Witnessing the External Without Losing the Internal

To observe is to become the witness. It’s that neutral, open presence that allows experience to unfold without resistance or attachment. Observing uses our senses—sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell—as sacred instruments of data, paired with the deeper layers of intuitive knowing: the inner senses of mind, heart, and body.

But many of us confuse presence with performance.

Instead of witnessing, we absorb. We take in the energies, emotions, traumas, and projections of the world around us, and without knowing it, begin carrying what was never ours to hold. We become entangled in trying to fix the pain of others, control our environment, or manage the energetic chaos of both inner and outer worlds. It is here that the nervous system becomes dysregulated, our minds race for solutions, and our hearts carry burdens that don’t belong to our own becoming.

Energetic Layers of Being: Discernment in Action

As human beings, we are layered. There are physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic bodies within us, each with their own frequency and function. Observing allows us to tune into each of these layers with clarity. Absorbing, however, blurs the boundaries between self and other. We may unconsciously take on someone else’s grief, their urgency, their tension, their fear—mistaking it for our own.

This is especially common for empaths, healers, and those raised in unpredictable or emotionally charged environments. When left unaddressed, these absorption patterns become identity traits—”I’m just sensitive.” “It’s my job to help.” “I carry it because they can’t.”

But sensitivity without discernment becomes susceptibility. Observation, on the other hand, brings awareness without entanglement.

Control vs. Connection

At the root of absorption is often an unconscious desire to control. Control outcomes. Control reactions. Control discomfort. Control appearances.

But true healing, growth, and transformation don’t come from control. They come from connection.

When we observe without absorbing, we allow the energy of the moment to be witnessed in truth. We connect with it—not to hold it, but to understand it. We stop fixing and start feeling. We stop grasping and begin growing. We stop attaching and begin attuning.

And in doing so, we return to the core truth:

You are not what you sense. You are not what you feel. You are the one who observes it all.

The Practice of Returning to the Witness

So how do we practice this in our daily lives?

• Breathe first. React second. The breath is your bridge between stimulus and awareness.
• Ask: Is this mine? before claiming an emotion or energy.
• Ground into the body with movement, water, or stillness before trying to solve or support someone else’s reality.
• Visualize a filter, not a wall. Energetic protection doesn’t mean shutting down—it means allowing only what serves to pass through.
• Honor your own process. You cannot alchemize the world’s wounds while denying your own.

The Sacred Discipline of Discernment

This isn’t about spiritual bypassing or emotional avoidance. It’s not about labeling people as “low vibe” and cutting them off. It’s about discernment—the sacred discipline of knowing where you end and another begins, without losing your ability to feel, love, and serve from wholeness.

When we learn to observe, we free ourselves from absorbing.

And in that freedom, we embody both clarity and compassion—no longer mistaking our empathy for entanglement, and no longer needing to control the chaos in order to feel peace within.