Living Energy Blog

Photo by Sonia's View

Since our energy system is what underlies our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual selves it makes sense that the shape it is in will profoundly affect all areas of our lives. It is our primary immune system, as well as the vehicle for manifestation and interaction with our external world.

Empaths, because of the porous nature of their fields are more vulnerable to influences that will impede the free flow of energy create blocks, or interfere with the coherence of energy.

In order to effectively be able to strengthen and manage our energy in positive and healthy ways we need to first be in touch with it. Whether we are talking about healthy boundaries, letting go of old patterns and wounds, or interfacing with the world and others, to be in touch with our energy requires some degree of being embodied in order to really affect and shift our energy…and herein lies the issue!

We are conditioned from early on to live more from our heads than from deeper within ourselves. In addition to that conditioning is the natural tendency to exit our vehicle as a way of protection, or a means of coping with stress. Once we decide we want to now become embodied and cope in more positive ways, we can find it difficult as we come into contact with feeling more completely in general, as well as coming face to face with all that we have tucked away inside. We are fortunate to live in a time when we know so much more than in the past about healing energetically and letting go of painful material. We now have tools and techniques that can help us release much more easily and completely than we may have imagined.

One of the first skills we can learn to help us regain our strength and be more effective with releasing old patterns and to feel more stable, safe and healthy is centering and grounding. Check out our podcast section as well as the audio section on the Resources page of the website for recordings that help you begin to become embodied, centered and grounded. In addition you may want to check out our recording Transcending Obstacles includes a complete Meridian Tapping technique that can be used for emotion/energetic release. You can access the download on our store here: http://bit.ly/161bVQm

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Our energy field is our primary interface with the world. If we are to be strong, healthy and effective, our energy needs to be optimal, free flowing and coherent (simply put–free of negative influences). Dealing with our internal issues, old wounds and mistaken beliefs unblocks our energy and creates a coherent free flow.

There are of course many things we can do to positively impact our health, happiness and creativity. One very simple tool that often gets overlooked is to find ways to experience gratitude more often. I find it helps to make it a game–to see how many htings I can find in a day to be grateful or appreciative for. At the end of the day recording those things in a “gratitude journal” keeps me focused but also provides a resource for when I may be struggling with finding things to be happy about!

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Photo by Sonia's View

Gratitude and the Power of Attraction

Experiencing and expressing gratitude enhances the power of attraction.

To become a strong attractor, we need to build, strengthen, clear and bring coherence to our energy field and consciousness. Gratitude helps by bringing coherence to our energy and consciousness and thereby increases the effectiveness of our capacity to magnetize what we desire.

We hear this same message regarding gratitude from many sectors: the spiritual, psychological, medical and scientific. Gratitude has been shown to be a powerful emotion that generates positive outcomes in health, well-being, and prayer as well as in the creation of reality.

The Heart-Mind Connection

Akin to gratitude is appreciation, the word often used in the HeartMath materials to speak about the feeling that generates positive shifts in physiology. To paraphrase their definition, appreciation is an active emotional state characterized by a perception and recognition of something for which you feel grateful. Appreciation, gratitude and unconditional love are the emotional states that have been shown to produce coherence within our energy fields. (Coherence is defined as that state where two or more systems are in sync, thereby operating more smoothly and effectively.)

In research studies when subjects produce high rates of coherence in the heart, they also exhibit increased heart-brain synchronization, increased immunity, improved physiological function, decreased stress, and better emotional management.

Individuals capable of sustaining high levels of coherence by holding feelings of love, gratitude and appreciation through intention showed profound changes in their DNA. High states of coherence produced an unwinding and lengthening of DNA strands, while fear, anxiety, frustration and stress caused DNA to tighten, become shorter and switch off many of its codes.

Members in a control group who could not produce high levels of coherence showed no changes in their DNA.

The bottom line is that our habitual states of mind affect our lives on many levels and the heart is a key player in regulating these effects.

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Inside the Caves by Sonia's View

Many years ago I was asked why I was choosing to turn from traditional healing and psychotherapy and work with mind-body-energy theory and techniques in my practice. My training both as a nurse and as a psychotherapist had been grounded in the traditional approaches and had served me well…as far as they went. However, since my early days as a Lamaze instructor I had developed a passion for Mind-Body Medicine and Energy Healing/Psychology. A personal interest in Yoga led me to study the chakra system and how it related to our views in life, health and the life  challenges we face. This was long before any of this was fashionable or well researched in the western world the way it is now. What became apparent to me through my own personal experience, as well as that with clients, was that change, ease, fulfillment, true prosperity, love, peace and spiritual growth needed to be brought out of the conceptual closet! By that I mean that we can have all sorts of theories and ideas about life, our issues, and the goals we want to achieve, but unless we have a method to learn, grow, heal, and change from our deepest inner level we will only be struggling, forcing and managing ourselves rather than truly living freely from our own best selves.

