There are numerous ways we protect ourselves on an energetic level from what is happening around us. We learned these strategies as children when coping with situations that made us feel insecure. We used them to get what we needed or to gain a semblance of control over a situation. The problem is that they are often no longer useful coping mechanisms for adults.

These strategies often involve a closing off of our life energy, a denial of reality, and an overreaction to situations that may have threatened us as children. These defensive strategies close us off, because they prevent us from either experiencing intimacy or from expressing ourselves in ways that reflect what we really think and want.

As adults, we have a much larger behavioral repertoire and much more dimensionality to our thinking than when we were children, yet when deeper fears take hold, we respond irrationally in ways that constrict and bind us. Of course, not all defensive strategies are counterproductive. Some help us cope with aggressive or disturbing vibrations. It is only when they become our usual way of relating to people, or habits of the mind, that they are problematic.