meditation

Understanding Energy Absorption: Tips for Empaths

/ Eric Dickson / Leave a comment

Have you ever woken up feeling heavy, anxious, or unsettled — without knowing why? Sometimes it feels like the emotions in your body don’t even belong to you. For empaths and sensitive people, this is more common than you might think. We’re wired to pick up on the energy of others, and if we don’t learn how to recognize it, we can end up carrying weight that isn’t ours to bear.

The good news? You can learn to tell the difference between your own emotions and the energy you’ve absorbed from others. And with awareness comes the power to release what isn’t yours and reconnect to your true self.

Why We Absorb Energy

Humans are social beings. Our brains have what scientists call “mirror neurons,” which help us empathize by reflecting the emotions we see in others. This is beautiful — it’s what makes compassion possible. But for empaths and spiritually sensitive people, this ability is turned up extra high.

It means you can walk into a room and immediately sense the mood. It means when a friend is upset, you might leave the conversation feeling just as heavy as they do. Over time, this can blur the line between your energy and everyone else’s.

The Cost of Carrying What Isn’t Yours

When you unknowingly carry other people’s energy, you might experience:

  • Sudden anxiety or sadness without a clear reason.
  • Feeling drained after social situations.
  • A sense of being “off” or disconnected from yourself.
  • Physical tension, especially in the chest, stomach, or shoulders.

The danger isn’t just the discomfort — it’s that you can start making decisions based on emotions that don’t even belong to you. Instead of living from your authentic center, you’re living from borrowed energy.

Practices to Discern Your Own Energy

So how do you tell what’s yours and what’s not? Here are some powerful starting points:

  1. The Daily Check-In
     Pause throughout the day and ask yourself: “What am I feeling right now? When did this feeling start?”
     If you can trace the emotion back to a conversation, a crowded room, or even scrolling social media — chances are it’s not fully yours.
  2. Ground Through Breath and Body
     A few slow belly breaths with your hand on your heart or stomach can reset your nervous system. Imagine roots growing from your feet into the earth, releasing any energy that isn’t yours.
  3. Journal for Clarity
     Writing down how you feel, and what might have triggered it, helps you see patterns. Over time, you’ll notice what feelings belong to you and what you’re picking up externally.

How to Release Energy That Isn’t Yours

Once you’ve noticed what doesn’t belong to you, the next step is letting it go. Try one of these simple practices:

  • Visualization: Imagine gathering the foreign energy like smoke in your hands, then releasing it into the earth or into a cleansing light.
  • Water Ritual: A shower, bath, or even washing your hands can be symbolic of rinsing away what’s not yours.
  • Affirmations: Speak words like:
    “I return to myself. I honor my own energy. I release what does not belong to me.”

These practices don’t just protect you — they bring you back home to yourself.

Final Thoughts

Being sensitive to energy is not a curse — it’s a gift. It allows you to empathize, connect, and support others in ways not everyone can. But that gift only works if you also protect your own well-being.

The next time you feel heavy, anxious, or unsettled, pause and ask:

  • “Is this mine?”
  • “Where did this come from?”
  • “Do I want to carry this?”

Remember: awareness is power. When you learn to discern your own energy from what you’ve absorbed, you step into clarity, peace, and freedom.

You deserve to feel the difference between what belongs to you and what doesn’t. And when you release what isn’t yours, you make more space for your truth.

Spirituality Without Labels: Find Your Peace

/ Eric Dickson / Leave a comment

By Eric Dickson | Mindful Mountain Wellness

What if I told you that your spiritual path doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s?

No white robes. No crystals. No yoga mat required.
Just you—and whatever helps you feel more connected, more grounded, more you.

Spirituality isn’t a checklist. It’s a relationship.
And the more we try to force it into a mold, the further we drift from its truth.

Let’s break the illusion that there’s a “right” way to be spiritual—and explore what it might look like to reclaim that word on your own terms.

Spirituality Doesn’t Require a Label

You don’t need to call yourself “spiritual” to live a deeply spiritual life.  The most important thing is to find the activities in your life when you feel most connected, at peace, and in a flow state.

Some people feel most connected when they are hiking through the woods or watching a sunset.  For others, it’s when they are creating, whether that looks like drawing, journaling, making music, or woodworking.  Sometimes it may just look like sitting silently in the morning with you coffee after doing some breath work.

You don’t need a guru, a doctrine, or a certain set of beliefs.
You just need to listen—to your own inner world, and the way life moves through you.

You Don’t Have to “Look” Spiritual

Spirituality doesn’t come with a dress code.

