Living Energy Blog

These are stressful times. You may feel that everywhere we look there seems to be one more reason to feel tense, upset, frenzied or anxious. These are truly momentous times with many transitions and changes as the future careens toward us. That being the case it is more important than ever to have the means to deal with stress inherent in change so it does not produce toxic effects in our lives.

Stress has been defined as wear and tear on the body and mind as we attempt to adapt to change. We are all aware that change causes stress. We are also aware at some level of the signs that we are stressed. What we are often not aware of are the changes that go on inside us that create the wear and tear and eventually take their toll on our health and well being.

There are many ways to lessen the effects of stress on mind and body: meditation, quiet time for ourselves, learning to breathe properly, energy work and techniques such as imagery, and visualization. All are all helpful methods that can be used alone, or woven into a complete personal stress management program. These tools are also helpful when used to clarify, set and achieve goals. Each in its own way can be a really valuable aid to assist with engaging your inner resources to help motivate you to not only get started, but also to ride the waves of change more smoothly.

Another useful concept for navigating the process of change, whether it is initiated by us or from the outside, is that of support? All growth and development requires adequate support in order to be successful. What are your particular needs? Support does not mean the same thing to all people. Take some time to identify what support means to you. What works for one person may not work for another. In addition, you may need different types of support at different times in as you navigate the stages of change. It is always wise to have a variety of tools available to help you navigate change as well as your path in life. 

So begin by asking what support means to you. What types are important to you? Where can you look for that help? This includes people, places and things! How often will you need these resources? Obviously there will be things you can do for yourself, but you may also need others. Who are they? Can you ask them ahead of time to be available to ensure that what you need will be forthcoming? Do you need professional support, a group or some skill building?

Have a list of all the ways that you may be able to offer yourself support can be useful. When we are stressed our thinking mind tends to shut down and we may not be able to sort out what we need. If it is available to you in written form it can really strengthen your chances of success.

Perhaps also writing out the positives that will result from the change you are going through can help give you some confidence when the going gets rough. You may also want to write out some encouraging statements on index cards and carry them with you. A friend who has committed to be an aid can be of invaluable help….especially if they have gone through similar circumstances.

These approaches may seem self evident in a lot of ways, but they tend to be things we overlook…. maybe because of their simplicity. Nonetheless they can help make a difference in whether you just survive or thrive through transition.

Both our recorded home study programs are filled with techniques and guidance on using these types of methods as well as more specific teaching on how to use energy skills to improve your health, manage your emotions and  bring your dreams alive.

You can access these programs and a complete descripion here: http://www.livingenergyworks.com/store/

There is still time to join us!

Strengthen Your Art of Allowing
Balance, Health and Wellness Retreat 
June 4-6, 2010
Sandy Island Camp 
Lake Winnipesaukee, NH  

“Elements of Enlightenment is a grassroots organization of conscious souls, raising awareness of the many dimensions of healing.”

Live on purpose
Create conscious communities
Leave this world a better place
-Elements of Enlightenment 

 Imagine spending three scrumptiously self-ful days on a beautiful island nourishing your soul, replenishing your spirit, reclaiming inner balance and discovering your authentic self. Meet new like-minded friends in workshops, over delicious meals or simply relaxing to the sounds of the lapping waters of Lake Winnipesaukee, all while enhancing your spiritual tools to move forward on your purposeful path.

Event Description: 3 day, 2 night retreat on the private, secluded Sandy Island YMCA Camp on Lake Winnipesaukee with workshops, speakers, and recreation activities designed to help you return and embrace your authentic self.  You will have three workshop opportunities to learn from.

Karen and Peg will be presenting

 Subtle Energy: 8 Keys to Unlocking Your Art of Allowing.

 There will be many other workshops to choose from as well that will provide you with new tools to live on purpose from the ease and flow that is the center of YOU!   

