Energy Discernment: What’s Mine and What’s Not?
Energy discernment is the ability to see what’s mine and what’s not. It’s one of the most important skills you can develop in Reiki healing, energy healing, and everyday life.
Because so often, what you’re feeling isn’t actually yours.
You might think you’re stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, or irritated. But in reality, you may have picked up that energy from someone else — a partner, a colleague, a client, or even just being out in the world around other people.
This is where energy discernment becomes everything.
Everything Is Energy (Whether You Realise It or Not)
In Reiki healing and energy healing, we work with one core truth: everything is energy.
Your thoughts are energy. Your emotions are energy. What you watch, listen to, and engage with all has an energetic imprint. And the more emotionally charged something is — fear, anger, anxiety — the more likely it is to linger.
You might notice this after watching the news. You feel unsettled, maybe even anxious, and then you find yourself talking about it, thinking about it, replaying it. Without realising it, you’re not just observing that energy – you’re engaging with it, amplifying it, and then attracting more of the same frequency back into your life.
This is why energy discernment is such a powerful concept within Reiki healing. It helps you recognise what energy is actually coming from you… and what you’ve unconsciously absorbed from everything around you.
How You Absorb Energy Without Realising It
Sometimes it’s obvious when something isn’t yours. If someone is clearly in a bad mood, complaining or projecting their frustration, you can usually feel that separation.
But more often, it’s subtle.
You might have a tense interaction at work. Someone speaks sharply, there’s pressure in the environment, or underlying stress in the room. You leave, go home, and suddenly you’re irritable, withdrawn, or more reactive than usual.
It’s easy to say, “I just had a bad day.”
But what’s often happening beneath the surface is that you’ve absorbed that energy into your own field. And if it connects to something familiar (an old wound, a past experience, a tone you recognise) it’s even more likely to stay.
Without awareness or clearing, that energy can start to feel like it belongs to you.
When Energy Starts to Affect Your Mind, Body and Emotions
This is where I see a lot of clients come in for Reiki healing, feeling confused about what’s going on internally.
They might describe anxiety, constant stress, or an inability to switch off. But as I tune into their energy, it becomes clear that they’re not just processing their own emotions — they’re carrying energy that doesn’t belong to them.
Over time, this can begin to impact the mind, emotional state, and even the physical body. It can show up as mental fog, emotional overwhelm, disrupted sleep, or a general sense of imbalance and dis-ease.
Reiki healing works so powerfully here because it helps to gently clear that excess energy, bringing you back into your own natural state of balance.
The Deeper Layer: Generational Energy and Inherited Patterns
Discernment doesn’t stop at what you pick up day-to-day. It also includes what you’ve inherited.
We don’t just take on behaviours from our families — we can also carry emotional patterns, beliefs, and energetic imprints that have been passed down through generations.
For me, this showed up as being a “worrier.”
It was something my school teachers noticed early on, but it felt like it was just part of who I was. It wasn’t until much later in my healing journey that I realised that this worry and anxiety energy didn’t actually start with me.
Through Reiki and energy work, I came to understand that this pattern had been passed down through generations. And once I was able to clear that energy, everything began to shift. My health improved massively, my baseline emotional state changed, and I no longer felt like I was carrying something that wasn’t mine.
It was one of the clearest examples of how powerful energy discernment can be.
Discernment Is Also About Mindset and Boundaries
There is another layer to this that’s just as important. Discernment isn’t only energetic — it’s psychological.
Many sensitive people are also deeply empathetic. They feel what others feel, and often, without realising it, they begin to take responsibility for those emotions too. They want to help, to fix, to ease the discomfort for the other person.
It comes from a kind place. But over time, it becomes draining.
Because taking on someone else’s emotional world doesn’t actually support them — and it disconnects you from yourself.
True empathy looks different. It’s about holding space. Listening. Being present. Trusting that the other person has the capacity to find their own way back to balance.
This is a skill that most people were never taught – but it is so important to maintain your own energy, and empower others at the same time.
What Happens When You Start to Shift This
I remember working with a client who came in feeling completely exhausted, mentally foggy, and disconnected at home. He thought it was just work stress, but as we explored things further, it became clear that he was carrying far more than his own load.
He cared deeply about his team and was constantly trying to manage the emotional environment around him. He found it hard to say no, and people often came to him to vent. At the same time, he had absorbed a lot of the stress, frustration, and tension from his workplace and was bringing that energy home with him.
Through our session, we worked on both levels — shifting his mindset around responsibility and boundaries, and using Reiki healing to clear the energy he was carrying.
Afterwards, things began to change. He slept better, felt lighter, and his family noticed a shift in his mood and presence. At work, he began to stand more firmly in his own energy, and interestingly, his team responded with more respect.
He hadn’t changed who he was. He had simply come back into his own energy.
Deepening This Work in Reiki Level 3a
Energy discernment is something I explore much more deeply in my Reiki Level 3a course.
Beyond the basics of Reiki healing, you’ll learn:
- Advanced energy clearing techniques
- How to discern what is yours vs what is not
- How to clear cords and energetic attachments
- How to protect and strengthen your energy field
- How to stay in your own sovereign energy and power
This is where Reiki becomes not just something you do…but something you embody.
If you feel ready to deepen your practice and understanding of Reiki healing, you can learn more and book into Reiki Level 3a (6th & 7th June) here.
