Honestly, I don’t dwell much anymore on the challenging, unpleasant parts of my life.
I’ve learned to shift my attention to what helps me smile. Thrive. Shine.
It’s
like all the studies say: when you feel a bit down, the best medicine is to imagine the face of a loved one. That simple shift uplifts your heart, gets your whole physiology moving in a different direction, and changes your energy.
I resisted this simple practice for a long time. I felt like I was really alive only when I was worrying about the state of the world (yeah, I’m
an idealist) or suffering. Family-of-origin attitudes have a big impact on us all; I pretty much inherited these perceptions.
So what happened? How did I throw over habits, stories, attitudes, and a lifetime of carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders? How did I transform?
There
wasn’t a single event. There was a perfect storm of stress and grief. I was desperate. I was afraid I’d drown if I didn’t do something. When my life was threatening to overwhelm me, it was energy practices that helped me survive.
But let’s back up.
First, I was
blessed with some amazing teachers: the Q’ero and Quechua-speaking people I met in the Andes who live in joy and reciprocity…Américo Yábar, a “master of moving energy” who first taught me how to connect with the cosmos and with everything alive… Sandra Ingerman, who taught me transfiguration and healing with light…my shamanic allies and guides who walk with me every step of the way...and a qi gong practice that gave me another way of integrating qi, movement, and
visualization.
For half my life I’ve been playing with energy and exploring mystical worlds. This is what made me happy. Yet my life—like yours probably—was compartmentalized. Work, mothering, hiking, and gardening were separate from shamanic journeying, meditation, and ceremony. My ecstatic travel adventures
faded quickly in the face of laundry at home.
Saved My Life
As I mentioned, it was energy practices that helped me survive.
Living in grief because nothing I did could help my struggling
daughter, I learned to release the heaviness from my heart and fill with fresh air and starlight so I could get through another day.
When my parents’ anger and despair threatened to drown me, I shifted my attention to the beauty of nature.
Slowly, I learned to let go of the grief, loss, and despair that
weighed me down.
Gradually, I developed greater skill and fluidity in managing my energy and maintaining equanimity.
My meditation, movement, shamanic, and energy practices began to weave together. The disparate parts of my life became more
integrated.
I was able to step aside from egoic, personal concerns, and fill instead with cosmic energy. I learned to embody the boundless energy that surrounds us.
How Energy Awareness Helps You Transform
Developing your energy awareness is a potent way to move through
the world with more grace and less reactivity.
Energy-shifting practices help you expand your sense of interconnection. In turn, this enables you to perceive from your experience rather than from your old mental constructs and thought patterns (“I’m not good enough,” “no one loves me,” “I’ll get in trouble if I say what I think” and so on.
)
Grounded in sensation, energy-shifting practices take you into your somatic (embodied) experience, where you learn perceptually. Your body changes your mind!
I teach Energy Alchemy because I love it. It works. It’s easy. It’s for you if:
- You are ready to let go of old patterns and stories that weigh you down.
- You want greater fluidity and skill in managing your energy.
- You yearn to restore your joy, vitality, and inner peace.
Join us October 22-23 in beautiful Sonoma for the next Energy Alchemy Workshop.
