Yes, you can be energetically drained when you surround yourself with people carrying negative energy without you even knowing anything about it, and this is what I am going to discuss here.

I am sure that you have found yourself many times in situations where an interaction with a person left you drained, tense or emotionally upset. And this might have occurred even if no argument took place or no negative word said.

This is how a sensitive person can detect they had an unpleasant interaction with the negative energy of another.

But fear not, because in this article we are going to explore ways on how to detect negative energy before it impacts your wellbeing and deal with it.

Here are five things that you need to keep in mind when dealing with negative energy coming from other people.

1. Cultivating Energy Awareness and How to Tune into Vibrations

Energy Is More Than Just Words—It’s Vibrations

First things, first. If you want to start recognizing negative energy in others you need to start recognizing energy. But what is energy?

Energy from the viewpoint of modern spirituality is the basis of everything seen and unseen. Even physicists have concluded that at the very core of matter lies an energy field that forms it.

Here I am talking about energy that cannot be detected by our five senses but by our inner senses.

Strengthening Your Energy Sensitivity

Now, what I will suggest will sound contradicting to the above that we can only sense this unseen energy only with our inner senses. To start your journey to harness the power of your inner sense though you need to turn your attention to… your regular senses especially your sense of touch. You will also need to pay attention to your thoughts and emotions.

So, what I advise you to do for the following week is to take the following steps:

• Before leaving your house and even before interacting with anyone check, a) how does your body feel, b) what are the thoughts that pass through your mind, and c) what is your emotional state.
• When you finally leave the house be aware of the people you interact with and note with whom you had the longest of interactions.
• Upon returning home take your journal and do the above check-in of your body, emotions and thoughts and note down what is different.

If you do this, you will be on your way distinguishing your own energy from other peoples’ energies that you pick up when you interact with the outside world.

2. Constant Negativity: A Red Flag for Toxic Energy

How Constant Negative Energy Manifests in Conversation

Next on the line of how to spot negative energy in other people is to take note on what people you interact with like to talk about and also what they say in general.

Energy is not just about words; it’s about vibrations. To recognize negative energy in others, you must first become aware of energy itself.

In a way you might leave a conversation drained even though no argument took place, or no harsh words have been exchanged but one of the following (or more) might have occurred:

• You interacted with a person who constantly complains about everything (life, work, relationships, the entire world) never taking accountability for their own share in what they complain about.
• Or with a person who loves to gossip about others, speaking ill about them, or being judgmental about others’ life choices.
• A person who feels that is always a victim and has no power over the scary world that is out there to get them.

All the above points can really leave you drained after an interaction. It is natural for a friend to vent from time to time or even share an innocent gossip but if this is their day-to-day behavior it is time to consider if you want to be around them.

How Constant Negative Energy Coming from Others Affects Your Own Energy in General

When you are not aware of the negative energy that many people carry and thus are exposed to, this can be detrimental to your overall well-being.

It can affect your mood, thought process and even your body.

You can start taking a good look at your overall energy state by looking out for the following:

• Your mind is racing, you experience a lack of clarity.
• You might be feeling anxious, irritable, or frustrated emotions that have no reasoning for being present.
• Your mind is littered with negative thoughts more than usual and you are not mentally in your ‘happy place’ after an interaction.
• You might also have physical reactions like feeling heavy in your stomach or your chest.

So being aware of all the above is another way to detect how you are being affected by negativity that might follow the people you interact with.

3. Receiving No Support and Encouragement

Recognizing Subtle (or Overt) Discouragement

Another way that another person’s negativity might affect you is how they are treating you. This might come in subtle or not so subtle ways.

That is not to say that they do this intentionally (sometimes though this might be the case), but they tent to project their stuff onto you which can come in many forms like the ones that follow:

• Dismissal of your success as not being a “big deal”.
• Offering unsolicited advice to disguise their intention to criticize you.
• Not being there for your wins and only for your losses.
• Comparing your achievements with theirs or other peoples’ in a way that makes you feel unsupported.