What I found in Mind-Body Medicine and Energy Healing (from many sources) was the means to heal from the inside out with relative ease. I also found a way to understand ourselves and engage in spiritual growth and higher human potential that cut through the incessant dialogue  that tends to describe, catalogue, organize, and package our life experience and their subsequent issues so that we can intellectually force ourselves into new boxes and unfortunately often just run in circles. That is not to say that I do not continue to do some of those things at times! The difference is that I am aware that there is a better more efficient way and when I am ready to stop turning in circles I can use them–or better yet, I can even use them to stop myself from turning in circles.

What I found in working with clients was that the methods I am referring to helped them move through their blocks more quickly and easily while building strength and developing a tool kit they could take with them to use on their remaining journey through life. Self empowerment!

The reason I am now writing this is that it has recently cropped up again—this issue of how we heal, learn and grow. I was reading some excellent material by Brene Brown on shame, vulnerability and courage…BTW, her new book is Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Anyway, it occurred to me once more that the chakra system is so central to providing the infrastructure for us to heal and grow through.

To illustrate my point–everything Dr. Brown writes about is wonderful and so helpful. However if we simply try to integrate new ideas and concepts into our mind without going to where we live from deep within, it is easy to become frustrated and feel we have failed. In order to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and live authentically as she so rightly suggests we do–we need a strong inner foundation to stand on so we can be courageous. To say this in energetic terms…if our root chakras is leaking energy, unbalanced, holding old consciousness, fueling a deep sense of powerlessness and lack of ability to nurture self, then we are going to have one enormous uphill battle trying to have the courage to be vulnerable and live authentically–we will also lack the appropriate strength to protect ourselves, have the vitality to maintain a new approach or be able to energize a sense of deserving/healthy entitlement and positive self regard  needed to effect these kinds of changes in our lives.

Weak or unbalanced root chakra energy gives rise to fear, insecurity and anxiety. In my experience, intellectual understanding and willpower are no match for the inner shaking of our foundation upon which all else depends. And so it is with other chakras as well. E.G.  understanding that you deserve to be treated well typically does not by itself bring about the healthy creation of relationships without a lot of struggle and angst. Likewise, wanting prosperity and creating it can be a force of will that does not result in the kind of life you really are seeking without the inner work to support a healthy and fulfilling outcome. Coupling inner work with awareness, understanding and intellect is a much more efficient, effective and enjoyable way to heal, grow and change!

Letting go of habitual thoughts, feelings and perceptions and practicing present moment awareness helps to release old patterns, and opens the door to the energy of our authentic nature.

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Living Energy From the Inside Out: Your Authentic Self

 “If you don’t hear the whispers you have to listen to the screams!”  Denise Linn

What whispers to your heart? When you listen deeply what do you hear?

Do you listen deeply? Do you pay attention to your inner life, your longings, desires and dissatisfactions or do you careen through life running to catch up or perhaps running to outdistance the voices that keep threatening to burst through your busy mind and life…through the carefully or not so carefully constructed guise that you believe is you?

The concept of an essential, true, or authentic self is a relatively simple one. The authentic self is our fundamental spiritual nature: wonderfully vibrant, alive, and capable of great joy, bliss and unconditional love. While the idea may be simple, the ability to live from this core self may not be easy! Our ego self, our more human nature, exerts a strong influence on our personal expression.

Many spiritual teachers in recent years have stated that we are learning to spiritualize our human selves. Through this process we may eventually bring forth the best parts of ourselves to create a better world individually as well as collectively.  Before we arrive here however we are challenged to seek out and release the ego’s negative (albeit protective mechanisms) and ‘ways of being’. In spite of what our lower mind may tell us   those means are not truly effective in the realization of our most beneficial goals.

The way to realize our most cherished goals including (especially) inner peace and freedom from stress is to bring our authentic self online and learn to live from there.

Next time: How to Tell the Difference Between the Voice of the Ego and the Authentic Self

There are many different perspectives on personal power…in this blog we have been talking about it in the sense of having a some semblance of balance between our spiritual and human nature and being able to navigate them with some grace…always becoming and perhaps never truly arriving!

Here are some questions that can help you assess where you are re: this issue–I find them helpful reminders to keep my on the path as well.

Personal power comes from knowing oneself. An important part of that is understanding hotspots–or reactivity. Where does yours occur? Do you know what it is about beyond that current circumstances? When did you first feel such feelings in your life?

What are some ways that you use to shift out of/deal with such reactivity? What is it that needs to happen inside for this reactivity to disappear?

Do you know how to soothe yourself once you are upset? What are the ways that you use to do this?

Do you know how to comfort yourself?

How well are you able to deal with fear, worry, and turmoil?

Do you recognize the clues that a negative belief is running you/some part of your life?

Our personal energy system is directly connected to the personal power we have in this life. As we clear and balance our energy systems, we are better able to connect with our I AM consciousness…the place our best wisdom comes from and our ability to  shape our lives strengthens, our spiritual connection expands, and we begin to not only live differently but from a different place within.

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