protect your energyEnergy is a precious resource and a vital part of life. It’s incredibly important that you protect your energy.

I have always known energy was important, but last year opened my eyes to just how important energy is and what a huge part energy plays in our lives.

Unfortunately, I discovered the importance of energy by being diagnosed with a serious energy-limiting illness.

We need energy for everything we do in life. Even the most basic tasks and actions in our lives require energy.

Energy isn’t just a physical thing. It’s also mental and emotional, which is why you can feel so exhausted and emotionally drained after arguing with someone. It’s also why you feel so physically exhausted after having a mentally challenging time at work.

Energy isn’t something you should take for granted. It can be a limited resource, which is why it’s incredibly important that you protect your energy.

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Let’s dive into 10 ways to protect your energy.

1. Protect yourself from energy vampires

Just like the vampires in the movies, energy vampires will suck the life out of you.

The tricky thing is, sometimes we might not recognize the energy vampires. While some are very obvious, others can be more subtle.

You might think you are being a good friend and a good listener, when in fact, people are taking advantage of you by constantly dumping all of their problems on you. These same people may be sucking the life out of you with their problems, while not showing any interest in you or what problems you are dealing with.

Being used or taken for granted is not a nice feeling, and can impact your energy levels.

Protect yourself from energy vampires who drain your energy.

Need help dealing with an energy vampire? The book Dodging Energy Vampires: An Empath’s Guide to Evading Relationships That Drain You and Restoring Your Health and Power by Christiane Northrup, M.D.

2. Protect yourself from one-sided relationships

You need to protect yourself from one-sided relationships.

When I got sick, one of my closest friends, who I had supported through all of her hardships, disappeared from my life (at a time I needed her the most).

Over the years, I invested huge amounts of my time and energy making this friend a priority in my life. Suddenly, I was completely on my own. I was devastated. I was angry at her. But I was also angry at myself. I was mad at myself because I had made her a priority in my life, even though she had been treating me badly for quite some time.

As the relationship got more and more one-sided and everything seemed to be about her, I didn’t protect my energy and paid the price.

Protect yourself from one-sided relationships.

3. Limit time spent with toxic people

If you spend a lot of time with people who are emotionally abusive, manipulative, or constantly criticizing you, they will deplete your energy.

It can be incredibly draining and emotionally exhausting to spend a lot of time with toxic or critical people.

But let’s be honest, we can’t always avoid toxic people completely. Some of the toxic people in our lives can be close family members. Even considering the family connection, we have the right to limit our time spent with people who intentionally try to hurt us.

Right up there with toxic people are the people who love drama. It follows them everywhere. They tell themselves they don’t like or want all of the drama in their lives, yet their lives are filled with one crisis after another. People addicted to drama have a habit of making one bad decision after another.

While we all have to deal with challenges in our lives, drama queens often face recurring problems of their own making.

Despite saying they want a happy, content life, they seek out drama. They do not learn from their mistakes.

They refuse to work on their personal growth. They avoid self-reflection and fail to change their bad habits and harmful behaviors. They self-sabotage, throw self-discipline out the window, and go into denial over problems, which, as we all know, only makes the problem worse.

Some people also like to turn every small problem in their lives into a major disaster. This sort of catastrophizing behavior gives them the attention they crave.

Be intentional and careful about who you spend your time with.

Related post – Finding Peace After a Toxic Relationship – How to Find the Peace You Deserve

4. Set and maintain boundaries

Boundaries are an important part of life. When people stomp all over your boundaries, you can feel exhausted and resentful.

For people to respect our boundaries, they must know what our boundaries are in the first place. Come to think of it, it’s important that WE know our own boundaries.

We can’t expect the people closest to us to be mind-readers; we need to let them know what our boundaries are and when they have crossed them.

When you first start setting boundaries, it can feel a little challenging (okay, maybe a LOT challenging), but it’s something you need to work on and stick with.

Boundaries done well make our lives easier.

Read boundary-related posts and books – 

5. Develop healthy habits

So much of our lives revolve around our habits. Better habits mean better results.

Bad habits rob us of our energy. Bad habits affect our productivity, focus, health, and relationships.

Habits and structure help us conserve energy. Without healthy routines and habits, we run around disorganized and frantic, wasting energy.

