This is a topic that is the nearest and dearest to my heart. This is my livelihood. I work with it every day. I have seen and felt the effects of energy imbalanced and energy in balance in thousands of people. I am always so honored and humbled to work with people in this way. The more I build my own chi through energy medicine, the greater the effects my clients have.
So what is energy?
It's everything.
That's all anything is.
It's information, it's a frequency, it's a vibration.
It's a scientific fact that all things are made up of atoms and that an atom is 99.99999% energy and .00001% physical substance. So why focus on the less than 1% when working with the 99+% is way more effective?
You're more nothing than something, so moving into a state where you go beyond yourself, back into nothingness, is just what the doctor should order.
Let's explore.
You can't see gravity, only the effects, as in a ball falling off of a roof.
You can't see the wind, only the effects, as in leaves blowing through mid air.
You can't see hate, only the effects, as in war and division.
You can't see love, only the effects, as in people coming together in unity and in peace.
You can't see energy, but you can see the effects of energy. And just like gravity, wind, hate and love, the effects are measurable.
Without even measuring, you know how to do this already. You can feel the energy of the room when you walk into it. You can sense if someone's home is cozy and inviting or sterile and stiff.
You can feel the "vibe" of neglect and that of loving attention.
You can feel the energy that fresh food gives you versus some food-like substance. You can feel how your body takes in the energy of a salad and homemade soup versus microwave popcorn and soda.
Do they give you energy, building your vitality? Or do they take energy to process, weighing and slowing you down?
You can feel how your body feels stiff, achy, and a bit lethargic when you sit all day in your house or office. And you can feel how energized your body is when you go for a walk outside in fresh air, when you move more and breathe more deeply.
You can feel the energy of nature, expansive and vast.
You can feel the energy of city traffic, congested and tight.
How does your body feel when your thoughts are rigid and on repeat?
How does your body feel when you learn something new and your thoughts are flexible?
For people, their energy comes through on their face and in their body language, how they hold and move themselves through space.
As within, so without.
I am blessed to see the effects of changed energy every day at my work. It's my job. My job is to help facilitate a safe space so people can take a moment to change their energy.
I promise you, people are at their absolute best 100% of the time when they get beyond themselves, when they get beyond the .00001% and move into the 99.9999%.
People feel better when they stop telling their story, when they take a break from their thoughts and feelings that keep them tied to the identity they've created, when they just stop the hamster wheel of the habits of their thinking, doing and being and say yes to having a new and different experience, one that builds their energy more than takes away from it.
When you slow down your brain waves in a safe and loving space, your brain and heart come into coherence or resonance and everything begins to communicate more optimally, more orderly; the cells, tissues, organs and systems begin to give and receive a more clear and more efficient signal.
For those moments that you're in meditation or on the table, you are so immersed in love and safety that you're free to let go and begin to merge with your energetic self that's less something and more nothing. Your pain begins to go away, you become free from your ailments, free from your problems, free from the you that has that pain, ailment and problem.
9/10 times, people tell me "Wow, I went somewhere else." But their body stayed in a 200 square foot cinder block room on a table. They did go somewhere though - they went beyond themselves - they went into nothingness. Their energy became less dense. Their electromagnetic field got bigger. Their signal became clearer. They let the hard lines of their body blur and they merged into a field of coherent energy and, 100% of the time, when they let themselves go home to that place, they get up feeling completely different than when they came in.
The energy that was stuck in their body becomes liberated and now they have energy to use to replenish themselves.
This is energy medicine and it's readily available.
This is not an altered state. This is a natural state. This is your birthright and your response-ability, your body's ability to respond when given a chance to move into a new state.
So, why does a session only last for a day or two?
Because if you don't re-visit that state over and over and over again, those synaptic connections that were made in the brain from that new experience will prune (you don't use it, you lose it) and the old program (you with the problems) will take back over. You will soon think old, familiar thoughts that will stimulate the same old, familiar feelings, the hamster wheel will resume and your energy will follow... and so will your posture, facial expressions, and symptoms of imbalanced energy.
But while you're on the table, and you're prompted to breathe life into your body, to sense and breathe into the sensation of my hands, to breathe into your heart, to think of someone or something that brings you great joy and to let that feeling flood your body.. you take a break and you fire new and different circuits in your brain which creates a new experience in your body.
And then when I prompt you to breathe in a loving and appreciative thought into your heart about yourself, your body, your life and all that it does for you, you're using your own energy from a coherent heart and brain, to further build your own chi, your own vitality - this is your pharmacy.
This is energy you can use to change into someone who no longer needs their problems or dis-ease. You feel free. Now you can move from surviving to thriving, from consuming to contributing, from victim to creator.
This is energy medicine. And it's abundant. And it's available at any moment you choose to move into a different state. And the more often you move into a different state, the stronger the connection you make in your brain, the more familiar it becomes and the effects will show themselves in your body and in your life. When you change, everything changes.
