Close your eyes, clench them closed, hard, and look, look inward. Feel the pattern, touch it, imagine the matrix of blinding, blue-white pinpoints burning, burning hotter than the fires of Hell; explore the blazing, erupting cascade of energy, the star cluster at the center of your galaxy, the nucleus at the center of your primeval atom, at your center, at the center of YOU. This is the source, the source of your power, your heat, your light, your radiance, your life energy. This is you.
Guard yourself, ward yourself carefully, protect your innermost core. Keep
a balanced perspective, staying aware of your flaws, knowing that these
do not make you any the less a good and decent and worthy person. Draw
strength from your talents, the things you do well, and extend from
there. Build a fortress, a retreat, a quiet space within you, a retreat
from the demands and abrasions and impersonal cruelties of a harsh and
coldly indifferent world.
Create a support system of friends and acquaintances who reassure and
validate you. Avoid those who tear you down, the destructive ones,
the users, the energy vampires who live off your life-blood. In extreme
cases, a change of scenery may be indicated, a new start among people
who do not know you from your previous life.