Why Your Energy Leaks Matter

Our energy is our most precious resource.

Not just our ability to get tasks done but that core, vibrational, how we feel about ourselves energy.

It is something to be cultivated, nurtured, invested in.

But what is the point if you’re then letting the energy leak out?

It’s like pumping up a tyre with a hole in it. You get the tyre inflated only for the air to leak out and then you need to pump it up again. 

That’s a lot of effort, just to keep you in the same place, let alone get ahead.

So a key part of your energetic maintenance should be clearing up the leaks.

What do I mean by energy leak?

To me, an energy leak is something that tugs on my attention. I notice it distracting me, drawing focus when I’m doing something else.

It’s something my brain is preoccupied with in a way that doesn’t feel very good. It feels like a contraction, fear, anxiety. And it’s persistent.

It’s that annoyed feeling you get when you get yet another email from that person.

It’s that anxious feeling you get when you see yet another post from that Instagram account.

It’s that nagging feeling you get when you see yet another automatic payment go out.

There’s two ways you notice an energy leak:

1. You notice the email/post/payment and it triggers a hint of negative emotion.
2. You’re working on something else and your mind gets distracted, nagging you to give attention to the leak.

So either in the moment or after the fact but the emotion is always negative.

Either way, it’s got to go.

Why hunt down energy leaks?

In simplest terms, they don’t feel good and our primary aim in life is to feel good in whatever way you interpret that for yourself.

What I’ve noticed is that energy leaks are indications of something else. The negative feeling being generated is actually feedback. It’s showing us where we have some internal work to do. It’s worth asking the question, why does this post/email/task I’m avoiding make me feel this way? What is coming up here?

For instance, noticing an automatic payment that I’d forgotten about, made me feel out of control with my money. In the process of working through my automatic payments, figuring out which ones to keep and which ones to cancel, I was taking better care of my money and felt more empowered as a result.

What it comes down to is by allowing that energy leak to stay we are giving our power away. It’s an indication that we don’t feel worthy of taking care of ourselves, of setting and upholding our own personal standards. We’re letting air out of the tyres and making it a lot harder to move forward quickly and smoothly.

Want more? Benefits of a Good Clear Out

Where to look for energy leaks

There are two phases to managing your energy leaks.

First you need to do an audit and get on top of them. Identify and eliminate.

Second is constant vigilance. Or relentlessly take action every time you observe a leak if you’re not Mad-Eye Moody.

Common areas to audit:

• Your inbox! Unsubscribe. Unsubscribe. Unsubscribe. I also think about where those emails are coming from if there is an account or profile that I want deleted in order to control where my information has ended up.
• Social media, both who you follow and which groups you’re a member of. What prompted this whole post was a group that prompted a way of business that didn’t sit right with me but I stayed in for way too long. Don’t make my mistake.
• Finances. Things like automatic payments, money you owe to others can sit in the back of your mind. Review them all, check what they’re for, get the payments made and be in control of what your money is doing.
• Your to-do list. There are two things to watch out for here; tasks languishing on your to-do list for months on end and productivity tools/apps/planners that aren’t maintained and full of tasks you’ve already completed or are no longer relevant. Clean up however you organise yourself and schedule an hour or two to bash through all of those niggly hanging on tasks. 
• Apps and plugins. Delete everything you don’t use and make sure any associated accounts are dealt with as well.

Some other places your energy could be leaking:

• Notebooks and journals. Make sure each one that you’re using has a distinct purpose and store the rest for later.
• Your to-read pile. Be honest about which ones you want to read and put the rest away or donate them. This isn’t just books either. It could be magazines, blog posts, saved articles on your phone or bookmarks.
• The junk drawer. Holding on to things just in case is funky scarcity vibes. Not good.

Where else do you think you’re experiencing energy leaks? Let your intuition or, ahem, energy guide you. Everything I’ve listed here is from my personal experience, where I feel that tug so it’s by no means an exhaustive list.

As you start in one area, you’ll start to notice energy leaks in other aspects of your life. As we raise the bar in one area, it always overflows into others. As our expectations of how the world works change in one part of life, it raises our expectations in other areas as well.

Tips When Addressing Your Energy Leaks

• Be thorough. Cast your net widely.
• Go through two or three times. Each time you get through, you’ll set the bar a little higher and clear out some more leaks. We’re all for continuing to raise your standards!
• Kindness, compassion, grace are the order of the day. The intention of this exercise is to support yourself and increase your energy. This is NOT a reason to beat yourself up for not being on top of things. You can’t change what’s already done, you can only celebrate that you’re taking action now. Stay positive.
• Set boundaries ahead of time. It would be very easy for this to turn into a full on clearing out, Marie Kondo’ing exercise and get overwhelming. The point is to deal with energy leaks, so trust yourself to know where the biggest problem is and focus there.

Do you feel like your energy is leaking out as fast as you can build it up? Join the discussion in The Independent Mavenhood Facebook group and be supported on your empowerment journey.