Winter is a good time to take stock, do some reflecting, and prepare ourselves for the flurry of activity that comes in the warmer months. One of those reflection points I have been considering for myself the last couple of months is: Where am I putting my energy?
Internet World
We live in a digital age where everything is vying for attention and time, a competition for our most valuable resource – our energy. Social media and traditional platforms have all sorts of tactics built into them to keep you engaged, scrolling, and giving your energy endlessly to them. One of the most insidious ones is this fear that “You’ll miss out” if you aren’t there everyday – whether this comes in the form of not being informed, not being in the loop, not being part of the group, or various other ways to convince us that they are necessary.
If you have any type of business, especially self-owned/ small business, you are told you have to be engaging on social media all the time to draw in more people and engage with customers. It has become this package deal. It is not just your social media though – you need to be constantly engaging in the smaller groups within the larger platform to engage with more people (looking at you facebook). What they are not saying though, when it comes to advertising your stuff, unless you are paying for ads or your followers are consistently sharing your posts, those posts are not being shared across the platform the same as your regular posts. It is why you see people posting their links in comments instead of the post itself and other such tricks. I could go on and on, but I am assuming by now most people know this kind of information and how this works.
Like many people, the internet is part of my life because I am a writer, I teach online, and my spiritual community – Crane Practitioners, Death Emissaries, my Coven, and other witchy friends are online. I live in a very rural area, in the foothills, in an zone that never seems to have any type of pagan/ witchy in-person events unless I want to drive 2+ hours, which leaves little for in-person interactions of this kind. This makes the internet vital for me, not just for business but for connection and community.
The Past 2 Months
If you follow me on social media, you will have noticed my reduced presence there. Some simple posts here and there, but not my usual, and it is because I have been evaluating where and how I am spending my energy. In the end, Energy is the true currency of Life. Our attention is energy, and it is what everyone else is vying for. Our time is measured by our energy, and we allot our energy in time. We only have so much energy at any given time before we have to recharge it.
If energy is the currency, where and why am I giving it?
I bought into the whole idea of how to use social media from the business aspect above, but overall, the long term “returns” did not come from that. The engagement is brief, inconsistent, and rarely deep. There are some, sure, but not like others try to make it out to be. The numbers (followers) do not reflect real engagement or exchange between people – they are just numbers. I am sure it also does not help that I don’t use all the “tricks” to cater to the algorithm, but to me it just feels so fake. I hate click-baity pictures and titles. I am not going to write on something because it is popular – I going to write about the things that mean something to me, that I am connected to, that I feel may help or inspire someone else. The internet may be a virtual place, but I am a real person within it and I have to be just who I am.
The people who I really engage with, have built bonds and relationships with, are ones I have connected to in other ways. Some may have found me on social media, but our bond was not built there. It is people here, who were drawn to what I write about. They are the people who take my courses and have become friends in the process of that experience. They are the ones in the Crane Practitioner group who I am consistently working with, sharing my experiences with, and listening to theirs. They are my Sisters, my coven, small but mighty!
So for my energy when it comes to online, my focuses will be the Temple Cranes, my students, my Sisters, and my writing, both here and on my own website. In the end, that is where real conversations are happening, where deep and fulfilling engagement occurs for me. I will still use the other social medias but to a much smaller degree. Mostly to share some of these things, but not the scrolling, groups, and all the other time sucks that do not create that real energy exchange, I am not interested in that. I would rather use my energy to engage in personal and meaningful ways.
I have plans to use my youtube channel in some different ways, and to supplement this kind of work for those who don’t engage in written works. I will keep giving visual examples of how I do certain magical workings and practices, but there are some others ideas as well. Falling into the same category of just sharing me, my practices, and lessons I have gone through in my own spiritual journey, but in a different way. Power of Voice, and using my physical voice is important in my practices, and so that platform allows for that kind of vibrational magic. We’ll just see where it goes though.
The Power of Energy Exchange
Exchange of energy is an important concept in my spiritual connections. My Deities/ Guides have taught me well on this. Every relationship, every bond, should have be an exchange – both giving and receiving. My Guides give me lessons, tools or skills to learn, and it is my job to learn and do the work – an exchange of energy.
When working with the nature spirits of my valley – They teach me, guide me, and help me to figure out how to do the right things for their living aspects here. It is my job to learn and apply that to what we do, create, or build in our valley – not just for us the humans, but for all of us living here. Through this process, we all flourish. It’s not easy and not always perfect, but we keeping working together to find that harmonious alignment.
The same goes for people. There should be a balanced exchange of energy. It is not always equal in the way we think of it, but the exchange is there. For example, when I am teaching I am giving a lot of my energy to the people there. Although I am not receiving energy directly back to me, their progress, their experiences that are enriching their own connections and spiritual/ magical lives does give back to me – in the joy of their growth, their movement and where they are taking it in the world and changing the world with it. I always encourage my students to take what they have learned and experienced through it and share it with others, teach others, create their own workshops/ courses and guide others, because every person they touch, that experiences these things, creates ripples of change and movement for all of us – including myself.
Winter is a perfect time to think on this idea of exchange and what we are giving our energy to. Are these spaces enriching us? Are we just handing over our energy or are we receiving in real exchange? What are we feeding our energy when we are in these spaces – things that shape the life and person we are and want to be, or are we feeding ourselves illusions and poisons that hold us back? Are we engaging for numbers or are we engaging for real connection? Are we moving in ways because it is what others say we have to do, or we moving in ways that produce real and positive forward movement in our lives?
Energy is the currency of Life – every choice, relationship, and action is an investment in how we spend it. What are you spending it on? What are you growing with it? What is the exchange you are creating with it?
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