Our Energy Gateways Are Meant to Breathe, Not Stay Wide Open
Something that I had to learn the hard way on my journey is that you do not want your intuitive awareness switched all the way on all the time. Very few people talk about this, but it is an essential skill to master. Our energy gateways are apertures, they are meant to breathe, to open and close, not be held in an ongoing state of extreme openess. Learning to work that opening and closing, deliberately, is one of the most important skills there is, especially for anyone drawn to the healing arts.
Just Here for the Cat Litter
Think of a camera. In a bright, high-glare situation, a photographer narrows the aperture right down to capture only what they want. In a soft, beautiful light, they open it wide. Your intuitive awareness works the same way, and the setting should match the situation.
When I walk into a big box store like Walmart, I do not want that channel flung wide open, pulling in every stray energy hanging around the rafters. So I narrow it right down. I am just here for the cat litter, and I am going home. That is it. Because once you have opened these realms of consciousness, it is no great trick to glance at the person helping you at the checkout and perceive a great deal about their life, their past, where they are wounded, where their attachments are. But doing that to someone who has not asked, who is no threat to you, who simply wants to ring up your groceries, is intrusive and frankly rude. We never work on anyone without consent, and reading someone uninvited is a version of the same overstep. So I turn it down. It is also just not pleasant to stand in line while some wandering middle world spirit taps you on the shoulder asking for help, and then another, and another. Narrow the aperture. Get the cat litter. Drive home. Done.
But I don't keep it narrow all the time. Out in nature, in a clean and beautiful place, or when I am working on someone who has asked for healing, that is when I open the aperture wide. The skill is not in being open. The skill is in maintaining flexibility and making a conscious choice.
Why This Matters So Much for Healers
This is not a luxury refinement. It is essential. Someone believing they should be open all the time, that the more open you are the more "spiritual" or "enlightened" you are, is exactly why so many gifted healers burn out. When we open ourselves as a wide gateway to spirit and a flood of energy comes pouring in, it behooves us to filter, to have discernment. Without it, we start picking up what does not belong to us.
I once went to a wonderful physical therapist for a shoulder injury. It was my first appointment with him. When I arrived, he told me that his own shoulder had started aching that morning before I arrived so he knew that he would be working on a shoulder today. Years ago I thought, how marvelous, he is so tuned in. I wished I could be "so intuitive". Now I think, what a hard way to live. If you feel every client's affliction in your own body, that is not a special gift, it is a missing boundary.
I have seen it hundreds of times: beautiful practitioners, energy healers, bodyworkers, massage therapists, who after ten or fifteen or twenty years are exhausted, weighed down by everything that has stuck to them. The work itself did not have to cost them that. With the proper training to open and close your energetic aperture at will, you can learn not to carry your clients' pain. You will still perceive what you need to help them, but you won't take it on. You can be fully of service and still whole at the end of the day. This idea of opening and closing runs all through the classic Taoist and Tai Chi texts, and it is exactly what lets us open ourselves to spirit and then come back, do the day to day errands, pick up the kids, and live an ordinary grounded life while simultaneously serving as a conduit to the Spirit World.
Learning to open and close your energy gateways and to keep yourself clear is foundational to practicing sustainably. The training begins in Level 1 - The Fundamentals of Shamanism.