How to Know When You Need an Energy Cleanse: 7 Signs You're Carrying Energy That Isn't Yours
By Briana Barela
There was a point in my life when I was carrying way too much for way too long. I was carrying heavy emotions for so much of my life that I didn't even know what it felt like to not carry them. The heaviness and emotional exhaustion felt normal. Walking around with other people's problems, emotions, expectations, and experiences mixed in with my own felt normal.
I didn't know there was a much lighter way to feel.
It wasn't until I started exploring concepts like energy clearing and energy cleansing that something began to click for me. I started studying Nikola Tesla's teachings. He has deeply influenced the way I understand energy. He spent his life exploring electricity, electromagnetic fields, frequency, resonance, and the invisible forces operating all around us. His work reinforced something I had already begun to understand spiritually:
Everything is energy. And I do mean everything.
Your body, your thoughts, light, sound, and even what appears to be solid matter exist through energetic processes, movement, and interaction. Even our emotions can be understood as energy moving through us. E-Motion: energy in motion.
Energy isn't some abstract spiritual concept. It's fundamental to the physical world. Once I truly understood that, I started asking myself:
How much of what I was carrying was actually mine?
I began paying attention to how I felt before and after certain conversations. How my energy changed depending on who I was around. How some experiences stayed with me long after they were technically over. And how easily I could become consumed by an emotion without ever stopping to ask where it came from.
That's when I realized that if I wanted to feel different, I couldn't just keep carrying everything indefinitely. I had to learn how to consciously clear my energetic field and release the heavy, uncomfortable energy I had accumulated through difficult relationships, environments, emotions, and circumstances.
Energy cleansing became less about performing a spiritual ritual and more about coming back to myself. And the more I practiced it, the more I learned to distinguish between being physically tired, having a difficult day, and feeling energetically weighed down by something that rest alone couldn't resolve.
So how do you know when you need an energy cleanse? Here are seven signs I've learned to pay attention to.
7 Signs You're Carrying Energy That Isn't Yours
1. Your mood changes suddenly and you don't know why.
You were fine an hour ago. Then something shifted.
Maybe it happened after a conversation. Maybe you walked into a certain environment. Maybe you spent time around someone and suddenly you're anxious, irritated, sad, heavy, or emotionally uncomfortable without really understanding why.
Instead of immediately attaching a story to the emotion, start with a simpler question:
What changed immediately before my energy changed?
Sometimes recognizing the moment your internal state shifted can tell you a lot about what you're actually carrying.
2. You keep attracting the same energetic pattern in different forms.
The person changes. The relationship changes. The environment changes.
But the feeling is strangely familiar.
Maybe you repeatedly find yourself surrounded by people who take more than they give. Maybe you leave different relationships feeling depleted in exactly the same way. Maybe you've changed jobs, friendships, homes, or circumstances, but somehow keep finding yourself back inside the same emotional experience.
At some point, it's worth looking beyond the individual situation and asking what energetic pattern you're still participating in, holding onto, or carrying forward.
Sometimes clearing your energy isn't just about what happened today. It's about becoming conscious of what you've been carrying from yesterday into everything that comes next.
3. You're still carrying the interaction long after it's over.
The conversation ended hours ago, but it's still happening inside of you.
You're replaying what they said. Thinking about what you should have said. Feeling the anger all over again. Recreating the argument in the shower. Your body is still responding to something that isn't even happening anymore.
Physical distance doesn't always create energetic distance.
If an interaction continues taking up space inside of you long after you've left it, you may need to consciously clear it out.
This is something I explore further in Emotional Engineering: How to Let Go of Resentment Without Letting Them Back In where I discuss how resentment can keep us emotionally connected to people and situations long after they're over, and how to release that emotional weight without reopening the door to what hurt us in the first place.
4. Your emotions feel bigger than what is actually happening.
Sometimes the intensity of what you're feeling doesn't seem to match the situation in front of you.
The anger feels enormous. The sadness comes out of nowhere. The anxiety suddenly takes over. Something small happens and your entire internal world reacts.
Before deciding what an emotion means, get curious about where it came from.
Is this entirely about what is happening right now, or did something else just get activated?
Not every uncomfortable emotion means you need an energy cleanse. But when your emotional response feels disproportionate or strangely unfamiliar, it can be worth examining what else you may be carrying.
5. You feel overstimulated, scattered, or unable to hear yourself clearly.
Sometimes energetic overload feels noisy. Your thoughts are everywhere. Your intuition feels cloudy. You're absorbing everybody else's opinions, needs, expectations, moods, and problems until you can't hear your own internal voice underneath all of it.
This is one of the biggest reasons I believe energetic discernment matters.
The goal isn't to disconnect from everybody around you. It's to become clear enough within yourself that you can recognize your own energy inside of the noise and come back to it.
6. Rest isn't restoring you.
You're sleeping. You're taking time alone. You're trying to slow down. And somehow, you still feel heavy.
There is a difference between needing physical rest and feeling like something is energetically lingering. Sometimes what we're carrying doesn't disappear simply because we took the weekend off.
Certain interactions, environments, relationships, and difficult periods of our lives can leave us feeling like something is still stuck to us even after the experience itself has passed.
That's when I start looking at what may need to be consciously released rather than simply rested away.
7. You don't feel like yourself anymore.
This may be the biggest sign of all.
Nothing necessarily looks catastrophically wrong from the outside. You're functioning. You're handling your responsibilities. You're moving through your life.
But somewhere underneath everything, you know:
I don't feel like me.
Maybe you've spent so much time responding to everyone else's needs that you've lost touch with your own. Maybe you've been carrying a difficult relationship or season of your life for so long that you can't remember who you were before it.
That feeling doesn't always mean something is wrong with you. Sometimes it's simply an invitation to get quiet enough to ask:
What am I carrying that I'm finally ready to put down?
Final Thoughts: Clear Your Energy and Come Back to Yourself
You don't have to wait until you're completely exhausted, emotionally overwhelmed, on the verge of collapse, or disconnected from yourself to start paying attention to your energy.
For years, I didn't recognize how much I was carrying because I had become so accustomed to the weight of it. Learning to consciously cleanse my energy changed the way I cared for myself, approached relationships, and maintained my energetic boundaries.
You can be compassionate without carrying everyone else's emotions. You can support others without sacrificing your own peace. And you can learn to recognize what belongs to you and release what doesn't.
Whether you're ready to take matters into your own hands or prefer a one-on-one energy cleansing session, there are two ways to begin.
Clear Your Own Energy
The Personal Energy Cleansing: The UYP Method is a downloadable guide designed to help you consciously clear your energetic field, release accumulated emotional weight, and reconnect with your own energy. Work through the practice in your own space, at your own pace, and return to it whenever you need to.
One-on-One Energy Cleanse
If you prefer personalized guidance, book a private energy-cleansing session with me here at Unleash Your Power. Together, we'll focus on your individual needs through intuitive guidance and energy work to help you release what you've been carrying and restore balance to your energetic field.
You don't have to carry it all. Reclaim your energy. Reclaim your power.