Why Some People Drain Instead of Uplift

I mentioned all the above not to encourage you to hold grudges against people who display this behavior towards you, because it would do more harm to you than the people behaving in negative ways towards you, since most of the time people behave unconsciously.

So, it is important to recognize what is taking place so you can take informed actions that will empower you.

Recognizing the root cause of someone’s negativity doesn’t excuse their behavior, but it allows you to detach emotionally and decide how to protect your own energy.

To help you with this I want you to note the following points of why people might behave in such a negative behavior:

• “Hurt people, hurt people”. Understand that most of the time people who like to criticize, belittle, or try to act as better than you come from a place of inner wounding that goes back to their childhood.
• There are also people who operate from what is called ‘scarcity mindset’ where the entire world is a place where resources are scarce and you need to fight over them.
• People do not feel comfortable when they face change. So, in your path towards self-discovery and also worldly achievements they fear they might lose you because they don’t want to move along because of the above fear.

Considering the above root causes of why some people might behave in negative ways towards you doesn’t give them a free pass to continue treating you in this way. This is just a way for you to decide what to do with them in a way that will be productive and not add more negativity to you than what already exists between you and the other person.

4. Energy Vampirism

Understanding Energy Vampires and Unconscious Energy Drain

When talking about how to spot negative energy in others we cannot leave out of the conversation the people who in spiritual circle are called energy vampires.

You can walk away from a conversation feeling drained, even when no argument has occurred or harsh words were spoken. This is a clear sign that someone’s energy is affecting you more than their words.

These are people that unconsciously (or on rare occasions consciously, but this a discussion for another post) suck you energetically dry. This is a result of their low vibrational state of energy that leads them in draining people that are positive and in a high state of vibration.

So, in order for you to be aware of these people here are some key points on their behavior to look for in order to ‘categorize’ them as energy vampires:

• Excessive complaining: yes, even though I talked about this above, it is still worth mentioning it here. When a person constantly complains their energy will not be at its optimal and so they will seek people who can replenish their lost energy, without realizing that they are the cause of their own ‘misery’.
• Fear-based talk: some energy vampires love the addiction of fear-based thinking and the thrill it brings them. So, they will bring up every disaster, negative prophecy, misery taking place in the world in their interactions with others to amplify their appetite to be constantly spooked and in this way bring others down at the same low vibration they operate.
• Dramatic interactions: the need to always create or be involved in drama. This chaos of their doing might also drag you along in their need to have you engaged in their struggles.

Having the above in mind, I would suggest that it would be probably good for you not to be around these people. Also, know you cannot help them if they don’t want to change, and you can only stay away as much as you can from them, always without blame but with an intention to set boundaries for your own sake.

5. Energy Shifts and Spiritual Awareness

Your Body Sends You Warnings

Here I want to present you with two more ways of how to spot negative energy in other people, one that is a down-to-earth approach, and another that goes beyond the physical.

So first, let’s start with being aware of your trusted body. Being aware of your bodily sensations is the first step into building your gut feeling.

Whenever you interact with people, try to build the habit of taking a notice of how your body feels. Headaches out of the blue, heaviness in your stomach or chest, or even tension in your muscle, should draw your attention that you are perceiving negativity in the other.

Also, in order not to confuse bodily signals that are related to your health, do what I suggested above, the before and after test. So, if you were not at your best physically when you left your house to meet people, by knowing that you will be able to discern which physical signal involves the detection of negative energy or your health.

Strengthening Your Spiritual Awareness

Now to move deeper into detecting negative energy in its subtle and non-physical manifestation you could consider getting involved in practices like meditation, journaling, balancing your chakras etc.

With these practices you will be able to develop your psychic ability (that we all possess, some of us more developed than others) and to directly sense any type of energy including negative ones.

Conclusion

Now with all the above points you have taken the time to read, you are well equipped in starting your journey spotting negative energy in other people. This will improve your sense of well-being and also keep you in a high vibrational state in general for the most part of your day.

In another article I am going to discuss ways to directly work with these energies to not just spot them and how they affect you, but also how to clear your energy field, balance it out, and many other things that will assist you in transmuting the negative into the positive.

Till then, take care of yourself.