You don’t have to wear flowing clothes, chant in Sanskrit, or meditate for 2 hours a day.
You can be tattooed, messy, skeptical, and still be deeply connected to something greater than yourself.

You don’t need to change how you look to validate what you feel.

You don’t need anyone else’s approval, or for them to even know you are spiritual.
You don’t have to perform peace to earn belonging.

Real spirituality is lived, not displayed.

Your Practice Can Be Private (or Loud)

Some people pray out loud. Some journal. Some dance, cry, or walk barefoot in the rain.
Some never speak a word about their inner life—and that’s okay too.

Your practice doesn’t have to be public, perfect, or structured.
It just has to be authentic.

If your version of spirituality is lighting a candle and sitting in stillness for 5 minutes before bed… that counts.
If it’s blasting music and losing yourself in movement… that counts.
If it’s tending your garden or holding someone’s hand with presence… that counts.

It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of your spiritual practice, all that matters is that it feels good to you.

You Don’t Have to Be Calm All the Time

There’s this idea that being spiritual means being serene and blissed-out all the time.
But healing is messy. Awakening is uncomfortable.

You’re allowed to have bad days, anxiety, anger, grief.
You’re allowed to feel confused, lost, or doubtful.

None of that disqualifies you from being on a spiritual path.
In fact, those moments are the path.

The spiritual path of healing is not linear, it’s a spiral.  It can bring you back to tough situations and emotions, and will most likely keep bringing you back until you learn the lessons you need from those situations.

Your emotions don’t make you less spiritual. They make you human.

Your Path Will Evolve (Let It)

Who you are spiritually at 25 may look nothing like who you’ll be at 45.
And that’s a good thing.

You’re meant to grow. To outgrow. To question. To return.

Spirituality is a relationship with yourself and the world—it’s supposed to shift as you do.
You don’t have to cling to old beliefs out of obligation.
You’re allowed to let go of what no longer resonates and make space for what does.  In fact it is important to take inventory of your beliefs, and really analyze whether those are really your beliefs, or if they were taught to you before you were old enough to question them.

Trust the ebb and flow. Trust yourself.

Final Thoughts: Your Way Is the Way

There’s no handbook. No single truth. No checklist of rituals or rules.
There’s only this question:

What helps you feel connected, alive, and at peace?
Do that. Follow that. Trust that.

Your spiritual path is valid, even if no one else understands it.
Even if it doesn’t fit in a box.
Even if it’s still unfolding.

You’re not behind. You’re not missing anything. You’re already on the path—your path.

And that is enough.

5 Ways to Build a Mindful Life (Even When the World is Loud)

/ Eric Dickson / Leave a comment

In a world that never stops buzzing with constant notifications, 24-hour news, and the pressure to keep up, creating a mindful life can feel almost impossible. But it’s not. In fact, it’s not only possible… It’s essential.

Mindfulness isn’t about escaping the noise.
It’s about learning how to return to yourself within it.

Here’s how to build a grounded, mindful life even when the world feels loud.

Start Your Day Without a Screen

Before checking your phone or turning on a device, take a few moments for yourself.  A single breath. A sip of tea. A stretch. A moment of stillness.  Step outside and take a deep breath of fresh air.

The first thing you do every morning sets the tone for the day.  If the world gets your attention immediately, you will be chasing it all day.  Checking your phone or the news will immediately start to make your day feel stressful, and take all of the focus off of YOU.  But, if your initial attention for the day is on you, and self-care, you will carry that with you all day, which will help keep you centered.

Practice Presence in Small Moments

You don’t need an hour-long meditation to be mindful.  Mindfulness lives in the micro-moments within the things you already do on a daily basis, the goal is to focus more on these small moments.  This could look like focusing on the feeling of the water on your hand while you are washing dishes, or stopping and noticing the breeze on your skin when you walk outside, or even making a routing of taking three deep breaths before replying to a text.

These moments compound throughout your day. They change your nervous system. They rewire your relationship to the present.

Protect Your Inputs

Your attention is sacred — treat it that way.  The news, and especially social media, can steal your attention, and wreak havoc on your nervous system.  Technology itself can be very detrimental to your mental health if you aren’t conscious of how you are using it.  One of the easiest things you can do is curate your social media feed to be uplifting, positive, or motivating.  Unfollow accounts that drain or distract you, and start following artists, creators, and people that will motivate you, and bring you happiness as opposed to stress.  The second thing you can do is turn off all non-essential notifications on your phone.  These notifications will distract you from your day, and keep you focused on your phone and not the real world happening right in front of you.  The third major thing you can do is take intentional breaks from news and media.  Set a time period within the day to not look at your phone or any media.  Over time, you can even set an entire day to unplug from technology and let your mind really refresh.


