By this point I’m sure you’ve heard about toxic people.

Those are the people who apparently steal energy from you.

You become weaker when you are with them.

You become more negative, or more depressed, or overall feeling worse.

This is pretty much the opposite of magnetic individuals who make everyone else around them feeling better and more inspired.

But there’s one thing that it’s important to mention regarding toxic people.

They aren’t really stealing energy from you… you are giving it away!

You are allowing them to take your energy.

I have a very interesting story that happened to me a few years back that illustrate this fact perfectly.

I was having dinner with 3 close friends plus another guy who was a friend of one of them.

During this dinner, a discussion arose – it didn’t matter the topic.

But basically, the other guy (the toxic one) was expressing his conviction in a very deliberative and argumentative way of something he knew nothing about; basically bashing cherished beliefs of myself and my friends.

My friends were trying to say how wrong he was – and indeed he was very wrong. But it didn’t quite matter of many times you could prove him wrong, he would just come up with another objection to continue the argument.

This lasted for pretty much the whole dinner. And it was somewhat intense.

I was the only one who wasn’t involved in this discussion. In the beginning I started with it, just like my friends, but as I soon as I realize the energy I was wasting (for nothing), I simply shut up, enjoyed the food and pretty much ignored the whole thing.

My 3 other friends were completely depleted at the end of the dinner. They were feeling bad, the food was horrible, they didn’t slept well that night… all consequences of an intense interaction with a toxic individual.

Needless to say I slept like a baby and was feeling very well.

So it’s not like a toxic person can magically steal your energy, no… you are the one that has to give it away – has my friends did.

I was there – physically present in the same table – the same way they were. So the toxic guy didn’t had magic tentacles that stole everyone’s energy inside his radius.

They gave it to him.

If they had a higher experience and awareness of their own energy, they could have felt how he was stealing the energy of everyone involved and backed off.

But they didn’t… and then they suffered the consequences.

Of course, not all toxic people are so easily avoided like this. If you are forced to work with one or live with one, it can be a lot harder.

But it’s sure helpful to know when you are being drained and when you should stop giving your energy away.

You can train to become aware of your own energy with the Vitality and Energy Training.