Introduction to Energy

Understanding energy is an aspect of spirituality that can be immensely powerful for emotional (and physical) healing and transformation but is often overlooked in fields like psychology. Energies in spiritual circles are similar to the idea of energy found in physical sciences but applied to all of life in a way that is not widely accepted yet.

Though energy healing and the related concepts of transmutation and alchemy may not be as well defined and quantified as other forms of wellness, they are massively important for spiritual growth and wellbeing. Since these dynamics can play such an important role in healing and growth, I want to take some time to introduce them for anyone who is new to these types of subjects.

Energy as it applies to wellness and spirituality stems from the notion that if you break objects down far enough, they all become vibrating atoms. The vibrational movement that is inherent in the chemical components of all physical (and non-physical) matter is a force of energy. This energy is spread throughout the entire universe and is an invisible underlying force through which life is expressed. If you are sensitive enough and allow yourself to feel into things without shielding or shutting down you can bring yourself to become aware of a constant buzzing sensation. This buzzing is the energy flowing through your body.

In order to feel at our best the energy that naturally flows through us needs to be able to flow effortlessly, the movement of energy creates vibrancy and wellbeing. When energy gets stuck or stagnant within some part of us we will often experience symptoms of unwellness. The nature of these symptoms will depend on type and placement of the blockage but it can include things like pain, anxiety, grief, despair, recurring thoughts and nightmares, and physical ailments. Often people will describe energy symptoms in terms of physical or emotional difficulties. This is partially because there is not enough awareness of energy and energy symptoms in our society for most people to realize that they exist or recognize them. It is also because over time energy symptoms can take the form of true physical and emotional ailments.

One way to understand this dynamic better is to think of yourself as more than just your physical body. You can think of who you are as a layered being. There is the physical body which we all know is the tangible form of us that interacts with the material world, then beneath and around that there is an emotional body where we experience our emotional responses. I know that it in physical science this is often thought to exist primarily in the brain but for the sake of understanding these principles it can be helpful to imagine it as a layer or aura that envelops and surrounds the physical body. If you use this concept then it will be easier to relate certain aspects of emotional pain that you feel round parts of the physical body—for example grief and heartbreak are emotions that are often felt near the chest and sometimes the throat. Anxiety can often be experienced in the gut or stomach and anger can light up the head.

The energy body, like the emotional body, can be thought of as kind of layer or aura. It surrounds and envelops both the physical body and the emotional body and is continually buzzing with the movement of energy. It is often more subtle than the emotional body in the same way that the emotional body is more subtle than the physical body and yet it flows in and through that body so that you can experience the shifts of energy in your emotions just as you can experience emotions through your physical body.

If you want to know more about the specifics of the energy body and energy healing I would suggest starting with learning about the chakra system. You could also explore traditional forms of energy healing like reiki, yoga, tai chi, and acupressure. I am not an energy healer and this is just an introduction to the concept of energy and energy healing dynamics, so I am not going to go in depth about energy systems at this point.

What I want to introduce is the idea that an energy body and system does exist within us but because it is subtle and Western medicine does not treat its existence as valid it is a component of health that is often overlooked and yet it is one of the most powerful modalities for creating whole and healthy life. There are many times when symptoms that appear physical or emotional are actually rooted to energy stagnation and blockages. Physical and emotional pain can sometimes create these blockages in energy, but often these blockages are responsible for perpetuating ongoing distress symptoms.

This topic could go on for a while but for now what I would like to invite you to do is sit with the idea and see if you can open up to the feeling of energy that runs through you. Sitting still in a quiet place and focusing on feeling can help with this. After sometime you might notice a slight buzzing flowing through part or all of your body. Take a few moments to notice the feeling and see if you can follow its flow through you. How would you describe the sensation? Are there any places that it seems more prominent? Any areas where it is harder to observe? You can also notice how your physical body feels in response to that slight vibration. Do you notice stiffness or tension anywhere? What parts of your body feel most tense? These tense areas are usually indicators of where energy is being blocked. You can work with them by imagining that flowing vibration gently moving through them. Focus on the feeling of energy moving through the tension and feel the tense spots start to dissolve into the vibration. Do you notice any changes or relief?

These are basic early stages of energy healing. As you get better at noticing and shifting your energy in this way you can start to shift your energy to create relief and healing. You can start practicing with loosening tension and with time you can learn how to shift through emotions and different types of physical ailments. Adding certain gentle movements can help with this.

In addition to learning how to shift your own energy to promote wellbeing energy dynamics can be useful for understanding how to relate to each other and the world. To understand how this works think about thermodynamics. Heat is created by atoms vibrating at a higher speed so that electrons bounce off each other creating energy. As electrons crash into each other the heat from one object is transferred to another. Changes in energy can move from object to object and person to person because we emit an energy that causes the electrons within us to crash into the electrons in the atoms of the gases, objects, and people around us. This changes the energy within and around them so that changes we make within ourselves become like ripples which spread out to change the dynamics of everything around us. This is one of the reasons that a person can have such a profound impact on the world around them even if they do not go out of their way to physically try to change it. Simply creating a higher, more vibrant energy within yourself influences the energy around you to move faster and more vibrantly. At first these changes might go unnoticed (they are subtle) but by holding higher levels of fast moving energy for longer periods of time the entire energy framework of the world around you can shift.

Now I realize that a this point I am getting much further away from the more widely accepted, measurable elements of science so those of you who prefer the more grounded, practical, quantifiable, and science-based techniques might lose interest, but this whole dynamic works interestingly in tandem with non-physical (by this I mean psychic and multidimensional) experiences as well.

I cannot explain the reason why this works the way it does (a more well versed energy healer might be able to), but from reading and listening to other people’s experiences and from my own personal experience moving through different planes of reality, it becomes clear that energy healing and shifting can be used across wide regions of space and even across time. This concept is often described with the image of energy cords which are visualized as energetic wires tied between people. These cords carry our energy to each other across physical space and time so that you can pick up the energy and feelings of people that you are emotionally close to even if you are not physically near them. I would guess that the reason this can occur and often with more potency than vibrationally changing the physical space around you is because the other dimensions are largely energy dimension made up of the same free-flowing components as the energy body. The physical body and material world by comparison move much slower and energy requires much more force and time to influence them. The non-physical dimensions however and all energy based so information can flow through them quickly and communication and transformation can occur instantaneously.

I feel like I’m getting away from myself now, so I will stop here leaving you with some tantalizing concepts to explore in more depth. Please feel free to reach out with questions or comments and let me know if you would like more information about working with the non-physical realms or energy dynamics in general.

Thank you for reading.