Chemical medicine suppresses symptoms so you can stay the same person. You can keep your status quo identity without having to take responsibility for your energy (thoughts, feelings, behaviors). But that suppression, if used long term, is going to come out sideways somewhere else down the line.
I give people the example of holding an inflated beach ball under water - you can hold it under for awhile but it takes an incredible amount of energy to hold it under, energy that could be used for replenishment and restoration, for building your battery bank instead of depleting it. Besides that, eventually that ball, that you're working so hard to keep under the surface, is eventually going to surface anyway and it's either going to hit you in the face or get thrown way off center, which will take even more energy to get back under "control."
Now don't get me wrong, suppression can be useful. It can help you take a break and get your bearings, but as a long-term solution, energy medicine is much more effective because there's no ball management, only energy management. You want control? Then manage your energy by taking time out of your day, every day, to move into a different state of being.
Chronic disease, that has nothing to do with a virus or a bacteria, is an outcome of energy that has been knocked out of balance in some way, for some time. Everything is worse when we are stressed or exhausted or going through a transition that takes more energy than "normal." Let this go on long enough, and your body will begin to send you messages that your energy is out and needs your attention.
Our bodies store energy, too. Energy is stored in our muscles - that's why exercising feels so good afterwards because we've released stored energy and now we have available energy to use to boost our immune system, regulate our nervous system, and balance our hormones.
We have energy centers in our bodies as well, you may have heard of them as chakras. Each of these centers has an associated endocrine gland. Remember how we can't see energy, but we can see the effects? When our energy is out of balance in different centers, it can come through as an imbalance in our glands - pituitary, pineal, thyroid, thymus, pancreas, adrenals, ovaries and testes. Re-balance and re-center your energy and order is re-established in these centers.
Food is also energy medicine. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, is known for saying "Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food." Where and how it was grown, the life force in that seed from the start, the available nutrients in the soil that it used for its own food to become vital - it's all available energy for us to use and build our own chi. Your food choices matter. Let them be as close to their natural state as possible so they give more energy than they take.
Homeopathy is also energy medicine. I became a homeopath because I wanted to use a medicine that would stimulate the innate healing response within me rather than suppress it. Like an itch you can't scratch, homeopathy has been so vital for building my chi, helping me to be more resilient and responsive with less physical symptoms. I've seen my kids transform and my clients too, when we find the right match.
There are many things that build and balance your energy. Here are just a few:
Yoga, breathwork, tai chi, qi gong, meditation.
Fresh air, fresh water, sunshine, nature, animals, plants.
Chiropractic, massage, cupping, acupressure, acupuncture.
Purpose, stimulating relationships, work you love, contribution.
Inspiration, knowledge, creative pursuits where you lose track of time.
When we're having a symptom of dis-ease, we don't want to suppress that symptom, we want to listen to it and respond to its messages. Dare I say we want to embrace those messages, be with them and be grateful for them. Those messages are our bodies way of communicating and letting us know that our energy is out. Your body is your friend and teammate.
When we change our energy, our bodies respond.
If you do all of the things you "should" do, but you do them while still having a feeling of angst or bitterness or victimhood or some other emotion of survival, then you're still living by the emotions of stress and you're still draining your energy and you still haven't changed your energy. You could do nothing and simply move into a state of gratitude and love and that would do more good than checking all of the boxes and going through the motions.
So that's why we meditate, why we practice self-care, why we get bodywork, why we play and have fun, why we move our bodies, why we spend time in nature, why we learn new things, why we engage with inspiring people, why we adventure, why we evolve, why we invest our time and our energy in taking care to manage our inputs and outputs.
That's why we take time to become conscious of our unconscious thoughts, beliefs and emotions. That's why we focus on our hearts and elevated feelings of the heart. That's why we find ways to move into the nothing that we are - pure consciousness, pure love.
Not because something's wrong with us, not because we're not good enough in some way, but because these are the ways in which we access our internal pharmacy, our own medicine kits, and unleash stuck energy that we can use to remember who/what we really are. This is how we recharge our batteries.
It's not self-ish, it's self responsible and the only true way we can give to others.
When we see terrible things happening like war, division and turmoil, separation and aggression, we should ask ourselves:
Where am I at war with myself, where am I divided, separate and aggressive towards myself?
How am I contributing to this worldly state through my own thoughts, beliefs and feelings?
How can I manage my energy to be more peaceful, loving and inclusive?
In what ways am I currently replenishing and restoring my energy?
What would happen if I did something every day to replenish my energy?
How might changing my inner world change my outer world?
The great philosopher Hermes said it so well, "As within, so without. As above, so below."
The ripple effect is incredible when you begin to build your internal pharmacy through energy medicine. When you change your energy, everything changes.