Take a close look at your habits. Audit your habits to identify what you need to change, then start making the necessary changes.

An excellent book on habits is Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear. I’ve read this book and highly recommend it. There is a good reason this book is a major bestseller.

Related habit posts – 

6. Take care of yourself emotionally

It’s important not to underestimate the impact of emotional energy in our lives.

With my condition, I can have a massive energy crash after having an emotional confrontation with someone. Getting upset has huge ramifications on my energy and my health.

But you don’t have to have a chronic illness for your emotions to affect your energy. Anyone who has gone through a devastating breakup knows what I am talking about!!

You need to protect your emotions to protect your energy.

This isn’t about not acknowledging your emotions or trying to numb yourself so that you don’t feel them. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. You need to be able to feel, process, and move through your emotions in a mature, healthy way.

Not always an easy task, but something we all need to work on.

A big part of emotional maturity is not letting other people’s emotions and opinions overwhelm us. I recently finished an amazing book – The Let Them Theory: A Life-Changing Tool that Millions of People Can’t Stop Talking About by Mel Robbins, which can help you think differently about what other people think and do. This book will be a game-changer if you implement its advice and theories into your life.

Grab yourself a copy of The Let Them Theory.

7. Do things that you love

I love Formula 1 racing. During my illness, watching Formula 1 has been my salvation (that and my beautiful cat). 🙂

Even though I have severe fatigue and am currently housebound, I feel mentally energized when I watch an F1 race. I find it exciting and look forward to upcoming races.

We all need things we love doing. We all need joy, excitement, and something to look forward to in our lives.

To protect your energy, do things that you love as often as you can. Bring as much joy and laughter into your life as possible.

Related post – 10 Inspiring Ways to Do More of What Makes You Happy

While we are talking about doing things we love, we also need to talk about stopping doing things that you really don’t want to do. Whenever possible, you need to stop doing things you hate.

Far too often, we say yes when we really want to say no, and it drains our energy. One way to protect your energy is by learning how to say no.

Granted, we don’t always have the luxury of saying no in certain situations, but there are usually more options to say no than we realize.

I wrote a post on this exact topic, so make sure you read – 10 Reasons You Are Saying Yes When You Want to Say No

8. Spend as much time as you can with people who support you

Spending time with people who support you and genuinely care about you will help with your energy levels.

Joyful, caring, and supportive people can help light a fire within us. That fire helps with our energy.

This doesn’t mean that you need to be around people who are always happy and optimistic. Toxic positivity can be draining when you are facing serious issues.

Seek out people who support you.

Seek out people who bring joy, understanding, and calm into your life.

9. Pace yourself

If you have a chronic illness, you probably already know about pacing. With a chronic illness, pacing (which is staying within your current energy limits) is not a luxury or a nicety; it’s a must.

But pacing doesn’t have to be just for people with chronic illnesses who have to make sure that they don’t use up all their limited energy at once.

Pacing also helps people avoid burnout. Not to mention, pacing can help improve productivity as it involves taking breaks between projects and tasks.

Want to learn more about pacing? This insightful book, Pace Yourself: How to Have Energy in an Exhausting World, by Amy Arthur, can help. It talks about the different types of pacing, emotional, mental, and physical.

Stop being in such a rush all the time. Stop treating every single thing like it’s urgent. Try pacing instead.

10. Rest

Rest is not a dirty word. Taking the time to rest is important.

If you are a person who has to be doing things all the time, you might struggle to rest. You might find it a waste of time. You may find it boring. If your mind is constantly working overtime, you might find it hard to stop doing things and just be.

If you don’t rest, you risk burnout. You risk getting sick, which means taking more time away from your busy schedule to heal and restore your health.

Rest before you need to. Make time for relaxation.

Related post – How to Protect Your Peace

Protect your energy

Energy = life. Without energy, it’s a struggle to do even the most basic tasks in life.

Having energy and vitality means you can pursue your goals and dreams, have fun with loved ones, and nurture your relationships.

Protect your energy. Treat your energy like the precious, valuable resource that it is and don’t take it for granted.

Protect yourself. Protect your energy.

Read Next – How to Live for Yourself and Not For Other People