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How To Protect Yourself From People With Negative Energy

By Amira Alvarez Beware of people with negative energy. Seriously. They are a BIG kill joy and energy suck for those with brilliant ideas. Here's the scenario... You're totally in love with your idea. Yet it's an IDEA. It's still in the idea stage. You don't have all the kinks worked out. It's…
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August 26, 2014Tips of the TradeAmira Alvarez

Beware of people with negative energy.

Seriously. They are a BIG kill joy and energy suck for those with brilliant ideas.

Here’s the scenario…

You’re totally in love with your idea. Yet it’s an IDEA. It’s still in the idea stage. You don’t have all the kinks worked out. It’s not a plan, much less a well thought out, aligned plan.

BUT you know you love the idea and that there’s some way of making it happen in a beautiful and profitable way.

You’re exuberant and talking to anyone who will listen.

You can’t be contained.

And then wham!

The person you’re talking to starts sucking the life out of everything.

They burst your bubble. They take the wind out of your sails. They deflate you.

Ugh.

If you want your ideas to fly, you must protect yourself from energy vampires.

Here are 5 ways to do just that…

1) Decide in advance who you take advice from and who you don’t.

Does one of your relatives, friends, or colleagues always take you down a notch?

Put them on your mental list of people you don’t share your ideas with.

Plus, have a plan for what to say when they ask you watcha got cooking.

This is sort of a “duh” yet I see so many people thrown off course simply because they keep sharing their ideas with the wrong people.

It’s also equally as important to have a mental list of the people who you DO take advice from.

For me, these are positive and hopeful people who are salted with a dash of realism + smarts.

They are my mentors and trusted confidantes.

Lesson: know who’s got your back, and who doesn’t.

2) Know your values and what’s true for you.

If you know exactly what’s important to you and why it matters, then other people’s negative energy won’t affect you.

It just won’t matter as much. It’ll be like water off a duck’s back.

When you’ve got a great idea, really plug into your why and your truth. It’ll help you deflect the negative energy.

3) Build a buffer so nothing affects you.

This technique is a bit woo-woo, for sure.

It involves increasing your own energy and building an energetic barrier.

If you’re game, try it right now.

Connect to your Self and then imagine energy circling around you. You can increase its strength and power simply by paying attention to it.

Play with this on your own and practice conjuring it up. You’ll then be able to call on it when you need protection from people with negative energy.

4) Energetically disconnect.

Before, during, and after any interaction with a person with negative energy separate your energy from theirs.

It’s their stuff, not yours.

Make this a clear distinction for yourself.

If you’re plugged into their energy, you’ll feel it as irritation, resistance, judgment, frustration, and anger.

You’ll feel hooked in.

Step back. Step away. Give them their energy back. And take back your own.

I often visualize this as handing them their energy and taking mine back with my hands.

Then, compassionately disengage.

Send a silent blessing or a wish to them. You don’t have to fix this person. Just beam out some love and return to paying attention to yourself.

5) Be an aikido master.

Step out of the way and let the negative energy move past you.

If you move out of the way, it can’t land on you.

Just watch it fly by. You can name it. You can see it. But you don’t have to engage in fighting it.

Since I’m such a visual person, I visualize this too. I simply imagine myself sidestepping. Whoosh…there it goes…right by me.

So that’s a round-up of the 5 techniques I use to protect myself from people with negative energy.

They work in both business and in life.

Don’t fight your feelings

By Amira Alvarez Sometimes business isn't easy.We get caught up in our fears. We feel panic or sadness or disappointment. We feel lost or overwhelmed or not enough.Here's what I've learned...Don't fight your feelings.If you fight your feelings, if you say "NO!–don't feel that way"... they end up clutching to you even tighter.The…
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August 19, 2014Creating EasyAmira Alvarez

Sometimes business isn’t easy.

We get caught up in our fears. We feel panic or sadness or disappointment. We feel lost or overwhelmed or not enough.

Here’s what I’ve learned…

Don’t fight your feelings.

If you fight your feelings, if you say “NO!–don’t feel that way”… they end up clutching to you even tighter.

The feelings stay, gripping tighter and tighter, until you acknowledge them. Fully.

