We live in a world where science has caught up to what the more esoteric disciplines have been saying for millennia – everything that exists is made up of energy. This is the basis of quantum mechanics, but at the same time has yet to be pushed to its ultimate conclusion. If everything that exists is made of energy, then the scientific process must suggest that this applies not only to the physical world, but also to the realms of emotion and thought. Both these things exist – we can both think and feel – therefore they must be made of something, and that something, as with everything else, is energy. Since we also know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, the energy to form thoughts and feelings must come from somewhere – we are constantly pulling energy in from the world around us.

We also know that energy can affect other energy. We can easily see this every day when we, with our physical bodies made of energy, interact with the world around us which is also made of energy. In the same way, as we go about our day our thoughts and emotions can be affected by the energy of other people’s thoughts and emotions. Have you ever had the experience where you interact with someone who is in a bad mood, and your own mood sours as a result? This is because the energy of the other person’s bad mood is directly affecting your own. Conversely you can spend time with someone who is cheerful and feel your own mood lift. All these things can be explained as simply energy interacting with other energy, and it is here that we find the importance of energetic hygiene. In the same way that we shower every day to wash off the physical forms of energy from our bodies, so too must we ‘wash’ our emotional and mental forms, or ideally not allow them to become dirty in the first place.

The key to energetic hygiene lays with intent. Your own energy follows your orders, so forming the intent to keep out that which will adversely affect you allows you to form an energetic semi-permeable membrane around yourself – that is, a layer of protection that will only allow through what you choose to allow. You can test this yourself the next time you find yourself being affected by someone else’s mood; in many cases the simple act of acknowledging what is happening and choosing not to indulge it is enough to negate any impact on yourself. Only by maintaining a level of awareness of what is happening within ourselves can we fully negate the influence of others and the world around us, and truly be said to be our own sovereign.

“Energy can’t be created or destroyed, and energy flows. It must be in a direction, with some kind of internal, emotive, spiritual direction. It must have some effect somewhere.” – Keanu Reeves