I’m learning how important energy is.
Not just in the spiritual sense but in the way we feel when we walk into a room.
The energy we carry.
The energy we absorb.
The energy we give away.
The energy we create around us.
I’ve started thinking about everything as energy in constant motion.
It can change.
A hug can turn tears into a smile.
A kind word can change someone’s entire day.
A piece of music can lift you when you didn’t even realise you were feeling low.
A conversation can leave you feeling lighter.
Another can leave you completely drained.
I’ve become much more aware of this.
And perhaps more importantly, I’ve started paying attention to my own energy.
Last year, I was depleted.
I could feel it.
My mood was low.
My patience was low.
I was tired.
I was absorbing the energy around me without really knowing how to protect myself from it.
Other people’s negativity stayed with me.
Comments stayed with me.
Situations stayed with me.
I would leave a room physically but somehow carry the energy of it with me.
I didn’t understand how much this was affecting me until I started learning how to protect my energy.
Over the last few months, I’ve been practicing.
I’ve been learning how to notice when my energy is dropping.
How to change the thoughts that are pulling me down.
How to shift my attention.
How to move from a negative thought into a more positive one.
How to recognise when something isn’t mine to carry.
How to choose the environments and people I spend time around.
Even something as simple as the music I listen to has become part of this.
There are songs that lift me.
Songs that calm me.
Songs that bring me back to myself.
And there are things that I know will leave me feeling heavier.
I’m learning that protecting my energy isn’t about shutting the world out.
It’s about becoming more intentional about what I allow in.
When I came back to work after six weeks away, I felt different.
I felt rested.
Fresh.
Positive.
I had energy again.
And something interesting happened.
The environment hadn’t completely changed.
There were still negative comments.
There were still difficult moments.
There were still things that could have pulled me down.
But they didn’t have the same power over me.
I noticed them.
I acknowledged them.
And then I let them pass.
I started actively choosing not to put myself in spaces where I knew I would leave feeling depleted.
I stopped feeling like I had to absorb everything around me.
And in doing that I started to understand something I had been missing in my work as a counsellor.
For so long, I thought helping meant finding the right thing to say.
Finding the solution.
Fixing the problem.
Making the child feel better.
But I’m learning that sometimes helping is much simpler.
Sometimes it’s just being present.
Being calm when someone else is overwhelmed.
Being kind when someone is having a difficult day.
Creating a space where someone feels safe enough to talk.
And I’ve noticed that when I am calmer children often become calmer too.
When I’m not rushing to fix them, they seem more willing to open up.
When I am genuinely present they don’t always need me to have an answer.
Maybe the energy we bring into a room communicates something before we ever say a word.
And this has made me think differently about what I want to give my students.
I have always wanted to help children.
But I think I was sometimes lost in the translation of what helping actually meant because if I’m honest I wasn’t always sure how to help myself.
Now I’m beginning to understand that part of my own mission may simply be to share more kindness.
More love.
More positivity.
More calm.
To teach children that they have some power over the energy they bring into the world.
That they can learn to notice how they feel.
They can learn to recognise thoughts that pull them down.
They can learn ways to shift their energy.
They can learn to protect their peace.
They can choose kindness.
They can choose what they give their attention to.
They can learn that feeling something doesn’t mean they have to stay there forever.
It’s a big idea.
And I certainly don’t have it all figured out.
I’m still learning.
I’m still practicing.
I’m still having days when my energy drops and I have to find my way back.
But perhaps that’s the point.
I’m not supposed to have all the answers yet.
The more I learn, the more I practice.
The more I practice, the clearer it becomes.
And one thing I’ve realised I’m surprisingly good at is taking the things I’m learning about living a better life and translating them into something children can understand.
Maybe that is part of my purpose.
Not to teach children how to avoid every difficult emotion.
Not to teach them to be positive all the time.
But to help them understand themselves.
To give them tools.
To show them that their internal world matters.
And perhaps most importantly, to model it myself.
Because I can’t teach children how to protect their energy if I’m constantly giving mine away.
I can’t teach them about calm if I never allow myself to be calm.
I can’t teach them about kindness if I’m not practicing kindness towards myself.
So I’m learning.
And I’m bringing what I learn into the room with me.
Not as someone who has figured it all out.
But as someone who is still on the journey.
And that’s enough.
Because the journey isn’t ending.
There will always be something more to learn.
Something more to practice.
Something more to discover.
And for the first time, I’m not frustrated by that.
I’m excited by it.
Because the more I learn about myself, the more I understand what I can offer others.
And perhaps the greatest energy I can bring into a room isn’t the energy of someone who has all the answers.
It’s the energy of someone who is still learning how to live this life and genuinely wants to help others learn too.
