Healing from the Spiritual Industry: Honouring Limits and Energy Consumption

energy healing, Guardianship, responsibilities, shadow work

April 23rd, 2026

For many of us, we walk around with immense grief and rage, which a lot of the time, may be bottled and stuffed into areas of our being, in an attempt to never experience its magnitude. Dissatisfaction runs rampant, a symptom of capitalism and the taught entitlement of colonialism, which then leads many to pursue ways to spiritually escape what’s itching under the skin, to see if they can “open the heart”, or explore new realms of the psyche and the aethers, to potentially gift some hope, yes, or even moreso, the soothing balm of love. Love for themselves, that could possibly salve the irritation. Hope for this sensation to possibly overfloweth, the loving feeling to heal all what’s buried beneath, and then it’s torrents to seep out and flow outwards to each other, instead of the toxic barrage of people-pleasing and self-sacrificing that many of us have upheld from ye’ old ways of customs yore. 

This constant quest of opening the escape hatch to newer and loftier vistas ended up giving us many energetic symptoms, which was then summated to that being an empath, or a psychic, or a “fill-in-the-witchy-title” was bad, scary, volatile, or a “crux to bear” (pun-intended). When, actually, the energetic hyperstimulation was simply the aftermath of obliterating any perceptual limits via a multitude of advanced energetic practices (and advanced do not necessarily mean recommended) that were also then diluted by the spiritual industrial complex and rebranded for the masses. Insert here multiple rebranded practices, for example, kundalini meditation techniques or hyper-stimulating breathing practices mixed with deep meditation explorations of the psyche, et. al. These practices over time, I found were designed to by-step and by-pass all the ick that was surfacing to be explored and processed, what potentially lurked amidst our shadows of the psyche. Shadows yearning to be excavated, waiting to be integrated, digested, yet instead we were taught to jump farther, to circumvent these treasure troves of our psyches and garner something so far from center that it felt similar to a druggish high, lofty, and expansive, and all of the superlatives. 

I grew up in a family that taught me meditation from a young age, but that didn’t make me more capable of discerning the level of BS these new teachers and self-named shamans, healers, and officials were touting, and I too, in trying out these practices, continued to internally divide more and more so, allowing my shadows to furrow deeper into the murky depths of my being, and like oil and vinegar, separate from the carefully curated, buoyant, and expansive aspects of my being. Learning to mask any part of me that was hurting, fearful, or enraged, for I had succumbed to the knowing that no one was interested in walking on the precipice of the wild, sensory, and feeling with me. Feeling multitudes was an isolating experience in the decades of my youth, especially with the onslaught of “New Age” that then morphed into this raucous, online spiritual soup that I found myself enmeshed in by my thirties. We were taught to manifest ala big brother vibes, or to only feel good emotions, oddly intermingling the dystopian and utopian books read in my teens, leaving me to wonder why we didn’t see the parallels. 

Then came the slow, sticky process of extricating my Self, my energy, and very gently venturing towards the arduous task of mending my mind from the newly grooved-in tropes and tapes of diluted, warped, and garbled “spiritual teachings”; that had me walking, and at times running, in looped cycles of healing, reminiscent of Groundhog Day and a self-created penitent nightmare interspersed with the most shadowy aspects of my lived experiences. A self-made hell for the aspects of my self that I still believed were evil. Self-deprecation magnified to the utmost.

Thank goodness amidst me second-guessing and doubting my own connections, thoughts, feelings, and more, I did continue my meditation and breathing practices that have kept me somewhat intact, and at times both participant and witness, to all this fuckery. Even the most diluted teachings, do, over time, heal and shift things energetically, just let’s say, for fun, 10x slower than what could actually be. Think of watching a movie slowed down, how the dialogue would sound warped, scary, and even horrific. Movements blundering and stinted, making that itch under your skin tingle even more. As this slow-motion healing journey continued, I luckily started to really trust my connections to my ancestors, guides, and guardians. I felt their love and care seep through as the tapes fell away, and their sounds began to clarify. They helped share ways to cook and feed my body, further ways to move through the moon cycles and my shadows. Some shadows, that were never addressed and became gargantuan and nightmare-ish, were gently addressed, over a couple years. These things that I felt were lifelong difficulties began to lift, and I started to strengthen my level of discernment, instead of simple distrust. 

The previous years of learning with the spirits of my ancestors, my guardianship, those that protect and care for my soul, has been excruciating in a whole other way, for it was gentle, and slow, and encouraged me to softly and slowly go down, down, down, rather than UP (I could by this point boomerang my consciousness to far realms and extreme times). The elements (yup, those five big ‘uns – aether, air, fire, water, and earth) were the most prolific teachers, and each time I revisited their energy and power, I was humbled, yet not in a deprecating way of the hierarchical powers felt in many capitalized spiritual teachings I have explored over the decades. They taught me of the respect and responsibility required to navigate our consciousness, the aethers, and the energies of the most tactile and pronounced, like our body and Earth. My ego, that I thought was already stripped bare, was further remedied and solaced, in an immensely loving and wild cacophony of soul-gripping power that bowled over any remaining doubts or fears. I was a part of this All. I was made from these elements, and I could move with all these helpers in my blood, bones, and in the earth, sky, and… wow. Experiencing for the first time All of the living energies that are here to assist and work in tandem with us, to support life, is indescribable, and I do not want to take away the potential experience of that from you by describing it in too much detail. Loving energy is all around us, within us, it’s force reverberating through every cell and atom of our being.  It can be found IN as well as even just beyond our skin. This wild dance of opening gently, slowly, and methodically, instead of all at once. 