And not just in a passing way. Nope. It takes a full stop.

It takes opening the door to your heart and letting them in.

Good god, that’s scary.

Inviting any negative emotion in full force is downright terrifying.

But from experience, I can say – that’s where the release is. That’s how you free yourself from what’s pulling you down.

When you let it in, it stops banging on the door. If you don’t let it in, well, it keeps banging. And banging… and banging.

For me, this takes relinquishing the resistance.

It means that I don’t fight my feelings. I let them be. I give them the time and space that they need.

It’s disarming how well this works. Like every single time.

Sometimes it takes repeatedly acknowledging them because I slip back into the habit of resistance. Maybe 5 or 6 times. Maybe more. Maybe less.

Stay with it. Just sit with them. It always works.

This is always the way to much more ease.

When we stop fighting our feelings, everything just becomes so much easier – in both business and in life. Promise.

Go at your own pace

By Amira Alvarez Go at your own pace. It makes things so much easier. In business and in life. If you try to rush things if you try to keep up with someone else's pace, someone's who has been at it longer or has a different constitution, it's stressful and unsustainable. You'll feel…
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August 15, 2014Creating EasyAmira Alvarez

Go at your own pace.

It makes things so much easier. In business and in life.

If you try to rush things if you try to keep up with someone else’s pace, someone’s who has been at it longer or has a different constitution, it’s stressful and unsustainable.

You’ll feel like you can’t keep up and it sucks the good ju-ju right out of you.

And that makes it so much harder to show up in your business and do the good work you want to do.

Instead, go at your own pace.

This is essential in business.

No. It doesn’t mean lying on the couch eating bonbons all day long. (Unless of course, your business is a bonbon tasting business. Then, by all means, lie on the couch and eat bonbons.)

Go at your own pace means…

Respecting your capacity, time constraints, and energy levels.
Respecting how you like to work, your rhythms, and requirements.
Respecting how you want to live your life, your need for downtime, and what refuels you.

And most of all it means…

Respecting the time it takes to build a profitable, sustainable, wholly you business.

It does not mean getting caught up with what someone else is doing or how fast they’ve achieved success.

It can happen quickly but don’t believe the hype.

It’s can be deceptive when you look in from the outside. On the inside, there’s a lot of showing up and doing the work.

For now, know where you are and know where you want to be.

And then set a nice deliberate pace, that feels just right for you and is sustainable for the long-haul.

Push yourself. For sure. But not so hard, that you find yourself on the hamster wheel of never enough.

Consciously decide to go at your own pace.

Do what you love

By Amira Alvarez Do what you love. It sounds simple and obvious. Yet many of us choose the practical. The safe. The compromise. This always feels like a let down inside–like something is dying inside. And ultimately, your work becomes drudgery. And after drudgery, it becomes a struggle. Instead, stop right now. Shift…
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August 13, 2014Creating EasyAmira Alvarez

Do what you love.

It sounds simple and obvious.

Yet many of us choose the practical. The safe. The compromise.

This always feels like a let down inside–like something is dying inside.

And ultimately, your work becomes drudgery.

And after drudgery, it becomes a struggle.

Instead, stop right now. Shift (even a micro-degree helps) toward what you love.

Because, when you do (more of) what you love it opens you up to creativity and ideas.

It makes you feel alive and on purpose.

It gives you energy for follow-through, for action, for life.

It feels lighter and easier. (And don’t we all want that?)

Syncing up what you love to do with your business = the sweet spot of entrepreneurship.

You put in the effort, of course, yet it feels easier.

There’s less of that uphill battle, swimming against the current stuff.

If you want an easier business, actively decide to do more of what you love and let go of the rest. You do this one decision at a time. Many incremental shifts add up!

When Solo-Entrepreneurs Sabotage Themselves

By Amira Alvarez One of the biggest ways solo-entrepreneurs sabotage themselves is also one of their biggest assets. What is it? Ideas, ideas, and more ideas. If you're in business, I bet you have tons of them. Seduced by their brilliance, do you run after each of your ideas? There's something completely joyful…
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August 7, 2014Tips of the TradeAmira Alvarez

One of the biggest ways solo-entrepreneurs sabotage themselves is also one of their biggest assets.

