I need to tell you something that might upset some people in this field, but it's the truth that could save your practice: if you feel drained after doing readings, you are doing it wrong.

I know that sounds harsh. I know you've probably been told that exhaustion is "part of the job" when you're sensitive. But in more than thirty years as a professional medium, I have never experienced burnout. Not once. And it isn't because I'm tough — it's because of how the energy moves.

The sponge: giving from your own supply

Most of us are taught — or simply default — to give from our own energy. You pour out your mental energy, your emotional energy, your physical energy into every session, every troubled friend, every heavy room. Of course you're exhausted. You're literally handing out pieces of yourself.

And sensitives don't just give — we absorb. We walk around carrying feelings that were never ours to begin with: the colleague's stress, the friend's sadness, the stranger's storm on the bus. If you've ever come home from a normal day feeling like you lived three of them, this is usually why.

The channel: letting it flow through you

Real spiritual work should energize you, not drain you. When you learn to channel — to let spirit energy flow through you instead of from you — everything changes.

I often finish a day of readings feeling higher than when I started — like I've been given a gift, not robbed of one.

That's not a special talent. It's a different posture. The sponge reaches out, grips, and gives; the channel opens, lets it pass, and closes. Working in the power has even carried me through times my body had every reason to collapse — the work held me up, because it wasn't running on me.

You are the boss of the connection

Here's what nobody tells sensitive people: you are in charge. You decide how much energy to spend. You decide when the connection opens — and when it shuts.

I'm quite "cold" when I'm not working. I don't mean heartless. I mean I'm not a sponge picking up everyone's energy in the supermarket queue. I separate my work from my human life very clearly: when I'm done, I'm done. And the spirit world respects that boundary — because I enforce it.

The same applies to the human side of the work. A thirty-minute sitting that becomes two hours because you can feel the person wanting more isn't generosity — it's the sponge again, just wearing kindness as a costume. You can be compassionate without being consumed.

Where to start

Begin with one honest check after your next reading, healing, or heavy conversation: am I tired, or am I emptied? Tired is human. Emptied means you gave your own supply. Then practice the smallest version of the boundary — close the day deliberately: the work is finished, the door is shut, the rest of the evening belongs to the human being.

If the absorbing follows you into ordinary life too — the giving, giving, giving until there's nothing left — I've written a companion piece for that: self-care for empaths and sensitive people.

Your energy is precious. Protect it like the instrument it is — the spirit world would rather have a clear, strong channel than an exhausted one.