Have you ever noticed how someone can walk into a room and brighten up the place? The atmosphere lightens, you feel sunnier and everything seems better. The opposite also holds true. Some people can walk into an office or your house and suddenly it feels like a hurricane hit or dark clouds came pouring in. These experiences reflect the energy that we carry around us in the form of thoughts and emotions.

It’s no secret to people who can perceive subtle energy. We carry with us the totality of the thoughts and feelings we create. These thoughts and feelings are energy and make up the “atmosphere” around us. A woman who had just had a stroke could not speak or move much, but she became highly sensitive to the nurses, aides and visitors who entered her room. Some people hated their work and she felt this intensely. Some people were truly there to help and make a difference and she felt this too. No words were exchanged; she felt the energy that each person carried with them as they entered her room.

She wanted to put a sign up to make people aware of their responsibility for the energetic baggage they carried. “Be Responsible for Your Energy,” she wanted it to read.

Creating good thoughts and purifying emotions is a deep spiritual practice that requires effort. It starts by identifying negative thoughts and judgments in our own minds, noticing ugly emotions like anger and jealousy, and working to replace them with good, uplifting thoughts and elevated emotions of service and compassion.

This is the kind of real inner work that will transform your life. It feels challenging in the short term, but in the long term it brings great satisfaction and personal rewards. What thoughts and emotions will you change today?

Bio: Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http://www.awakeintheworld.com.