Energy Fatigue
Something I’ve been struggling with lately is how often I get requests to send energy out for people who are struggling with health and other issues. Maybe it’s always been this way and I was just too obtuse to notice it, but it seems like the last few years in the pagan community it has ramped up to the point that every day I am bombarded with requests for people to send energy for themselves, their relatives, or their friends who are struggling with illness, impending death, a job interview, or tough situation.
As a pagan with a finite amount of material resources to throw at such problems, I love the idea of being able to send a little free energy to each person, doing that little bit to help them find wellness, their peace, or even sometimes that new job. It’s easy, it’s quick, it takes very little preparation, and has minimal cost to me in a monetary sense.
It doesn’t seem like much, but all that energy expenditure can add up. Even the most renewable resources have to be given time to renew. Sometimes it seems like I just don’t get enough recharge time, and that’s invariably when I end up feeling stressed out and I shut down my communications and quit checking my email just to give myself a break.
As a clergy person, I feel like maybe the answer is maybe to add them to my prayer list - giving them up to “my” gods instead of sending my personal energy directly. But that feels....like not enough, not direct enough. I’m not sure. And I guess that would require me to actually take that time every day to meet with the gods. I probably should be doing that anyway, but it feels more genuine to me when I do it purely in thanksgiving (instead of always petitioning them for something) or when I feel properly inspired.
I don’t begrudge this giving of my energy, but there are so many requests and I really don’t feel qualified to judge who is “deserving” or not deserving. Do I send a push of energy to my friend’s mom who has cancer, or do I send it to another friend whose husband is interviewing for a crucial job that would make all the difference to their financial health? Should I split the difference and send them each a little, or make a choice who to send a bigger push to in the hopes that it could be the little bit extra that helps push the universe into a different outcome?
Or is it just all horse-hockey that we’re making up in our heads, and it really doesn’t matter anyway? Sometimes my skeptical brain just has to play devil’s advocate.
How do you, as a pagan, deal with this? How do I, as a clergy member, deal with this, and how do I, as a naturally generous person, maintain a balance between my own health and my impulse to help where I can?
I don’t have a brilliant answer, a witty quote, or any eloquent words, just more questions. Welcome to a teeny slice of the inner turmoil of my brainmeats.
As a pagan with a finite amount of material resources to throw at such problems, I love the idea of being able to send a little free energy to each person, doing that little bit to help them find wellness, their peace, or even sometimes that new job. It’s easy, it’s quick, it takes very little preparation, and has minimal cost to me in a monetary sense.
It doesn’t seem like much, but all that energy expenditure can add up. Even the most renewable resources have to be given time to renew. Sometimes it seems like I just don’t get enough recharge time, and that’s invariably when I end up feeling stressed out and I shut down my communications and quit checking my email just to give myself a break.
As a clergy person, I feel like maybe the answer is maybe to add them to my prayer list - giving them up to “my” gods instead of sending my personal energy directly. But that feels....like not enough, not direct enough. I’m not sure. And I guess that would require me to actually take that time every day to meet with the gods. I probably should be doing that anyway, but it feels more genuine to me when I do it purely in thanksgiving (instead of always petitioning them for something) or when I feel properly inspired.
I don’t begrudge this giving of my energy, but there are so many requests and I really don’t feel qualified to judge who is “deserving” or not deserving. Do I send a push of energy to my friend’s mom who has cancer, or do I send it to another friend whose husband is interviewing for a crucial job that would make all the difference to their financial health? Should I split the difference and send them each a little, or make a choice who to send a bigger push to in the hopes that it could be the little bit extra that helps push the universe into a different outcome?
Or is it just all horse-hockey that we’re making up in our heads, and it really doesn’t matter anyway? Sometimes my skeptical brain just has to play devil’s advocate.
How do you, as a pagan, deal with this? How do I, as a clergy member, deal with this, and how do I, as a naturally generous person, maintain a balance between my own health and my impulse to help where I can?
I don’t have a brilliant answer, a witty quote, or any eloquent words, just more questions. Welcome to a teeny slice of the inner turmoil of my brainmeats.