The Ripple Effect

The pond represents your life on planet Earth and you are the stone. You have just ‘dropped in’ for your life and you are a walking radiator. You are radiating energy at all times. It’s called attitude. And attitude is made up of your thoughts and feelings (including the emotions you create and feel). You are surrounded by boulders, otherwise known as ‘other people’! Some are close and some are far.

And then one day, while you are just getting on with your life, Mary walks up to you and ‘dumps’ all her negative energy on you. She aims her stress, her anger, her resentment, perhaps her rage at you. Why you? Why does she target you? Why not someone else in the room? It’s unlikely to be because she knows you will listen, or even because you care about her. Her angst is directed personally at you. Why, because it is likely you gave her the same energy yesterday, last week, last year. You are now getting ‘your own’ (energy) back. You are receiving what you gave out. In that moment most of us find it hard to realize this ‘prior dimension’ of the interaction, as all we can think about is how to defend our self.

And then comes Fred. Fred also walks up to you and ‘fires’ his negative energy at you. And you’re thinking, “Now what is going on here? Fred and I don’t have a history. I hardly know Fred”. This is the moment when it’s useful to be a little enlightened regarding the laws of energy exchange.