Many blessings to you on this beautiful day. I hope you are well, and I hope that you thrive today, whatever that means to you.
I’ve had an interesting experience with the energy in my body these past few weeks. For about three weeks off and on I had a stomach ache. I assume that it had to do with something I was eating, and so I eliminated a number of things from my diet to see if that might help, and it didn’t. Finally one day last week I suddenly realized that the natural energy in my body was stuck in my belly (second and third chakra). Once I became aware of that I was able to allow the energy to move out of my belly and up through my body. Immediately the belly ache went away and it hasn’t been back since.
In the days that followed I became extremely tired and sleepy. It seemed that I was getting enough sleep, but I just didn’t feel rested. It was difficult to find the energy to do the things I needed to do. I assumed that my sleep was being disturbed in the night somehow, and I did some things to try to address the disturbance, whatever it was, but it didn’t help. Then a couple days ago I realized that my energy, after having moved past the stuck place in my belly, had become stuck in my forehead (sixth chakra). Once I realized this then I was able to allow the energy to move through my six chakra and up into and out of the crown of my head, and it felt wonderful. Yesterday I felt marvelously happy, and light, and full of energy. And nothing had changed except the movement of my energy.
I told somebody this and she asked me how to move energy in one’s body like that. I’ll tell you what I told her in case you’re interested….
People use all kinds of techniques in order to move energy. They visualize various colors that correspond with the chakras; they imagine spirals of light moving through and breaking up blocks in their bodies; they use bells that emit certain tones that are supposed to do move energy, and stuff like that. I’ve experimented with these things, and I think there’s some merit to these techniques, but I can’t say I’ve benefited all that much. The way to learn how to move energy, at least for me and in my experience, is to pay attention during meditation.
I experience the energy in my body through the sensation it causes. Being present with and in the body, and having the attention in the body, especially during sitting meditation, over time we can gradually become more and more aware of the subtle movements of sensation, of energy, in the body. I’ve been paying attention in this way for many years now, and I’ve come to recognize the natural flow of energy through my body, and what that feels like. I’ve also come to the ability to perceive, at least sometimes, when energy has become blocked (though sometimes it takes a while to see what’s going on). My experience is as the ancient yogis discovered, that the energy in the body naturally moves upwards through the front of the body and through the top of the head. When the energy moves cleanly through the body in this way, this is what we call ‘happiness’. When the energy is blocked somewhere in the body, this is when we experience things such as frustration, loneliness, anxiety, anger, depression, self-doubt, and so on, depending upon where the energy is stuck. In our practice we tend to talk about the process/psychological ways of removing these blocks and allowing the energy to move naturally once again, but there is another way. The other way is to work with the energy directly in the body.
Unfortunately I can’t really tell you how to do that. It’s the sort of thing that one has to discover for oneself. I will say, though, that for me it’s kind of like there is a series of valves in the body that can be open or shut. When one of these valves is closed for some reason–because of some conditioned story that’s running, typically, some kind of belief, or some kind of conditioned assumption about the way things are–the energy gets stuck. The way to open these valves is breathe into them, to create space around them, to remove the reason the contraction is happening (in relationship to a thought pattern or a belief) and let them open. In order for this to be possible we have to get out of our heads, out of our conditioned thinking, and simply be present with the sensation of the energy where it is stuck. It’s also necessary to avoid doing whatever coping behavior one habitually uses to deal with the discomfort of the block. We must be simply present with the state of energy in the body, in other words; we have to accept it, allow it to be, and open up the possibility that it can move in natural ways again. Unfortunately, that’s all I can really say. In order to acquire the skill of moving energy, which I only partially have acquired, myself, a person has to sit with their body in stillness, without distraction, and feel what’s there over time, and learn how to let the energy move.
There’s something to consider if you’re interested. I highly recommend the practice. The next time you sit, see if you can settle into your body, and bring awareness to your body and the subtle movements of sensation/energy in your body, as I’ve described. If you’re like me you’ll find this to be fascinating, and wonderfully helpful in very practical ways. We all want to be happy on this earth, don’t we? True happiness begins with the movement of energy in the body.
In peace,
David