Human Energy: The World Of Give And Take
By: Michael Sheridan
Tags: Energy, Human Energy, Celestine

We live on human energy. We seek energy from each other by way of human interaction. How we conduct ourselves during these interactions are extremely variable but we all want the same outcome…I need some of your personal energy.

Human interaction is a tricky son-of-a-bitch. But in reality it’s all the same. Humans seeking what they think is peace of mind.

People that complain all of the time do not necessarily have it worse than you, they only see the “bad” in life because that is where they are always looking. People find an identity in things or events that get them attention, the outcome or resolution of said event, real or imagined, is almost moot. This is for the most part, unconscious behavior.

Probably at a very young age these negative attention getters realized and learned that a petulant child often gets what it wants, and if not exactly what they want, they got some sort of attention out of it. And that’s all any of us really want.

We are creatures of God’s earth with a few specific differences than the rest of the kingdom. One of them being the awareness of our own suffering and the need to end it. And if not end it, we seek to be understood by our fellow humans. We do this by attempting to find common bonds with people in our lives and more importantly potential people that may become more important to our livelihood. [ a great example of this is saying or hearing things like “hot enough for you?” A complete stranger will understand your suffering, uncomfortable weather is a classic ice breaker] Regardless of how people attempt to achieve energy interaction, every interaction we engage in will have this dynamic. Meaning, the guy who is bragging about his car every day is doing the same exact thing as the lady who is constantly having drama. Same as the guy who tells you every time he beats someone in a game. Same as the jokester. I am not sure when these tactics started but I am sure it was at a very young age.

We all want the same thing, no suffering, it is our one common bond. Depending on how one’s childhood went, we all seek ways to end suffering, some proactive and many not so much. Some learn that a pleasant demeanor, even if not totally sincere, will do wonders. Being just a little more tolerant than most breaks down many barriers. Sadly the screaming baby learns another route, one day to become a whiner whose motto is “The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Oil”. And she never stops squeaking because this tactic works and has worked her entire life.

Since most of us like attention at many different needs and levels, we have many ways of achieving the same thing…whatever you se of me, I will dictate what sort of attention I want by how I act. As we look closely at the types of people we deal with we see there really are some doozy’s!

This piece started with The Poor Me. The Drama Queen. The Eeyore. They learned the only way to achieve their personal piece of mind is to get attention through sympathy. It is hard not to be sympathetic, but this method is a totally lazy way of getting attention. But as I say, many of these acts are very real to the person acting them out. They actually do have this much drama because this is all that they focus on. We are living prophecies of self-fulfillment. The Poor Me has this system down pat. Unconsciously they actually create situations that are very real and they’re the perfect fuel to get their engines running. Soon, half of the office feels sorry for her. We all worked with one, they make you scratch your head and ponder on the amount of “bad luck” one person can possibly have. Trust me for the Poor Me, it’s never enough. They are trapped forever.

For the most part we are all trapped. You may not be poor me, but you do have your own style of exchanging energy with people, most likely a few styles. Here I say exchange because although we all seek energy most of us have learned that giving/reciprocating energy works better, and is way more fun. People who seek out positive interactions between them and the people they engage in learn that two parties winning this game is much more beneficial to the whole of society. Energy suckers leave the world lopsided. I mean that the people that only take your energy and do not return positive energy leave the rest of us exhausted, we lost energy.

Besides the Eeyore's of the universe we have to deal with the braggers, the arguers, and the smart asses/jokesters. Knowing that we are always using varying methods of energy exchange, you will soon notice the various players. The aforementioned are but a few. I would also like to add that we all use some of these methods throughout or life but many of us rely heavily on one single one. The one that is most successful.

The Bragger: We’ve all worked with a bragger, every time they open their mouth something great happened to them. Unlike the complainer I think many of these claims are exaggerated. But yet these people seem to never suffer, but chances are they may suffer more than the actual complainer. Maybe their childhood who was successful in certain sports and they relied on that praise to sustain their need for energy/attention. Either way we all knew one. And they all sucked our energy after we endlessly had to congratulate them

The Arguer: Unless you are also an Arguer, most people do not enjoy giving our energy to an arguer, aka the “One Upper”. They can take any situation and turn it into an argument quickly. It’s never about the substance of the interaction or topic of the argument, it is purely about sustaining your attention on them. The Energy Takers see no time limit to the engagement because you only mater at that very minute and they want that minute to last as long as possible. Energy Givers/Reciprocators respect others time and are ready to let go of any pleasant interaction as it organically runs its course. But givers aren’t just givers, hopefully many also recognize that their time is wasted with people that only take our energy. We can all hope to be lucky enough to realize when we have been sucked in. Better than that is to see when we have sucked in another. We even unknowingly battle with these lame energy suckers only in an effort to protect our own ego. Like I say, it's a very tricky situation.

When I learned these things I did start to recognize my own tricks of how I sometimes used a little bit of every one of these methods. The first time I was self-aware of being a trickster was when I was at work and I had just booked a vacation to Hawaii the night before. I sauntered up to the well of the bar to chat with an employe when I blurted out “So, I just booked my trip to Hawaii”. It was after she said something pleasant with a slight eye roll when I realized what I had just done. I thought, she doesn’t care about my vacations, I am her boss. That was for sure an ah ha moment. Insead of sucking her energy by bragging about my vacay, I could have done the right thing by asking her how her child was doing in school or anything other than something about me.

You can see these commonalities in a large portion of the population. Before people even think about giving energy, they have rigged the game in their favor, they ‘sincerely’ steal from you right out of the gate. Yet, notice when people offer up their own positive energy as a gift through thoughtfulness and kindness first, then notice in which direction the interaction goes. They may not last as long as negative interactions but the energy flow will be reciprocal and satisfying to both parties. Rarely does one walk away more depleted from such positive interactions.

We all suffer, some brag about it and some lie about it. Being aware of how eer are accomplishing this is a great step in seeing how or interactions are affecting the world as a whole. It also gives you tips to recognize the interactions we need to avoid. The internet isn’t making it easier because the internet is soulless without the faces and energy that should go with human interaction. The interwebz is mostly dirty energy machine in my opinion. Maybe this little article can shed some light on what we are doing.

“There is nothing good or bad, only thinking makes it so”

~ Shakespeare