Not every block is energetic

What if it's fear?

What if it's exhaustion?

What if it's procrastination?

What if we don't know how to start?

What if we keep doing exactly the same thing expecting a different result?

What if there's a conversation we've been avoiding for months?

Maybe some things need a cleansing.

But others need a decision.

Humanity has been creating rituals around what it cannot fully control for centuries.

Protection.

Purification.

Luck.

Beginnings.

Endings.

Across different cultures, rituals have served to accompany transitions, uncertainty, grief, fear, and hope.

That doesn't mean we can prove that "blocked energy" is the objective cause of something not working.

But we can recognize something simpler:

rituals can help us give meaning to an experience.

And perhaps that's one of their most interesting functions.

You can light a candle to symbolize something ending.

You can cleanse your space because you need to feel a fresh start.

You can write an intention because you need to remember what you want.

The problem appears when the ritual becomes an explanation that prevents us from looking at any other possibility.

Imagine you've been saying for months:

Maybe.

But before reaching that conclusion, we could ask:

Do you know exactly how much is coming in and going out?

Are you charging for your work?

Have you asked for the raise?

Are you looking for opportunities?

Are you accumulating a debt you avoid checking?

Have you been wanting to start something for months without starting?

The question doesn't eliminate the spiritual.

It just adds reality.

And sometimes reality gives us back something we'd lost:

the ability to act.

Psychologist Steven C. Hayes, one of the main developers of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy—ACT—has dedicated much of his work to something called psychological flexibility.

In his book A Liberated Mind, Hayes explains that we often suffer not only from what we feel, but from how much we organize our lives to avoid certain emotions, thoughts, or experiences.

Research on ACT has studied precisely these processes: experiential avoidance, acceptance, values, and committed action. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 67 unique studies found that changes in psychological flexibility and inflexibility were associated with changes in psychological distress during ACT interventions.

Translated to our conversation:

Sometimes we're not blocked.

Sometimes we're trying not to feel something.

We don't send the application because we fear rejection.

We don't have the conversation because we fear conflict.

We don't post because we fear judgment.

We don't end the relationship because we fear being alone.

We don't check the accounts because we fear what we'll find.

So the question changes.

It's no longer:

But rather:

There's a very subtle form of blocking.

We say:

"It's not time yet."

"I'm waiting for a sign."

"When I feel ready."

"When I have more clarity."

And sometimes that's perfectly reasonable.

Not all decisions need to be made immediately.

But other times "waiting for the right moment" becomes an elegant form of procrastination.

Researcher Piers Steel conducted an extensive review and meta-analysis on procrastination. He found that factors such as task aversiveness, how long it will take for the reward to arrive, self-efficacy, impulsivity, and self-regulation ability were consistently related to procrastination.

I think that's very important for this topic.

Because sometimes we say:

And maybe that "something" isn't mysterious.

Maybe the task makes us uncomfortable.

Maybe it seems too big.

Maybe we doubt our ability.

Maybe the reward is too far away.

Maybe there's something easier to do right now.

That also feels like a block.

There are things that influence our lives that we don't see directly either.

Habits.

Fears.

Expectations.

Beliefs.

Patterns.

Distractions.

Environments.

The way we talk to ourselves.

All of that can feel as intangible as the word "energy."

But there's an important difference:

many of those things we can observe.

And when we can observe something...

we can start working with it.

Maybe you're exhausted.

Maybe you're not sleeping well.

Maybe you're trying to do too much.

Maybe you need to learn a skill.

Maybe you don't have enough resources yet.

Maybe you're in an environment that makes it hard to build what you want.

Maybe you depend on something that's not under your control.

Maybe you need to ask for help.

Maybe your strategy simply isn't working.

And recognizing any of these things doesn't mean you've "failed spiritually."

It doesn't mean you're vibrating low.

It doesn't mean the Universe is punishing you.

It means a human situation can have human causes.

And that can be liberating.

Psychologist Albert Bandura dedicated much of his work to the concept of self-efficacy: a person's belief in their ability to influence certain outcomes through their actions.

In Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control and in his work on human agency, Bandura suggests that our expectations about what we're capable of doing influence motivation, decisions, perseverance, and behavior.

This doesn't mean:

Because it's not true.

Our lives are also conditioned by circumstances, resources, opportunities, and structures we don't control.

But it does mean something more balanced:

There are situations you can't control and parts of those situations where you can still act.

That's agency.

And sometimes reclaiming agency feels more powerful than finding an explanation.

I don't want you to throw away your candles.

Or your crystals.

Or your rituals.

Do your cleansing if it has meaning for you.

But then take a sheet of paper.

And write:

Without judging yourself.

Just observe.

🌑 1. Is there something I don't know how to do?

Maybe you don't need more energy.

Maybe you need information.

A course.

A question.

A mentor.

Practice.

🌒 2. Is there something I'm afraid to do?

Send.

Ask.

Charge.

End.

Start.

Speak.

Show yourself.

🌓 3. Is there something I'm avoiding looking at?

Your finances.

Your relationship.

Your health.

Your calendar.

Your performance.

Your behavior.

Your habits.

🌔 4. Am I waiting to feel different before acting?

Sometimes we think:

But often confidence appears after doing small things that prove we're capable.

🌕 5. What part does depend on me?

Not all of it.

Just one.

Which one?

Here we can borrow another tool from psychology.

Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran analyzed in a meta-analysis what are called implementation intentions: specific plans of the type "if X happens, then I'll do Y." Across 94 independent tests, these plans showed a positive effect on goal achievement.

So instead of:

you could write:

Instead of:

Instead of:

It's not as magical.

But it can be much more useful.

Maybe we're framing the discussion wrong.

We don't need to choose between:

ritual or reality.

spirituality or psychology.

intuition or action.

We can do both.

You can cleanse your space...

and then organize your finances.

You can write an intention...

and then create a plan.

You can ask for protection...

and then set a boundary.

You can ask for clarity...

and then ask an uncomfortable question.

You can ask for abundance...

and then find out how much you're charging.

You can ask for something to change...

and then observe what you keep repeating.

The ritual can mark the beginning.

But it doesn't necessarily have to do the work for you.

There's another possibility.

Maybe some blocks aren't there to disappear immediately.

Maybe you need to learn to move forward with some discomfort present.

This connects again with the idea of psychological flexibility: not waiting for all uncomfortable thoughts or feelings to disappear before we can act in accordance with what we value.

Maybe you'll never feel 100% ready.

Maybe you'll still feel fear.

Maybe you'll doubt.

Maybe you'll still feel like something's missing.

And you can still take a step.

I don't know.

And maybe that's not the first question we need to answer.

Before assuming it, try these:

What am I avoiding?

What don't I know yet?

What habit am I repeating?

What conversation do I need to have?

What decision have I been postponing?

What part of this can I move?

Then do your ritual.

Light your candle.

Cleanse your space.

Look at the Moon.

But when you're done...

do something your yesterday-self didn't do.

Because maybe not every block is energetic.

Sometimes the block has a much simpler name:

fear.

habit.

uncertainty.

exhaustion.

lack of information.

or a decision we don't want to make yet.

And recognizing it doesn't take away life's mystery.

It gives us back a part of our power.

I want you to complete a sentence:

"That thing I call a block could also be ______."

You don't need to explain it.

Just name it.

Maybe it's fear.

Maybe exhaustion.

Maybe lack of preparation.

Maybe a person.

Maybe a decision.

Sometimes giving what we feel a different name also changes what we can do with it.

My intention with MÍSTICO isn't to take the mystery out of spirituality.

It's to do something that has even more value for me:

preserve the mystery without stopping ourselves from asking questions.

That's why I try to research each topic from multiple places: tradition, psychology, books, studies, and human experience.

If this article helped you recognize something you were calling a "block" in another way, you can voluntarily support this work with a tip.

That support allows me to continue researching and building texts that aren't just pretty phrases.

And if you don't want to do that, reading, sharing, or leaving your experience in the comments also sustains this space.

If you decide to support financially, thank you.

Not for buying an answer.

But for helping me keep asking questions that might be worth asking ourselves.