“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration”
The same life force that created the universe and everything in it flows through our bodies.
Yogis refer to it as prana; the Chinese term is chi. This vital and abundant life-giving energy is the building block of all life.
Accessing this energy can reboot your system with truly transformational results. Life-force energy runs along our meridians and chakras, which are located in our fascial system. When we create flow and juiciness in our fascia, we open up our energy channels to allow the unobstructed movement of this subtle yet powerful healing force.
Responsible for regulating all of the body’s physical functions, life-force energy can positively impact your thoughts, emotions and consciousness. When your life force is flowing, your energy will expand, and you’ll start to feel more aligned and energized.
There are practices and habits that can enhance or deplete our energy. This month we’ll look at 5 ways you can increase the quantity and distribution of your life force energy and therefore create the ability for healing, wholeness and longevity.
- Nature
- Movement
- Emotional hygiene
- Food
- Unplug
Forest bathing originated in Japan in the 1980’s as a direct response to a spike in stress-related and auto-immune diseases brought on by Japan’s technology boom.
Shinrin-yoku is a guided outdoor healing practice based on age-old Shinto and Buddhist practices that mindfully allow nature into the body through our senses with profound healing benefits.
Trees let off chemicals called phytoncides containing antibacterial and antifungal qualities to fight off disease. Breathing in these chemicals triggers an immune response in the body, increasing white blood cells known as NK or natural killer cells that target tumour and virus-infected cells.
Connecting with nature has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce stress and anxiety, lift mood, enhance sleep quality, lessen inflammation and accelerate recovery from illnesses and trauma.
You don’t need to pay for a structured or guided meditative excursion to experience the benefits of nature. Just spending 10-20 minutes a day being fully present and mindfully engaging with your natural surroundings will allow you to reap the incredible benefits of forest therapy.
These are a few things you can do when you wake up to be energized by nature::
- Go outside within the first hour of waking and take in the morning light. This will set your circadian clock by synchronizing your body clock with a 24-hour day. When the morning light streams into your eyes, the brain stops making melatonin and starts to produce cortisol, which is important for waking up, brain function and metabolism. This also allows for a good night’s sleep by instructing the body to produce melatonin roughly 14 hours later.
- If you can, stand barefoot on the earth for a few minutes every day. We are bioelectrical beings carrying a slight positive charge. Positive ions can build up in the body with harmful effects, including higher inflammation levels, chronic pain and allergies, to name a few.
Because the earth carries a negative charge, a physical connection with the earth discharges excess positive ions, which can initiate healing at a cellular level. Barefoot walking can reduce inflammation, pain and stress. This simple practice improves sleep, reduces white blood cells, increases red blood cells and helps increase antioxidants. A few minutes every day will improve blood flow and energy.
If you live in an apartment or the city, I recommend purchasing an earthing mat that stimulates the effects of connecting to the earth
2. We are made to move
Every experience we ever have is recorded by our fascia. If unable to process a trauma or situation, we may consciously forget about it, but the body remembers and will store that memory in our tissues and subconscious.
Physical blockages and scar tissue not receiving oxygenated blood start to form a thickness or density. I have noticed from working with my clients that unprocessed negative emotions, trauma and toxicity get stuck in these areas and will block the flow of life force energy. Resulting in feeling tired, heavy and compressed. Posture will start to misalign, and the body may begin to stoop forward. This is a sure sign of dwindling life-force energy resulting in rapid aging.
The nervous system lies within the fascia. Long-term stress and trauma can disrupt the nervous system by activating a constant fight-or-flight response. When we move the body slowly with intent, we help to unblock emotions stuck deep in the tissues. Mindful movement helps to regulate and calm the nervous system by supporting it to get out of fight-or-flight mode.
If the body feels safe and relaxed, it can start to release these blockages, and energy will flow. Movement, inversions and fascia flow exercises move energy through the body, preventing knots and adhesions.
I have witnessed the reversal of aging symptoms in my clients when mindful movements are practiced on a regular basis.
Through the mindful practices inside the Aligned Life Studio, I am able to help my students to really tune into and become more aware of how they are feeling. Listening to the body’s sensations and whispers will help clear the body of pain and develop intuition.
In the 1960’s Ida Rolf, a biochemist and the creator of Structural Integration or "Rolfing", discovered fascia and recognized the major role it plays in our health, posture and movement.
It is clear that motion and stability are dependent on gravity. Ida Ralf believed that correctly orientating the body to gravity enables the body to take energy from gravity. This is done by realigning and balancing the body through the fascial system resulting in restored flexibility and enhanced postural efficiency.