For complete description and details go to:  http://www.elementsofenlightenment.com/

Being out in nature is a wonderful way to clear and cleanse, as well as to build our energy. In the winter months we are indoors more and lose a valuable means of cultivating healthy energy.  Sunlight, fresh air and contact with all the natural elements all help to increase and maintain energy especially if we are purposeful and attentive with the process. Make it a point to get outside when you can. In addition to helping our overall energy, walking outside in the early morning light has been found to be helpful in staving off seasonal affective disorder.

To have your time outside be most effective as it relates to your energy: be mindful of your body, your feet on the earth, how it feels to be in the present moment; from your inner center be aware of the air, the sun, the breeze blowing past you; feel drinking in the sun,, the air, the warmth.

In Tai Chi there is a wonderful movement to gather up chi of the morning and bring it into yourself.

As you move through your day periodically tune into yourself, intentionally feel spaciousness in your heart and you bathe yourself with love, peace, joy or gratitude. Not only will you benefit but those around you will “catch” your good feelings. This simple method helps to keep your energy strong, can protect you from stress, make for more meaningful interactions and help prevent fatigue.

We would enjoy hearing your comments on how this exercise affected your day!

We are fortunate to live at a time in history when there is so much knowledge and so many well researched tools that can help us to realize more of our potential and improve our quality of life. The last few decades have brought many new discoveries and concepts regarding how to heal, expand consciousness, transform difficulties, rise to challenges and transcend our ‘lower nature’ and live more from our authentic selves. Quantum physics has corroborated the truth of the perennial philosophies and mystical traditions to give us both an art and a science of the Self.

 As information increases and our awareness expands, we not only know more, but can do and BE more! This is not support for being busier or for taking on more and more activity or responsibility. In many ways it is just the opposite.  With deeper understanding and development of our energetic nature we actually can expand our capacity to live more fully but with less struggle, fewer burdens and more ease.

 If we understand energetic principles, access our inborn natural capacities and use energetic skills, we can bring about change with less conflict and greater comfort. Often our attempts to change are approached from a stance of willpower, hard work and a forced focus on what to be or not to be. The world of energy provides ways to facilitate change more easily, to integrate new patterns and abilities more effortlessly so we can become that person we see in our mind and feel in our heart.

 The Art and Science of the Self-Part 2 continues in the next post

Join us on March 22, 2010 @ 10 A.M. for our radio show where the topic for discussion will be Changing Paradigms in Health care. The present time is one of tremendous transition and the emergence of new models and roles for humanity. Taking personal responsibility for your health and overall well-being is a huge part of this shift. Join Peg Donahue, Karen Kallie and Tony Pace as we explore the shifting paradigm for health and our roles in it.

To call in to the show: (347) 843-4148

 On the web or to download the recording: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/living-energy-works

Heart feelings of genuine care, love, gratitude, appreciation and compassion create coherence in the heart and have a profound effect on the body.

 Heart Coherence helps to:

1. Shift heart rhythms toward smooth, ordered patterns
2. Stimulate healthy neural, hormonal, biochemical,and energetic flow to organs
3. Improve brain function
4. Reduce sympathetic nervous system activity
5. Decrease blood pressure
6. Release stress hormones
7. Diminish fight/flight response
8. Increase parasympathetic nervous system activity and decreases heart rate
9. Improve body system efficiency
10. Boost DHEA production (anti-aging!)
11. Enhance IGA (immune response) proportionately with core heart feelings

Heart Coherence helps you experience well-being right down to the cellular level! We can LEARN to trigger all these effects at will.

Excerpted from Chapter 7, 12 Keys for Life and Self Mastery

Excerpted from Ch. 4 of 12 Keys for Life and Self Mastery

We form patterns in our early environments that become our automatic reactions and repeated responses to situations and events throughout our lives. We all have beliefs about the key areas of life: safety, survival, relationships, money, self image, power, entitlement, love, self expression and spirituality. If we are to be truly free to create lives that are the unique manifestation of our individual BEING, then it is essential to identify our real values and release what interferes with openly embracing our own strong, passionately alive consciousness.

