Life is for living! This is the affirmation I repeat to myself as I walk through the woods this morning.

It's difficult to stay strong in our own power when faces with life challenges, or when someone (consciously or subconsciously) decides to do an energy dump onto us.

I am generally quite good at not allowing my energy to be overly influenced by others but I am human, so sometimes it requires a bit of effort to stay on track.  This week has been a challenge for me. I could feel the chords of connection from the past reaching out to me, enticing me to slip back into old patterns and to get swept along with the negative energies of others.

As I become aware that I was slipping, I started telling people "life is for living" during conversations and in messages. I started to say it in my head as I walked the dog. Then I realised that I was saying this for a reason; to remind myself what life is about, to keep myself centred, to keep my energy flowing and to maintain a positive vibration and to maintain forward moving motion.

You might say, well obviously life is for living, duh!  Not necessarily, I grew up being told that life is a valley of tears. An extremely negative and depressing premise to base your life actions on - thinking that no matter what you do, you are meant to suffer. Of course it's a self-fulfilling prophecy as the more you think that, the more you will experience situations that reinforce that thinking. I believed this well into my twenties - not that I didn't have fun but I probably didn't expect it to last.

Thankfully I have moved forward since then and life has shown me that you are meant to live in joy.  Sometimes you will come across people or situations that will challenge your thinking. It can be upsetting and tiring, however if you have truly progressed, it's impossible to fall backwards. You might have a little wobble and that's okay.

It's important to have tools to keep yourself centered and lift your vibration such as:

• Setting a positive intention at the start of your day. Or use an affirmation or prayer to kickstart your day on a positive vibe and keep repeating it throughout the day.
• Release! It's important that you don't use the above technique to supress your feelings. By all means have a good cry or shout about the situation so that you release your emotions - this is extremely important. Then use your intention/affirmation/prayer to lift yourself back up again.
• immersing yourself in positive energy like walking in nature, surrounding yourself with people who lift you up, surround yourself with bright or light colours be it flowers, healing crystals, paints, your clothes etc., do whatever brings you joy and so lifts your vibe and pay attention to the small things.
• Dance, sing, walk, run, smile at someone - do something that gets you moving - whatever works for you.
• Connect! Connect! Connect! Connection provides powerful support  - connect with nature, with people, with the universal energy through meditation or yoga or whatever activity brings you a sense of peace. It helps to switch off your phone - that piece of technology that is supposed to connect people is simultaneously disconnecting us from the real world around us - so just turn it off for a period of time each day.
• Be aware that you can choose your thoughts. Thoughts are just energy and it's energy created by you. We often let our thoughts control us, when in fact you can decide not to follow a certain line of thinking. When you are aware of this, you gain a whole new perspective on the world.
• DIstance yourself - make a conscious decision to step back from the negative energy. if you take on a person's negative energy, you then pass this onto others you come in contact with. So it's of great importance that you protect yourself.
• Take a shower after you come in contact with people you feel have drained your energy to clear your aura.
• Visualisations are an extremely effective method to do this. For example, you can visualise golden energy flowing from your heart throughout your entire body and outwards into your energy field. See and feel this bubble of healing energy surrounding and protecting you as you move through life. So that even if the person is dumping energy on you, it will simply bounce off your bubble. This has helped me countless times over the years.
• Don't forget to ask your angels for help and to surround you with your loving energy. They are just delighted to help you in any way they can.

Most importantly, remind yourself that you have come a long way.

You have progressed in leaps and bounds and you have worked hard to be you and to live a fulfilling life.

Remind yourself that you are doing your best and because of that, you are doing a great job.

And remember "life is for living!"