the energy you feel may not be your own

When you are in a mood (anxious or unhappy or scared or ..), and you don't know why, do you ever stop to think about whether you're actually picking up on someone else's energy? I had a good lesson in this last night.

My sister, my pup, and I were having a picnic at a nearby park when we saw a woman walking down the path towards us. My gut told me that something was wrong. Atlas saw her and began barking his "I'm big and tough so you stay away" bark. Instead of continuing past us, she stopped and stared at us for many long minutes, muttering under her breath. Atlas did not stop barking until she was far across the street - and he kept looking back to make sure she wasn't coming our way again. Then, she came back and stood at the edge of the park, staring again. Finally, she went inside. I almost never get a bad vibe about people, and Atlas almost never offers that warning bark to a person - so I trust both of our instincts.

We were walking around the park after dinner when I started feeling weird and sick and nervous and anxious and confused and scared and scattered .. but I didn't know why. In my fretful state, I thought Atlas' foot looked like it was moving strangely and I told Helen that we had to leave immediately - something was very wrong. As we got into the car, I glanced in my side view mirror and noticed the woman. She had been standing a little behind a building, staring intently at us again. That's when I realized that I was picking up on her energy.

So .. the next time a mood comes on and you really don't know why, take a minute to think about whether you might be picking up on someone else's mood. This can happen for both positive and negative emotions (happiness is contagious too), but I really can't see a downside to "catching" positive emotions!

Comments

[Julie M.]

That was very odd. I'm glad that you have Atlas. I think animals can be more intuitive than people at times (although you seem very intuitive) . We may have the tendency to want to give people the benefit of the doubt as not to seem judgemental or mean but sometimes people really do just give off bad vibes! I wonder why?

I remember one time I was in the position where I was alone in a remote area and a person came by and started talking to me. I vaguely knew and didn't mind the person but for some reason literally every hair on my body felt like it was standing up and I felt like I had to get out of there immediately- and I did. Nothing happened yet it still ranks up there with some of the scarier moments in my life!

[Toni]

I have chills running up and down my whole body, E. Good thing you have Atlas and his big bark, that you had your sister with you and that you listened to what your intuition was telling you. Stay safe!

[Elizabeth]

toni: he is a good friend. :)

julie: I think we are a lot more intuitive than we give ourselves credit for - it's just that we tend to write off our intuition or not realize it is intuition or try to second-guess our intuition. I do this a lot myself. I like to trust people and give them the benefit of the doubt, but I realize that there are people who might really want to do "me" harm. I'm glad your experience turned out fine!