Most of us are living life weighed down by things we were never meant to carry.

We absorb the tension in a room before anyone speaks.
We tighten in the chest when a loved one sighs.
We replay interactions over and over, trying to make sense of someone else’s mood.

We are processing the world through our own nervous system as if every flicker of discomfort belongs to us.

And this is where life quietly drains away.

At Rhythmic Being, we name this clearly:
Energetic over-responsibility.

It’s the silent act of picking up what isn’t yours, and holding it in your body like it’s your own.

The way out is clean, simple, and life-altering:

“I return all energy that is not mine without processing it as my own.”

This is more than an affirmation.
It is a line in the sand for your nervous system, your energy, and your identity.
It is the moment you stop living as a storage unit for the world and start living as yourself.

The Hidden Weight You’ve Been Carrying

If you’re exhausted and can’t pinpoint why, this might be the reason:

Your body is full of borrowed weight.

From the time we were children, most of us were trained to pick up what isn’t ours:

• Mom sighs, and your stomach knots.

• Dad slams a door, and your heart races.

• A teacher is disappointed, and your chest feels heavy.

Without anyone saying a word, your nervous system learned to absorb and process other people’s discomfort as your own.

As an adult, this shows up as:

• Walking into a room and instantly feeling “off” for no reason

• Leaving interactions drained, even if nothing was said

• Feeling responsible for other people’s moods, choices, or reactions

• A low-grade irritation or heaviness that just lingers

It’s not your attitude.
It’s not that you’re “too sensitive.”
It’s that you’re living entangled in energy that isn’t yours.

The Body’s Cost of Holding What Isn’t Yours

Your body was built to process your life, your emotions, your experiences, your truth.

When you carry other people’s energy, your system scrambles to make sense of it.

• Your gut tightens.

• Your breath shortens.

• Your mind races, trying to “solve” something invisible.

This is your body trying to metabolize someone else’s story.

But here’s the truth:
Foreign energy has no resolution in your body.

No matter how much you replay, analyze, or hold it, it will never convert into clarity.
It just drains you, confuses you, and slowly erodes your sense of self.

If you’ve ever woken up tired for no reason…
If you’ve ever felt like life is a drag even when nothing is wrong…
This is often why.

The Moment of Truth: Carrier vs. Self

Every time you process energy that isn’t yours, you leave the seat of your true self.

You step into the role of the Carrier:

• Hyper-attuned to other people’s shifts

• Living on alert, always “reading the room”

• Equating worth with holding everyone else together

The Carrier can’t rest.
The Carrier can’t create.
The Carrier can only react.

Your true self is different.
Your true self:

• Lives from inner rhythm, not other people’s signals

• Responds from choice, not reflex

• Holds clarity without collapsing into other people’s storms

Returning energy is how you walk back home to yourself.

The Mechanics of Returning Energy

Transformation doesn’t happen in concept.
It happens in your body.

Here’s how to live the affirmation instead of just thinking it:

Step 1: Recognize the foreign weight.

• Pause. Scan your body.

• Notice the tight chest, the knotted gut, the buzzing mind.

• Ask yourself: “Is this mine?”

Nine times out of ten, you’ll know. Your body is honest.

Step 2: Refuse to process.

• Interrupt the old reflex to fix, solve, or hold.

• Say it internally, or out loud if you can:

  “I return this to its source. I will not process what is not mine.”

You are drawing a line for your energy and nervous system.

Step 3: Release through the body.

Energy doesn’t leave through thought alone, it needs form.

• Exhale deeply, imagining the weight leaving with your breath

• Shake your hands or shoulders to physically release tension

• Visualize the energy leaving your field, dropping into the earth or dissolving into the air

Your body feels the finality of release when you give it form.

Step 4: Restore your rhythm.

• Place your hands on your heart or stomach.

• Call your energy back:

  “My energy is my own. I am whole.”

Feel your body settle.
Feel the space return inside you.
This is what self-possession feels like.

The Deeper Shift: Sovereignty in Action

This is not about “protecting yourself” or building walls.
It’s about ending the unconscious habit of carrying what was never yours.

When you return energy:

• Conversations no longer leave you wrung out

• Relationships become cleaner and more honest

• Your nervous system finds real rest

• Life experiences that you've had no longer live as trauma in your energy and life begins to feel lighter, clearer, and is yours

Over time, this becomes more than a practice.
It becomes your default identity.

You live as the bridge and the fire:

• The bridge: Deeply attuned, able to sense the world without collapse

• The fire: Unwavering, self-sourced, burning away what does not belong

This is the rhythm of a life reclaimed.

Your Invitation

Next time you feel heavy for no reason, stop and notice.

• Scan your body.

• Breathe.

• Whisper:

  “I return all energy that is not mine without processing it as my own.”

Then feel the difference.

This is what it means to stop living borrowed lives and start living your own.
Your energy.
Your rhythm.
Your fire.

Returning energy doesn’t erase the past.
It ends the energetic agreement that allows the harm to define your essence.

This is the transformative practice at the heart of Rhythmic Being:

You reclaim the energy you’ve been giving away, and life returns to you in real time.

Robin Dinaso / The Rhythmic Being