If your posture and joints are aligned correctly, you will have freedom of movement, feel more comfortable in your body and breathe more deeply. This creates more flow in the tissues, revitalizes your energy and allows it to circulate more efficiently.
Instead of feeling anxious and focusing on stress, you will have more energy for healing, creativity, connection, innovation and curiosity.
Try this fascia flow exercise for more energy.
3. Keep your mind clean
Practicing good hygiene includes cleansing your emotions and becoming aware of your thoughts and feelings.
“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
- Buddha -
If you could release all of your anger, judgment and blame, where would you direct your energy? Imagine what you could accomplish?
Toxic thoughts and emotions keep you stuck in a loop and take your focus away from all the amazing things that, as a human, you have the capacity to do and experience.
Emotional and mental hygiene is about self-reflection and recognizing your inner critic. Be mindful of your stresses, emotions and negative thoughts. Harmful thoughts can hold us back and break us down, preventing us from achieving our goals and living our best lives.
If you constantly think and talk about your trauma, you are essentially re-traumatizing yourself, and the memories will root themselves into your cells and fascia. When negative emotional energy is released through movement, life force energy can grow and flow.
We have been conditioned to ignore the body’s subtle sensations and whispers.
I encourage my clients to tune in to their bodies and get a sense of how their muscles feel in any given movement.
Slow, mindful movements facilitate somatic release. You don’t have to know where a feeling comes from or identify a sensation to purge emotions and clear stored trauma. Emotions (or energy in motion) can come out in a laugh, tear, cough, quiver, pulsing movement, vibrational moan and breath.
These are a few things that may help keep your thoughts and emotions in check:
- Meditation
- Being mindful and in the present moment
- Connecting with friends and loved ones
- Laughing
- Spending time in nature
- Getting enough sleep
- Journaling
- Any creative activity that makes you feel good will help positively focus the mind and calm the brain and body
4. Boost your frequency with high vibration foods
Food contains energy and holds a certain vibration. What you eat can either energize and nourish your body, raising your frequency or causing inflammation and reducing your vibration and vitality.
Take a fresh blueberry just off a tree, packed with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and bursting with life force energy. The sooner you eat it after picking it, the more energetic nutrition you consume.
Now consider a Twinkie. Engineered in a laboratory to look like a cream sponge cake with an aberrantly long shelf-life. Overly processed, full of chemicals, basically zero life-force energy. I would not even consider it food.
Low-vibrational foods are nutrient-poor, refined, full of sugar, preservatives and additives. The more processed a food, the lower its vibrational charge. They cause inflammation, drain and make your energy dense, leaving you feeling heavy and tired.
Choosing to nourish your body with fresh whole foods that are closest to their natural state will increase your vitality. High-vibration foods carry the life-force energy of the earth and sun. Look for plant-based, fresh, local, seasonal and organic or spray-free if possible.
Stay away from frozen, packaged, GMO ingredients, refined sugar, artificial sweeteners, seed oils, ingredients that you can’t understand and excessive amounts of dairy, meat and caffeine
5. Unplug to recharge
Your biofield is a highly sensitive energy field that surrounds and sends information to your body on how to function properly. Electromagnetic fields are areas of energy that surround electronic devices.
Exposure to electronic devices causes these electromagnetic frequencies or EMFs to intertwine with our natural frequencies and disrupt cellular communication, hindering the natural rhythms of the body. This drains our life force energy and leads to fatigue. Screens emit a blue light that can suppress melatonin production and disrupt sleep patterns.
Unplugging from technology for a set amount of time each day, especially at night can radically improve sleep and reduce stress and anxiety.
If you take a walk, leave your phone at home. Use the time to unplug, focus inwards and be fully present in your body. This will restore your energy.
If you want to slow down the aging process, feel energized and become energetically empowered, ask yourself: Will this activity, habit or thought increase or decrease my life force energy?
We are so much more than what we perceive ourselves to be. We are, and everything around us is energy. Start to take an energetic view of yourself.
Our energy is influenced by everything we ingest. This includes our thoughts, the people we associate with, our relationship with ourselves, the lifestyle we chose to lead and the way we metabolize stress.
Health and longevity are not only about the foods you eat, how often you work out and how many calories you burn. Yes, we are made up of matter, but we are also vibrational beings capable of accessing the same life force that created the universe.
For more energy workouts and top tips, check out the Energy Reboot month for August inside the Aligned Life Studio - try your 7 day FREE trial today.