Mindfulness is easier when your nervous system isn’t in a constant state of alarm.
Choose peace over urgency where you can.

Create Anchors Throughout Your Day

Creating anchor points help you return to yourself.  Doing this multiple times throughout your day can help you keep from getting overwhelmed, and give you a moment to refresh and regain some positivity.  One example of an anchor you can use is to set reminders on your phone throughout your day with just a simple reminder to “breathe”.  An anchor can also look like a crystal bracelet or an object you carry in your pocket.  Every time you feel stressed or overwhelmed, you can touch that object, take a breath, and mentally recenter yourself.  This could also look like having a journal check-in after lunch, and using that brief journaling time to refocus on what you need to make the day positive and productive.

Think of these like spiritual bookmarks that pull you back to presence.

Make Peace with Imperfection

You won’t always be mindful. No one is perfect.  That’s part of the practice.  The goal is not to eliminate all stress, distractions, and negativity.  The goal is mentally condition yourself to better deal with situations and prevent things from ruining your entire day.  Imperfection is part of the process, and an important part of life.  Its important that we normalize:

You’ll lose your cool.
You’ll scroll for too long.
You’ll forget to breathe.

The win isn’t in never drifting — it’s in noticing that you have, and choosing to return.

Mindfulness isn’t about perfection.
It’s about coming home, again and again.

Final Thoughts

The world may stay loud. But your inner world doesn’t have to match its volume.

You have the ability to slow down, to soften, to root into presence — even in chaos.

Building a mindful life isn’t about escaping the world.
It’s about learning how to stay whole inside of it.

Share a comment with your go to mindfulness activities so others can benefit from them.

Return to your breath.
Return to your truth.
Return home.

Unlocking the Power of Genuine Gratitude

/ Eric Dickson / Leave a comment

By Eric Dickson | Mindful Mountain Wellness

We’ve all heard it: “Just be grateful.”

It’s one of those well-meaning suggestions that can sound a bit shallow, or even irritating, when you are struggling.  But real gratitude-embodied, felt, lived gratitude-is so much more than polite manners or a throwaway “thanks.”

It’s not just a social nicety.  It’s an energetic state that changes us at the deepest levels of mind, body, and spirit.  Today, let’s go beyond the surface and explore why gratitude has real energetic power, and how you can begin to truly experience it in your life.

What Do We Mean by “Energy”?

When I say energetics, I’m not talking about anything necessarily mystical or woo-woo.  Although it can feel spiritual, it’s really just biology and science.

Think of it this way: everything is energy.  Our emotions are really just a form of energy that flows through us.  Our thoughts not only influence our mood, but also our entire biology.  Even our posture and our breathing can change the energy we carry into a room.

We have all felt it before, whether it’s walking into a room and feeling tension in the air, or coming home and feeling instantly relaxed once we enter our own personal space.

Gratitude isn’t just a word, it’s an energetic frequency you can learn to tune into.  When you hold gratitude in your body, your nervous system, your heart, you’re literally shifting your state of being.

The Science of Gratitude’s Energy

Let’s talk practical.

Research shows that gratitude lowers your stress hormones, like cortisol.  Being in a state of gratitude can also increase the levels of dopamine and serotonin our body produces, which are the chemicals that make us happy and feel good.  It has also been clinically proven to improve your heart rate variability, which is an indicator that your nervous system is in balance and functioning properly.

This isn’t magic.  Its biology responding to emotion.  When you truly feel gratitude, your body moves into a state of safety and connection.  Your heart rhythms smooth out, your breathing slows, and your brain shifts out of hypervigilance.

Gratitude isn’t passive, it’s an active shift in your internal landscape.

More Than Words: Embodying Gratitude

Here’s the thing.

Just saying “thank you” without feeling it doesn’t create this energetic shift.  We can autopilot through those words all day and never change how we feel, or the energy we give off.  But when we slow down enough to embody gratitude – to feel it in our chest, our breath, our whole being – something changes.

It’s like your heart says “I see this gift.  I let it in.”

That moment of genuine receptivity has a vibrational quality.  It radiates outward.  People can feel it.  You can feel it in yourself. It creates a sense of comfort.

Practices to Access the Energetics of Gratitude

You don’t need anything fancy to start.  Here are a few simple ways to move from thinking gratitude, to feeling it.