Information regarding our internal state is always coming to us in several ways – our physical, emotional and mental faculties are always giving clues about our energy and inner being. In addition, our energy system can offer a great deal of useful data if we take the time to learn how to comprehend it.

We can also stay aware of how the various aspects of the mind communicate with us and blend that into our energetic awareness. The conscious mind is aware of concepts and ideas; the subconscious speaks through feelings or lack of them – the body clearly tells us what is happening in our subconscious mind if we know how to listen. Higher awareness tends to speak through imagery, subtle sensing, or an unmistakable kind of knowing when you sincerely request to know the truth of a matter.

The human energy and chakra system are the vehicles through which we develop and encode our life experience into our cellular memory, so they provide us with a very useful, simple and organized way to look at our values and beliefs as well as with a means to understand how beliefs affect the organization of our energies.

Notice what dominant theme(s) repeatedly comes up for you in your life. Herein lies a clue as to a core belief that is strongly affecting the organization of the people, places, and circumstances of your life. Through collapsing that belief and its attendant mental and emotional features you can be free from the inside out, have more energy and be more open to creating more of what you do want in your life .

12 Keys provides a comprehensive guide to uncovering and releasing troublesome beliefs and opening to higher energies that support, nourish and sustain you in the conscious creation of your life.

Join us on Monday, Feb. 1, 2010 @ 10 A.M. when we will begin a month focused on care givers and new skills for stress management and compassionate self care in the midst of a busy and demanding life.

Click on the link or join our show from the radio button on our homepage (http://www.livingenergyworks.com/) or listen to the download later at your convenience.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=66142&cmd=tc

World of  Subtle Energy Provides New Tools for Self Care

We all sense subtle energy, although we may not always realize it. People called clairvoyants are especially gifted with the ability to see subtle energy. And while it appears to be innate in them, the truth is we all possess this ability. It can be developed by anyone who takes the time to learn the skills necessary and to practice them.

 Most of us may not see subtle energy, but we do sense its existence and respond to it on a daily basis. Much of our language even speaks to our unconscious experience of energetic states and events. Think about: “I feel blue,” “My heart is heavy,” “I feel so empty,” “It’s like I’ve been knifed in the back,” “I feel so full of joy,” “My heart is glad.” These are statements that are actually descriptive of your energy at that moment.

 Biofeedback instruments show that the person who reports feeling blue is, in fact, emitting the frequency of energy our eye sees as blue. The person who reports feeling heavy or sad in the heart is actually experiencing a lower frequency of energy – one which is slower than that of joy or happiness. That person may also be experiencing a constriction of the flow of energy through the heart chakra area.

 Feelings Inform About Energy States

Emptiness is depletion or lack of energy; joy is a fullness of lighter, faster moving energy, and the knife in the back can be an experience of negative thought or emotional energy directed toward that person by another. When you understand the dynamics of energy, you have a deeper perspective and more options available to work with your whole being – thoughts, feelings, sensations and beliefs – in order to shift out of negative states more quickly. In addition, being able to sense and manage your subtle energy allows you to maximize your efforts to create change and attract new possibilities into your life.

  Most people wait for time or external circumstances to change for relief or resolution of their issues. Unfortunately this leaves you in a disempowered position AND it does nothing to erase the effect the negative emotion has on your system. Although a person may feel that the problem or emotional state has disappeared, what more typically happens is that it has been driven deeper into the system so that it is out of awareness but not necessarily out of range of affecting your future experience. To work on an energetic level with the totality of you – your mind, body and spirit – is a major step on the road to empowerment and one that goes beyond learning new ways to simply THINK about things. It helps remove obstacles to true emotional freedom and affords greater access to higher level functions such as creativity, intuition and spirituality.

