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Ntshadi's avatar

A memorable one was at a woman’s circle I attend. She’s never returned since. We women were usually buoyant and left the circle on a cloud. On this evening- everyone was falling asleep. I only realized when I started feeling that internal “scratchy” feeling, when something is very wrong. I covered my solar plexus area and that broke whatever connection she’d made. That’s how I knew who it was, an older death doula attending for the first time. As soon as I broke the connection, she turned to look at me and then tried to pull energy through my feet…toes! I felt the energetic pull but she stopped at some point. Covering or blocking access to solar plexus helps. I was so upset-

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Jessica's avatar

Gosh, that sounds awful, Ntshadi.

It's such a bizarre experience, isn't it? Certainly not mainstream (LOL story of MY life!).

I love that we each discover how to enact just the right boundary to keep that energy out. I feel it's pretty individual. Did you suffer any consequences in the long run, or did you feel that moment of breaking the connection, "do not cross this threshold", kept you feeling good?

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Ntshadi's avatar

I felt okay. It changed the circle for me , I think. Being able to notice what was happening and knowing how to break the connection is a wonderful skill to have.

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Alice Inoue's avatar

Thank you for sharing this extreme situation. I'm sorry you had to go through this. One of my clients told me that the local word for this is "Mana Suckers."

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Jessica's avatar

Mahalo, friend! I'm sorry I went through this, too. Have you ever experienced a Mana Sucker? xx

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Alice Inoue's avatar

Only in ways where I recognized that it was time to move on. However, it was never to the degree that you experienced this.

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Jessica's avatar

Maybe your vulnerability isn’t as high due to various reasons.

Everyone is different!

I can imagine that with good boundary training, and not being empathic (huge here), you can avoid a physically draining experience.

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Alice Inoue's avatar

Yes. I'm not very empathic at all. Not sure why being that I'm a triple Water, but you're so right on!

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Jessica's avatar

I should've said "you're not an Empath" - you are totally empathic!!! You have a great capacity for understanding others. From AI:

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, while an empath is someone who takes empathy a step further and feels and experiences other people's feelings as if they were their own. Empaths ability to discern what others are feeling goes beyond empathy, which is defined simply as the ability to understand the feelings of others.

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