Pause and breathe.  Place a hand on your heart.  Take a long slow inhale, and an even longer exhale.  Let yourself settle, gratitude needs space.

One thing, deeply felt.  Choose one thing you’re grateful for.  Not ten, just one.  Close your eyes and really see it, think about what it feels like, or smells like.  Notice how it makes you feel.  Warmth?  Relief?  Joy?

Let it land in the body.  Where do you feel this gratitude?  Chest?  Belly?  Face?  Breathe deeply into that area.  Allow it to expand.

Daily ritual.  At the end of the day, ask, “What today felt like a gift?”  Don’t rush, let it land before you move on.

Gratitude is less about listing blessings than about letting blessings change you.

Why This Matters

We live in a world that encourages constant wanting, comparing, and consuming.  Gratitude disrupts that cycle.  It says, “This is enough.  I am enough.”

That simple energetic shift has ripple effects:

  • Better health
  • Calmer mind
  • Deeper relationships
  • Greater creativity
  • A sense of meaning

You’re not just being polite when you practice gratitude.  You’re rewiring your nervous system.  You’re tuning yourself to a state of receptivity, connection, and peace.

Closing Invitation

Gratitude isn’t about ignoring what’s hard.  It’s about finding what is still good, even in difficulty.  It’s not a denial of pain, It’s a widening of perspective.  I invite you to try it – not as another task to check off, but as a gift to yourself.

Breathe.  Feel.  Let it in.

Return to your breath.  Return to your truth.  Return home.  You always have a place here on the Mindful Mountain.

If this resonated with you, I’d love to hear about your own gratitude practices or experiences.  Share in the comments, and let’s support each other in living more deeply, more energetically, and more gratefully.

What is Mindfulness? A return to the present moment.

/ Eric Dickson / Leave a comment

Today, we’re exploring a simple yet life-changing question: What is mindfulness? And more importantly — how can it transform the way you think, feel, and live? Let’s dive into it.

In a world that constantly demands our attention, mindfulness is a quiet rebellion — a conscious return to the present moment. But what does it really mean to be mindful?

Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention, on purpose, without judgment. It’s the art of being rather than doing. When we practice mindfulness, we choose to fully engage with whatever is happening right now — our breath, our thoughts, our surroundings — without trying to change or resist it.

It doesn’t mean having no thoughts, It means noticing your thoughts, your emotions, your physical sensations, and your surroundings… just as they are. Not fixing anything. Not analyzing. Just observing — gently and honestly.

The Origins of Mindfulness

Rooted in ancient meditation practices, especially within Buddhist traditions, mindfulness has now been embraced by modern science. It’s not about escaping reality — it’s about meeting life more fully, exactly as it is.

Why It Matters

When we live on autopilot, we miss the moments that matter most. Mindfulness invites us to:

  • Reduce stress and anxiety
  • Increase focus and clarity
  • Deepen connection with ourselves and others
  • Cultivate a sense of peace, even amidst chaos

Research shows that consistent mindfulness practice can reshape the brain — enhancing areas related to compassion and regulation, while calming the fear and stress centers. Now here’s where it gets fascinating — mindfulness isn’t just a concept. It literally changes your brain and body chemistry.

When you practice mindfulness regularly, studies show it can do 4 major things:

  • Shrink the amygdala, the brain’s fear center — thus reducing stress and reactivity
  • Activate the prefrontal cortex, helping you regulate emotions and make clearer decisions
  • Increase gray matter density in areas of your brain related to empathy, memory, and emotional regulation
  • And it boosts parasympathetic nervous system activity, which lowers your heart rate, slows breathing, and triggers the body’s natural rest-and-repair mode

In short — it calms the chaos and strengthens the systems that help you feel safe, grounded, and connected.

Everyday Mindfulness

In a world that constantly pulls us into distraction, pressure, and over stimulation — mindfulness brings us back to ourselves. It teaches us that peace isn’t something you find “out there” — it’s something you practice right here, right now, in your own body and breath.

The beauty of mindfulness is that It doesn’t require hours of meditation, fancy gear, or a perfect lifestyle.

You don’t have to sit cross-legged to practice mindfulness. You can find it in the breath between thoughts, in the rhythm of your footsteps, or in the way sunlight filters through the trees. Mindfulness is available to you in every moment — all it takes is your attention.

Begin Here

Whether you’re brand new or returning to the practice, start small. Try this:

  • Take three slow, conscious breaths.
  • Feel your feet on the ground.
  • Let go of the need to fix or analyze.
  • Simply notice.

This is mindfulness. And this is your invitation to come home — to your body, your breath, your truth.