Psychic Vampires
How others can influence you!
Recognising the toxic effect that people have and the negativity that can force a dark cloud over us, Rebecca Weissbort describes them as ‘psychic vampires’. These are the people in our society that are constant wingers, and always seem to be blaming others for their circumstances, and go through life complaining and moaning. This always reminds me of Aussies calling us English a bunch winging pommes. They love to go about draining us of all our positive energy. It doesn’t take them long to drain all of our energy and you can even find yourself starting to sound and act like they do.
This is when we need to take a step back, and don’t fall in to their way of thinking.
These psychic vampires, don’t necessarily know that they have this negative cloud around them and don’t realise the effect that they can have upon us. Rebecca writes this article and relates it to the client and trainer scenario, but I have experienced in day to day people, and even find myself being drawn into the dark cloud, and all the energy being zapped from me.
I understand from a Trainers point of view, there are clients out there, that need that support and shoulder to cry, and this can be draining and exhausting. I hope to get these clients to realise that they can break these barriers of negativity, and start looking on the bright side. It all starts with your beliefs and beliefs that you were raised with, and you can see how this can affect a relationship between a client and trainer and the battle to fight change.
As a Trainer I look to ensure my clients remain focussed, on their physical exercise goals, but also getting them to self analyse their performance after the session. One of the questions I frequently ask them to ask themselves is, were you focussed on the session today? If not how can you make sure that you are next time?
So with these clients (people) out there, all you have to do is anticipate, if approached remain with a strong state of mind and visually image a boundary between you and them, which will allow the positive energy out, and won’t allow the negativity in. Making that mental decision beforehand and anticipating the negativity can have great results and after a while will start to change people’s way of thinking, and they will start to take ownership and make changes themselves.
Why is it appropriate to me?
I see lots of people, not just clients but people that I generally chat with and as trainer I like to spend time talking to these people and finding out what they value and how they operate, this is a great start in trying to put myself in their shoes.
I then can decide which people are looking to change their barriers and beliefs and this is where I can help. Stress management is such a mine field, and is something that I don’t specialise in. Simple listening can go a long way and writing goal plans keeps my clients focussed on their goal ahead.
Blog By Simon Ridley
References The Personal Trainers Handbook by Rebecca Weissbort