Excerpted from Chapter 3, 12 Keys for Life and Self Mastery

Everything is Energy

For thousands of years people have known that everything is energy. In Feng Shui we study the I Ching (pronounced “ee- jing”), one of the oldest books from China. This book is also called the Book of Changes. It is about the continual changes in the Universe. It is about living in harmony and balance with nature. It is about action and reaction. It is about going with the flow and what happens when you don’t. Three laws of nature that humans share with all species and the earth in general are (1) we are alive, (2) we are connected and (3) we are always changing. We are deeply connected to the earth and all animal and plant life around us. We have gotten out of balance with nature and now realize how integral this relationship is to our well-being. One way we are connected to other people and living beings is through the power of thought. Have you ever had a thought, only to find someone close to you had the same or similar thought? Thought is energy. To understand our collective thought or mass consciousness, look at what appears in the news and what grabs our focus or attention every day. These thoughts have energy. The energy increases as the thoughts are fed. As the thoughts are fed, they are given more power. As they are given power, they become real or the “truth” as we know it. And the story goes on.

 Energy takes many forms

The energy of the universe takes many forms and has many layers, and so do WE. If we are to become all we can be, with the ability to channel and shape our life force for the greatest benefit, then it is necessary to have a working knowledge of the hardware and the software of our Selves.

 We have all heard “knowledge is power,” and nowhere is that more true than when we are speaking about ourselves and the lives we create. Self-knowledge includes understanding how we work as human beings as well as how we have personally operated up until now to construct our lives.

 That brings us to Self-awareness. Self-awareness includes the ability to observe oneself, but the way we are using the term implies even more than that. We share the view that each of us is in the world to bring more of our spiritual nature into human form – to become more of our authentic Selves and grow past the small identity that may have served us well until now but no longer does.

 We live in a time that necessitates living in new ways … a time that requires us to rise to challenges from a different perspective than in the past so we can live lives that are more nurturing, satisfying, fulfilling, abundant and prosperous in every way.

 To us, the term Self-awareness includes a knowing beyond observation of our patterns of thought, feeling and action. It describes a presence of “I AMNESS” that is beyond the average thought, feeling or sensation of human experience. It is the direct awareness of our spiritual nature.

 In this work we are addressing moving from the lower mind controlled by the ego and its self-protective – but often mistaken – ideas and beliefs to a level of BEING that embodies more of your spiritual essence … your soul nature. This is the place where we embrace our full potential and engage the power of our authentic Selves.

 There is an art and science involved in this opening to the authentic Self. The way has been laid out for us through the millennia, but now we have the additional benefit of research in Mind-Body Medicine and Energy Psychology, as well as Quantum Physics, documenting age-old wisdom and providing important information to help speed us along on this exciting adventure of discovery.

 The beginning of the journey to your authentic self necessarily includes a working knowledge of the mind, as it is the vehicle that transports us for a portion of our journey. Our mind is not only an operating system; it is also where many of our obstacles lie. To understand the mind’s structure and have a working knowledge of its functions can help smooth our way as we seek to create change in our lives.

 In session two we will be discussing the three levels of mind and how to use each of them appropriately. If we are to bring our best selves to light, then it is necessary to have the knowledge, skills and ability to manage our basic operating systems so they work for us rather than be left to default patterns that can upset our best efforts at creating a life we love to live.

 Excerpt from Chapter 2, 12 Keys for Life and Self Mastery

Awakening is a process, a journey with a road that  reaches behind and before us.

Awakening allows for: eyes that open wider, ears that hear more clearly, a mind that broadens and expands to include more and exclude less, and a heart that both widens and opens.

 Awakening is an imperfect course, one with jagged edges that can pierce the smoothness of our contentment and explode the inner space of our reality.

 Awakening requires courage, perseverance, commitment and practice:

Courage to face the day, to see how far we’ve come AND how far we have yet to go

Perseverance to show up, shift and move forward while honoring the missteps

Patience to ride the currents—the updrafts and the troughs

Commitment to practice even in the stuck times

 Awakening is allowing our humanness to be touched our spirit and be shaped by it. It is then that resistance can fall away and we can open into the ease of soul, and let it lead the way.