually the rising up of your vibration, of your energy. So it goes, you know, still on the lower end is anger and revenge and blame and worry and doubt and disappointment. We're going up the scales. Now we're at overwhelmment, at frustration, and then we get to. Boredom is number eight. And this is where she says the tipping point is when we start to raise our vibration and we get to contentment, hopefulness, optimism. We're moving up the scale positive expectation and belief, enthusiasm, eagerness, happiness. Number two is passion and number one where your vibration and your energy, it is as highest as joy, knowledge, empowerment, freedom, love and gratitude. So this ability for us to recognize that it is indeed a shift in energy when we just move up the scale, just one click that we begin to tune our dial to the station, to the vibration, to tune our dial to the station, to the vibration, to the alignment that is better for us. Okay, so now we have someone in our life, or a neighbor, or a co worker, whatever. It is About five months ago I interviewed Christine Lang on the bonus podcast and the interview was so good and so powerful that I added the whole video on the YouTube Recover your Soul channel.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 25:36

So if you go back to the Recover your Soul channel on YouTube, search Christine Ling on my videos. It's about five months ago and she is an energy expert and she has taught me so much because she has a once a month $25 to attend a Zoom workshop and her workshops have been really great and she talked more about this bubbling up and she gave more information, both in the interview that I had with her and in the subsequent teachings that I've had for her from her, this recognition of how to cleanse and clear your own energy. So one of the things that she talked about and I can't remember if this was in the interview or whether it was another one of her trainings that I had what it talked about is that when you intentionally ask the universe source, whatever it is for you, higher power, with intent, and you ask for that bubble, you ask for the protection it is already given to you, but you have to have clarity and truly believe and want and have intent in that protection and then you have to do the part that is your part, which is to keep your mind, your part of you, clear, to not fall into the darkness and fall into the fear and the fall into the energy and those lower vibrational thoughts that I just listed on the card right hatred, rage, revenge, anger, hatred, rage, revenge, anger, discouragement, blame, worry, doubt. So when we intentionally, with intent, ask for that protective bubble and what Christine Lang said is that you can create the bubble in any environment. Maybe you're at a sports event, maybe you're bubbling up your workspace. Maybe you're bubbling up yourself in your home. You can actually bubble up, but you don't bubble up anybody else unless you have minor children. If you have children who are minors, then you can bubble up for them as well, because we, as people pleasers and codependents, want to protect and create the bubble that is with everyone around us.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 27:53

Now, the big piece of this is whatever experiences someone else is having is theirs to learn. They may need whatever that negative energy is that's going on with them for them to actually choose how they're going to be in their life. So once I let go of the need to fix or help or take on the energy of my coworker, she ended up having her own experiences which led her to not work there anymore and I became the toxic person and in that toxicity there was so much I learned about myself. In those years of really unhappy house, unhappy job, unhappy self, I got to sit in my own dirtiness and my dysfunction and at one moment I came to clarity and, thank God, I chose sobriety and just said who is that? Well, I had to be in my darkness to get there. So if we really think and this is big again and take what you need and leave the rest, that our souls are here to have their grander experience, that, when we are actually trying to bubble up everybody else and keep them safe, you're not allowing them to have their experience. But you are choosing you, and you are choosing to stay in the light and you are choosing to raise your vibration and you are choosing safety so that you can bubble up your home.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 29:30

They say that you can actually bubble up your property, and the way that Christine Ling talked about it is that you can do a bubble that you have to do on a regular basis. Right, the bubbles get weak and things start to permeate through and our own energies get shifted, and so we have to reset ourselves, reset the bubble. She also says that you can create a shield, a permanent shield, and she talks about this in terms of this concept of like having a neighbor that is dark energy or has negative feelings. You ask with intent that a shield be formed between you and whatever this is, be formed between you and whatever this is and this is a much more long term shield that nothing can come through. You can do this in your cubicle, you can do this on your property. You can do this in terms of relationships with somebody who might be in your life, that you have made a boundary and a decision that you really can't have this person in your life, that you have made a boundary and a decision that you really can't have this person in your life. You actually create a shield and you're asking the universe to protect you.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 30:41

But again I want to come back to the place that says you are responsible for what's on your side. We are releasing the need to be responsible for what's on the other side and allowing them to have the cause and effect that is, from their own choices in their own experience. We are taking our power back and choosing for our self within our energetic bubble, our side of our shield, how we feel, what is our, how are we connecting to our authentic self? How are we keeping our thoughts onto the next true level, connected to source, connected to this higher sense of ourselves, connected to our soul recovery and feeling the feelings right? I keep coming back to this place. It's not about just spiritually bypassing and everything's just fine. Sometimes we need to look at what are we learning from, how this makes us feel, but we're not allowing that to affect us. We're being curious. We're opening Again.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 31:51

Each one of these steps that happens in our life doesn't come all at once. It's a gradual baby step, one tool kit, one piece of information, one practice of how to bubble up that. Your experience, your choice of how you see it, of how you fit in your life and your skin, is your responsibility. It's the only thing you're responsible for. Let everyone else do their own thing and there is so much fear and so much unhappiness and, yes, it is trying to affect your vibration, but you are here to keep your dial pegged at what you are calling for, at the true, authentic nature of who you are. You get to decide and when it comes off the dial, just bring it back. Bring it back with intention, bring it back with light, bring it back with love. Use your journaling, use your mantras, use listening to me, use meditations, use the music that fills you up, bring yourself back to who you are in connection with source, and from that you will be less affected by the people around you.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 33:16

To bubble up, and, as always, I just want to thank you for being part of this community and I'm here for you If you want to work on this and just one session and have more information around it. Book a session with me If you want to commit to doing the nine steps. Book a session with me. Let's get started or get a package Again. I just want to be here to support you on your soul recovery journey because together we can do the work that will recover your soul and keep using that texting me feature. I'm curious about what you think about episodes and how soul recovery is working in your life. Until next time, namaste, thank you for listening and I hope that that helps support your soul recovery process.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 34:01

I just wanted to give you a quick reminder that every Friday is the Recover your Soul bonus podcast and this is available both to Apple podcast subscribers for $3.99 a month, or it's available for both free and paid Patreon members. So as a Patreon member, you can choose. Do you want to support the podcast with $5, $10, or $25 a month? Totally volunteer. But to let you know that if you want to listen to those bonus episodes incredible interviews, wonderful book studies you don't have to be a paid member. You can access them in the first week or two that they're available free on Patreon.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 34:39

This community is so important to me and I want you to know I treat it with love and consideration. If you want coaching, I'm here for you. You want to come to a retreat? I'm here for you. You want to come to the free Soul Recovery Support Group? The community is here for you. Watch us on Facebook, instagram, follow us on all the social media for daily inspiration. Be part of the Facebook group. And one of the most important things is that you share this podcast with people that you think that it will resonate with, that you think that they're interested. Give it five stars, give it a review. We are growing this community together because together we can do the work that will recover your soul.