What is it?

Ideas, ideas, and more ideas.

If you’re in business, I bet you have tons of them.

Seduced by their brilliance, do you run after each of your ideas?

There’s something completely joyful and intoxicatingly hopeful about a great idea.

To be honest, it’s one of my biggest pleasures in life.

However…

There’s a double-edged sword, trap with ideas.

They can distract you.

They can dilute your energy and lead you in a million different directions.

They can distract you from your business model and can keep you from completing anything.

This is one of the unconscious ways we sabotage ourselves and stop ourselves from taking our business to the next level.

The energy of completion catapults you forward.

The energy of incompletion throws you into anxiety and stagnation.

If you have too many ideas that you’re working on and you’re not completing them, you will get stuck in the energy of incompletion.

Incompletion energetically blocks your way to more… more money, more clients, more contracts, etc.

Why?

Because when you’re unable to complete things, you subconsciously decide that you’re at max capacity and that anything additional is going to break you.

An energetic WHOA NELLY! gets sent out… “Don’t give her anymore. She can’t handle it. Stop the flow.”

Here’s how this looks for most entrepreneurs…

1. You have a brilliant idea. You focus on it. For like a week. Maybe.

2. Then you have another brilliant idea. You add that to your work docket. Everything’s still awesome.

3. Then you add another project that you’re absolutely enticed by and, at the time that you add it, all is good. You’re still in awesome-land.

4. And then something happens along the way… usually, after you’ve said yes to the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, or 9th idea…you get this huge sense of anxiety.

5. Then the unraveling happens. Disappointment, sadness, and paralysis sets in.

6. You don’t know what to work on or what’s most important. All your ideas and projects are vying for your attention. You do a little bit here, a little bit there, but you don’t have the focus, energy, or momentum behind any one of them.

At this point, you probably get a second wind fueled by fear and start to run around from project to project in a panic, trying to work on something…anything…as fast as you can.

7. You end up exhausted, disappointed, and anxious.

How do you course correct at this point?

Here’s how…

Step #1: Recognition

Recognize where you’re at. See the pattern for what it is.

Step #2: Forgiveness

Forgive yourself. Completely and immediately.

Forgive yourself for making this mistake. Forgive yourself for sabotaging things. Forgive yourself for whatever judgment you might have.

(Don’t skip this step. It’s very important.)

Step #3: Clarity

See the situation clearly. This takes the form of a list.

Write down all the business projects and ideas you are working on or think you should be working on.

Go back to Step #2 if necessary and forgive yourself. Release any judgement or recrimination that may have come up.

Step #4: Plug In

Close your eyes and ground yourself. Take a few breaths.

Then look at each item on your list, one at a time.

Is it a yes or a no?

Go with your instant hit. Don’t over think it.

Step #5: Release

Release any project or idea that is not a “yes” and release yourself from the unconscious compact you made with it.

This means releasing them entirely or releasing them to a notebook or online repository where you keep your ideas. Then move on.

Step #6: “Action Jackson”

For the ones that are a YES! – take action on these.

Focus on these. Work these. Enjoy them fully.

This is how you get it done with ease.

Walk Your Own Path, Do It Your Own Way

By Amira Alvarez Walk your OWN path. Create it. One step at a time. Show up. Take that step. See where it takes you. Sometimes it's a step in the same direction. Sometimes it's a step in another direction. Stay true to your inner compass. Go in that direction. Sometimes this will…
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July 28, 2014InspirationAmira Alvarez

Walk your OWN path.

Create it. One step at a time.

Show up. Take that step. See where it takes you.

Sometimes it’s a step in the same direction. Sometimes it’s a step in another direction.

Stay true to your inner compass.

Go in that direction.

Sometimes this will feel like you’re going in a circle or like you’ve been here before like you’re backtracking. That’s okay.

Sometimes it will feel like you’re speeding ahead, forging into unknown territory. This is good and a little scary.

Show up. Every day.

You walk YOUR path. Your own path. One consistent step at a time.

Trust yourself.

Keep putting one beautiful foot in front of the other.

Look at how far you’ve come. Dream about where you’ll go.

And keep walking your own path.

You WILL get there.