Yes, they taught me of the beauty, the innate and profound qualities found, sensed, and appreciated in limits! Rings of limits and boundaries, ripples of care and corners and rooms that expand with our whole being experiencing a safer and wholly present connection, that started to simultaneously heal aspects of self, while other parts spurting new growth. I can now sing my appreciation for these limits, for healing from the constant push to expand and elevate your consciousness (that now so similarly reflects to me the extractive properties of colonialism and capitalism, or the hierarchical properties of the patriarchy), it did not always bubble up this depth of love, appreciation, and gratitude within me. It actually first felt quite morose. Like healing from an addiction, we tend to go into “withdrawal symptoms”, and yes, healing from “overuse” or continual overextending of energetic consumption felt quite similar. Energy consumption may naturally bring up some ick to discuss, since it does mimic some of what we learn about consumerism, and it may bring up some shadow to acknowledge that us humans are all consumers of energy. For yes, some of us may be hungrier than others.

Energy consumption is natural, just as we learn it is essential to consume certain macronutrients in food and water, in order to live. When we connect with each other, consensually, be it in conversations, or intimate connections, be it a hug with a friend, or a further consentual act, we open our energy to be shared with one another. We are natural feeders, which has even been added into our lexicon, where someone is shared to have good energy, that makes us feel good, uplifts us, or comforts us. We enjoy being around them, for we get to munch munch munch on them, and they allowed us! Consensual feeding, like a hummingbird, on the nectar of a flower’s bloom. The challenge is, that many of us have become excessively hungry, overconsumptive practices of feeding on another’s life energy, instead of restoring and replenishing our own. Why do I bring this up in accordance with limits? Well, with allowing limits, we then get to rectify, restore, or replenish our energetic boundaries. We strengthen our cup, learn how to store and process energy more effectively, in order for us not to crave replenishing our energy constantly from another’s life force.

These limits, of course, actually expanded my psychic access, over time, yet made it much simpler to access, with less strain on the shadows of my psyche. I learned of how my shadows could shift my perceptions of psychic experiences, and how to further enact boundaries, with people, as well as with myself, to allow more of the unmasking from the carefully curated person who I was pretending to be. Masks are shown by many of my ancestors, and cross-culturally are shared  to be a protection, like an energy ward. We see them intricately carved out of wood, clay, or bones. They guard what may be too feared to be felt or seen. Some masks, though, become so comfortable in being worn, that we even may forget that we are wearing one, as if it has melded with our own visage. It took some time for me to truly see the protective ways my psyche purported a many-layered mask, which I slowly began to peel away, like the layers of an onion face mask, with the gentle help and support of my ancestors, and guardians, when I allowed it. I began the uncomfortably soft experience of extracting the masks, and then sensating what was behind the layers, the pain that was so carefully held in stasis, or limbo, behind it all. 

As I write about these experiences, I have to take note that these are experiences that have interwoven through many many years, and that I am now sharing them in approximately 1500 word articles. So, please trust that what I share can be gently unpacked, over possible weeks, or many moons. These words are not intended to trigger, or even, to provoke disassociation, yet, these things may occur and stop the reading. These articles may need to be revisited completely at a later date. I have found that disinterest and energetic irritation could swiftly arise when my held safety nets were strung like the strings of a guitar. In writing about these things, my revisions and editing of these articles help me in addressing some of what may remain of these things I share of. Healing does not mean that shadows disappear. They are integrated, and we allow the unnecessary divides to soften, letting our whole mix be held and loved with care. Our body carries multitudes, and society and spirituality, at times, has enforced us with quietudes and platitudes instead. If you have made it to this place in these writings today, I now share a restorative practice that has helped me in the process.

Breathe and make some sounds. Whatever sounds you may hear within your inner ear. Allow them to step out beyond your lips. See how the rhythm of those sounds may provoke you to breathe in a certain rhythm, and how that rhythm may shift as you emit. One of the ways my caregivers and guardianship has assisted me in processing what surfaces from the depths, has been through the melodic and harmonious ways we can string sounds and breath together. Hope this little breath and sound practice can help you share what’s being explored within your body as you read. Our sensory preceptors are linked, we listen with our eyes, we see with our ears, and more that doesn’t make sense to our brains. 

You are welcome to share any queries these words may spark for you, you can do so in the comments here, or via email. Until next time, may we be well amidst the collapse of these destructive systems.