Yoga for Energy Vampires
Yoga teaches us to protect prana—our life force—from energy drains through breath, discipline, and healthy boundaries.
According to Samkhya Philosophy
One of the fundamental yogic principles is that everything in existence is made up of energy and matter, or purusha and prakriti.
Purusha is universal consciousness, which is eternal, not subject to change and limitless.
Prakriti is matter — dynamic, ever-changing and mutable.
The union of prakriti and purusha is only possible via prana, our vitality and life force. Prana acts as a bridge enabling consciousness to move through the physical world of matter, shaping and forming it.
In other words, prana moves consciousness, which means from the yogic viewpoint, you, me, and everything in existence are simply energy moving through form, via prana.
“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong. What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.” — Albert Einstein
Protecting Your Energy
If we are interested in managing how much energy we have, we need to get very curious about the things that drain our prana — the energy vampires.
They are the people, places and things that steal our precious life force. When prana is hijacked, our consciousness can’t move efficiently through our form. We get stuck and unwell.
Therefore, protecting our energy from thieves should be one of the biggest priorities in our lives. And yet, we treat it as an afterthought, making all sorts of excuses for ourselves and the tricky prana pickpockets.
Don’t Let Them In
Energy vampires deplete us and are very sneaky in how they do so. They are often charismatic, their magnetic pull constantly alluring us. But though we may feel defenceless in their presence, we must remember the mythology of vampires tells us they can only enter if we let them in.
It’s ultimately up to us to set boundaries and draw a line. This may involve:
- Learning to say no
- Renegotiating the ways of working in a relationship
- Setting yourself some limits
- Letting go of someone or something you really don’t want to
If you don’t, no amount of building your energy resources will matter. The energy vampires will just consume everything in their path.
Multitasking
Multitasking is one of the sneaky ways our energy is dispersed and snatched.
The prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for focusing our attention, has a magpie tendency to look for bright, shiny new things. As those things steal our attention, multitasking increases stress hormones, such as cortisol and adrenaline, and creates a dopamine addiction rewarding the brain for losing focus and searching for external stimulation.
Multitasking can reduce productivity, and be dangerous, with one study finding emergency doctors dealing with multiple patients, nurses and paperwork at the same time made errors in prescriptions and left tasks unfinished.
The practice of mindfulness, paying attention to one thing, on purpose, free from judgment, is the antidote to multitasking. Learning to concentrate and be in the present moment is the best way to preserve your energy and be more productive.
Who and What Drains You
Notice who and what drains you. Screens and technology are some of the big offenders.
Think of the hours we spend scrolling or hitting the “next episode” button on TV, even though we don’t have enough time to sleep, meditate, cook a healthy meal or exercise.
It’s a good practice to notice how you feel after you’ve made the choice to go down a TV or internet rabbit hole or when you leave a particular person or environment.
Do you feel full, connected and joyful, or the opposite — depleted, disconnected and flat?
Awareness is the first step in addressing those pesky energy vampires. Then it’s time to set boundaries for yourself or others.
Hungry Ghosts
Due to the insatiable appetites of vampires, it doesn’t matter how much you put into them, you will get nothing back, and they will never be satisfied.
In Buddhism, there is a similar concept of hungry ghosts, beings whose desire can never be fulfilled. They are perpetually hungry and thirsty, attempting to fill a void they can’t.
They are the people in your life that no matter how much you give, there’s nothing in return. No balance, no fulfilment, no exchange.
We all have them in our orbit. We don’t feel energised and valued from our time with them, and they seem eternally ready to take whatever is given.
But the problem is, it’s like filling up someone else’s petrol tank directly from our own vehicle, only they’ve drilled a hole in theirs so neither of you are really going anywhere.
Sometimes putting garlic around your neck and getting your cross ready isn’t enough for the toughest offenders, and it’s not easy when some of those relationship dynamics are so ingrained.
But when you realise how fruitless it is for you to keep feeding those insatiable hungry ghosts, you will understand you have to break the cycle, in service of both of you.
Health risks: Women’s health expert Dr Christiane Northrup argues that energy vampires are a health risk because they create chronic stress, problems in the immune, cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and central nervous systems, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, obesity and depression.
Tapas — Discipline
Tapas, or discipline, austerity and sacrifice, is one of the key observances Patanjali prescribes in the Yoga Sutras.
Once we notice who and what the energy vampires in our life are, and set boundaries with them, the practice of discipline holds us steady and keeps us accountable.
Managing energy vampires requires you to engage fully with tapas. It is tapas that will get you to stop scrolling and meditate instead. Or set your alarm earlier so you can get up and go for a walk. It’s tapas that gets you to switch off Netflix instead of watching one more episode or switch the phone to silent.
And it is tapas that will invite you to pause before following the lure of the energy vampires, to stop and take a breath instead of getting sucked into their vortex once more.
Breath and Prana
Breath may be perceived as prana’s gateway so, therefore, how we breathe is fundamental in managing our energy.
Most of us spend the greater part of our day not thinking about breathing. It is understandable, as it just happens naturally.
But the research shows that how well we breathe is directly related to many aspects of our wellbeing, especially how much energy we have.
Not breathing well may be the first thing for us to look at when it comes to the things that steal our energy.
When in doubt: slow, relaxed, diaphragmatic breathing in and out through the nose should keep you balanced.
Subtle Anatomy: The Mind-Body-Energy Connection
The movement of prana impacts our physiology, both the physical anatomy and the more subtle anatomy: the mental, energetic and spiritual layers.
This is why many yogis speak so much about managing our energy through a wholistic lens.
There are several yoga physiology models that incorporate this understanding that we are all made up of mental, energetic and physical tiers that all affect one another.
Models mentioned in the Vedic texts, such as the gunas, chakras and koshas, map this integrated system out in some detail.
They all share the understanding that our energy is impacted by all aspects of our being, all our experiences, especially our relationships.
Chakras and Relationships
It is said that our life force, our full energetic capacity, is dormant, like a sleeping snake at the base of our spine, where the primary nadi, sushumna nadi, runs.
When sushumna is clear, our energy can flow easily and we are full of vitality. But if there are traffic jams along the way, energy gets stuck, and so do we.
Along that main pathway, there are energetic centres called chakras, related to different elements and relationships.
When there are imbalances and blockages in those centres, when one of those relationships is out of whack and someone or something is bleeding.
