by Parita Shah: Numerous lifestyle and mindset choices determine the health of your spirit. By becoming aware of what drains your spirit and incorporating self-care, you will cultivate a more fluid and harmonious flow of energy…
Humans are much more than a body and a mind. Along with your organs, bones, tissues, and thoughts, you comprise lifeforce or spirit. Cultures around the world called this prana, chi, or ki. By healing your vital energy, you strengthen your sense of purpose, physical well-being, and mental clarity.
What Drains Your Spirit?
There are a few lifestyle factors and emotions that block the flow of your energy. They deplete your spirit and, in turn, weaken your body and overhaul your mind. Here are a few of the most common things that drain our spirit:
1. Toxic Relationships
Have you noticed that certain people just have a way of making you feel more tired, emotional, and anxious? When you cling to relationships that don’t serve you, you allow your vibration to remain low and deny your consciousness the ability to expand.
Eastern philosophy suggests that certain people come into your life to teach you lessons and help you evolve. However, they may not be meant to remain in your life forever. When your soul’s contract, or the agreement of lessons, is expired, you are asked to compassionately release that relationship.
2. Suppression of Emotions
As a human, you are designed to experience and process a wide range of emotions. You’re meant to acknowledge the feelings, learn from them, and then let them go. However, when you attach to any particular emotion, whether it’s positive or negative, you can create resistance. The suppression of emotions blocks your light and weighs on your spirit.
3. Lack of Self-Respect and Self-love
On a soul level, humans need love and respect from within as much as from others. When you blame, judge, or compare yourself to others, you fail to recognize the love and light within yourself. You are worthy of joy, love, safety, and all the good things that this world has to offer you. You are as deserving as anyone else on this planet.
How to Nurture Your Spirit
Once you’re aware of how you have been draining your lifeforce, you can begin to make choices that support your health. You can boost the health of the energetic field, (which includes chakras, nadis, koshas, and more) by practicing presence, faithful surrender, and forgiveness. Additionally, you will renew your spirit by living into your purpose, connecting with your inner guidance system, and building a network of support. These mindset and lifestyle shifts can help you take charge of your energetic hygiene. Here’s how:
1. Presence
By choosing to be fully immersed in the present moment, you call back your life force–that you may have given away to circumstances of the past and future. Worrying about what’s yet to come, and holding emotions from the past, are the easiest ways to give your power away. While emotional healing can take time, you do have the opportunity to be present in every moment. By paying attention to what’s right in front of you, you give your mind and body the ability to process energy and cultivate acceptance.
2. Surrender
Your aura is most expansive and protected when you are open to connecting with the universal consciousness in all. Aim to give yourself a few moments each day to welcome the wisdom that plants, animals, elements, and guides have to share. Allow the light to support you. You may simply sit in solitude and affirm, “I welcome the love and guidance of universal consciousness. I am open to the energy of trust.”
3. Connect with Intuition
Lifeforce can easily be drained when you refuse to listen to your intuition. Perhaps you’re being guided to leave your job or travel abroad. When you continually ignore the gut feelings, dreams, and inspiration, you block your Third Eye (Sixth) Chakra. The Third Eye Chakra is one of the seven main energetic vortexes that stores your thoughts, emotions, and experiences. From those chakras, you project information and manifest your present-moment experiences. You may open the sixth chakra by practicing automatic writing, working with amethyst, or welcoming in your spirit guides.
4. Join a Tribe
Ancient cultures recognized that humanity thrives in groups and communities. Having a network that you can relate to can offer a sacred space for you to be vulnerable, courage, and grounded energy. You may be isolated due to numerous factors such as location, disability, financial issues, or simply feeling rejected. You may wish to consider how the right tribe of people can be medicinal in your life. From there, reflect on the values that matter to you. What qualities must be present in the community that you join?
5. Practice Forgiveness
Your soul is incredibly depleted when you hold onto anger, judgment, resentment, and shame. Your body and mind’s frequency is lowered, and you may find that you will manifest more of the same from that vibration. While forgiveness is challenging, it does not mean that you have to acquit someone who has wronged you or to continue having a relationship without boundaries. On the contrary, it is an opportunity to free yourself–and your past. The desire to forgive is all you need. Being open to the idea that you might one day easily and effortlessly transmute all pain is a great first step.
6. Create a Meaningful Existence
Your vitality is not only dependent on the food you consume and the movement that you give your body but also the sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that you find in your daily life. The more clarity that you have around the meaning of your existence, and the more you pursue your purpose, the more liveliness you bring into each day. In order to start living into your purpose, you may want to contemplate, “What am I passionate about? What brings me joy? What did I once do that I miss doing more of?” Remember, your purpose is not necessarily a career choice. It can also include a hobby that brings you delight, a relationship that you tend, or how you go about your life.
If you’ve been doing all the “right” things for your body, practicing mental hygiene, but still feeling a little low, anxious, or lost, it may be time to tend to your spirit. The lifeforce in you, when strengthened, supports you in feeling connected, free, guided, and faithful. By becoming aware of what drains your spirit, and choosing lifestyle measures that nurture it, you can complement the health of the mind and body.
