The Art of Energy

Clear blocks from within.

Energy medicine and energy psychology have finally bubbled up into mainstream awareness. From the healing power of yoga to Carlos Castaneda’s Tensegrity practices to the hit movie “Dr. Strange,” to the fictional yet controversial movements featured in Netflix’s “The OA,” we have culturally accepted the ancient wisdom that energy is medicine.

Author and yogi Lauren Walker agrees, She has dedicated her life’s work to the study of energy medicine (EM) as taught by healing pioneer and her mentor Donna Eden. This led to her creation of Energy Medicine Yoga (EMYoga), which takes those same concepts and those same energy systems and weaves them into a tantra-based yoga practice — a weaving together of different ideas and concepts into a holistic healing paradigm to help you become your best self.

In this monthly 24Life column The Art of Energy, Walker will share and teach about eight interconnected energy systems within the human body. These systems come from many different traditions but all work together synergistically to run the body. They guide healing, life giving and uplifting and they contain energy throughout the physical and emotional body. Our energy systems can be “thrown off,” and this keeps us from operating at our best. The challenge is that it’s harder to diagnose if you are not trained to see energy. However, life offers clues, and we intuitively know that our energies are out of whack by evaluating our health, our vitality and our life holistically. The power of energy medicine and EMYoga is that it offers simple tools to identify which systems might be off and to easily bring them into balance.

EMYoga consists of asana practices (physical postures), pranayama (breathing practices), meditation, visualization, journaling, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) tapping, nutrition, diet, body image and belief systems. The beauty of energy work is that it translates into every facet of your life. It only starts on the mat. The promise of EMYoga is this: liberating your own energy to evolve towards your best self. This requires honoring the past, the elders and the teachers and embracing the new, the unknown and the future.

The first thing to do is clear out some junk. Make some space in your energy fields first, which then leads to space in your body, your mind and in your life. And then be ready, centered and honest as the things you ask to create with the universe show up.

To kick off the new year, I’ve selected a unique Energy Medicine Yoga practice and combined it with a daily journal entry to create a 28-day challenge that is perfect to help you clear out space for change. Twenty-eight is the number of days in a lunar cycle, a visible changing event in the sky that also affects us on earth, as many studies have shown. By doing any practice every day for 28 days, you solidify it in your “habit fields,” making it a part of your energy systems.

This practice is perfect to start even if you are not feeling quite ready to tackle your New Year’s goals. The practice is simple and taps into the unconscious, which is a key to achieving your goals. It doesn’t require changing everything at once. It is a small intervention with maximum potential. With your commitment to this daily practice, you’re likely to see other areas of your life shift with you — resolutions stick more, things change more easily, you feel healthier and overall, have more energy for life.

Clear out space for change: A 28-Day Energy Medicine Challenge

STEP 1: Choose a journal

Carefully select a journal for the new year that speaks to something you want to draw into your life: a cover with wild horses, to express your desire for more freedom and passion; or a calm blue ocean, to express your desire for peace and beauty. Just make sure it’s something that resonates with your desires.

STEP 2: Capture your baseline

STEP 3: Energy Medicine practice

STEP 4: Thump and Cross (part of the Wake UP practice)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaZhtAkcrWg

DAILY PRACTICE: For the next 28 days

Energy creates energy and thumping and crossing every day for the next 28 days is an excellent kick-off to your new year, new you, new story!

Photo credit: Adobe Stock Zffoto.