GOOD ENERGY BAD ENERGY AND ENERGY VAMPIRES
OCTOBER 20, 2010. Our hearts are like a safe in the energy bank of our bodies. We each have our own personal energy field that protects us and determines how we feel, think and function and oversees this safe of our hearts. And since there is energy everywhere we have to be aware of how to keep making deposits into our bank and not just withdrawals. Everything is energy!
And there is both good energy and bad energy.
The first time I was introduced to the work of Dr. Judith Orloff something just clicked! I had never heard the term "Energy Vampire" prior to working with an energy healer. But throughout my life I remember how sometimes just talking to a particular person would drain me so severely I'd need to rest and recover while interacting with most other people had an energizing effect. Why would one person deplete me and 25 other people in the same day would fire me up and inspire me? The volume of interaction wasn't making intellectual sense. Then I began to study and learn about the Alchemy of Yoga: the energy we have as people exists on physical, emotional and spiritual levels.
Even today I have two primary energy vampires: one a person who by email, voice, person or even just thinking about them causes my breath to shorten my chest to get heavy and an immediate anxiety come over me and the other main energy vampire in my life is technology. It sucks me in and if I'm not careful can push me to the other side of energizing to draining. I have to be careful with both and this practice has helped find ways to restore my own energy and set stronger, healthier boundaries. My heart is too valuable to allow to be influenced by even a single moment of negative energy. I love myself too much to let this happen. And I hope you see your heart as this precious jewel in a beautiful safe in the bank of your body and you too learn from yoga how to set energy boundaries, recharge and make at least as many deposits as withdrawals for a happier more balanced life! Love yourself, love your day, love your life! Silvia (See below some excerpts from various articles you can find on the internet searching Energy Vampires, especially the works, writings, books by Dr Orloff are highly recommended)
"The real harm in a psychic attack is that is not a fair exchange of energy in that the vampire (predator) gets energized and the victim (host) gets depleted of their energy....
..Another way vampires operate is to always play the victim and voice complaints. You will play right into their hands when you give an optimistic response time and time again. The vampire uses this positive energy you are giving them as an energy source. The person giving the sound resourceful advice may think they are just being a good friend but if this person makes it a habit to complain they are using you as their victim and getting the energy boost leaving you not only emotionally drained but physically as well.
..Many people are not consciously aware of what they are doing but it does not render the attack any less harmless to the victim. You are actually creating an energetic opening and have made yourself vulnerable to the vampire attack once they get you to release some sort of energy by means of rage or sympathy.
..There are some key things that most vampires have in common. The vampire is unbalanced (1) emotionally, (2) physically and (3) spiritually. They have to use others to derive strength and energy from. Their system is highly deficient in all three areas. If you do not limit or discontinue contact with these energy reducers you could become imbalanced as well. You could find yourself drained of physical and emotional energy you need to thrive.
POSITIVE ENERGY BOOSTS- Dr Judith Orloff (she's the best!)
Clear your energy. Positive energy is the most powerful antidote to negativity.
"When dealing with energy vampires, your positivity, certainty, and vision have to be greater than their doubt," says Gordon.
Create a mantra that tunes out negativity, and repeat it to yourself during an attack.
Or take a cue from The Sound of Music: Remember your favorite things, particularly times of triumph or joy.
"Thinking about a great moment in your life builds a force field around you and blocks out negative energy," adds Gordon. Picturing your energy can offer protection, too. "Visualize your energy as a beautiful, golden light, and send that light through your body," suggests Reiki master Carolyn Agosta. "Tell yourself, 'My energy is only valuable to me,' and disconnect your energy from the other person's."
HEALTHY BOUNDARIES
JANUARY 9, 2010: Today we talked about the body as a container. There is a boundary of who we physically are and the truth of who we are spiritually. Recently when I saw Jersey Boys for the first time I saw that they allow beverages into the actual theater during the performance, as long as you put a lid on it. So you see folks walking around with cups of wine and lids, beer and lids, soda and lids....like adult sippy cups. I get it. The lid is helping to keep a healthy boundary so the beverage doesn't spill on you or anyone else. It informs us of what is really inside. On the mat we use this practice to turn inwards to restore emotional equilibrium. We examine our breath for its beginning, middle, end noticing that even the breath has a boundary of when it starts and when it ends and that every ending is making way for a new beginning. There lies the premise behind why bother setting healthy boundaries to begin with. The body serves as a container to hold our spirit, and energies of thought and emotions. If we can learn on the mat that even our emotions can be contained with beginning, middle and ending we rediscover our balance.
This is accomplished by remember the self, Vairagya chapter 1 verse 15. Enjoy this excerpt from my favorite book by Nischala Joy Devi, Secret Power of Yoga. "As our focus turns toward remember the true self we naturaly identify less and less with external desires or wants. This perspective reveals that we are merely the temporary caretakes of whatever we possess. With this attitude, nothing binds us. As life bestows gifts upon us, we are delighted. With their revocation, we may feel momentarily upset, but with the grace of remembering our self, our emotional equilibrium is quickly restored. Through remembering the self we become lucid and virbrant like a diamond. Millions of years of pressure on a simple lump of solid coal transforms it into a pure, transparetn diamond that reflects and refracts light. This prismatic effect showers rainbows of colors on everything without discrimination. The diamond also appears to take the color of any object nearby. But once removed, it is perfectly colorless again. Likewise, when our minds and hearts clearly reflect our true nature, we may acquire many things, but nothing permanently taints our clarity. With this lucidity, we enthusiastically adopt that which enhances the light, and redirect that which dims it. As we bcome free, we become more and more comfortable with the naturel flow of material things. Much of what we yearn for comes to us. We enjoy the treasures of the world while they are with us, knowing full well we will not bind to them, nor they to us. This concept has its greatest challenge when we are separated from our friends or loved ones, especially without our permission or when it seems permanent. Our heart feels a vast emptiness where it was once filled with love. At these times ti takes great strength to restore and sustain our equalibrium. By securing a place within our hearts to hold their love and by continuing our practice our balance is more easily restablished."
YOGA FOR BEING LESS TIRED
JANUARY 6TH, 2009: We all get tired right? But why? Interesting enough when we are tired we are stagnant, it is not that we have expended too much energy but we have not been actively moving our bodies enough. The yoga of moving and breathing moves our energy and flushes the body to remove the stuckness. A key way to look at Yoga for being less tired is to focus on the 3rd Chakra. This chakra often called the solar plexus, is our personal power center. The magnetic core of our personality which wants to bubble up and radiate out.
When the 3rd charka is in balance we have strong Self-esteem, self respect, and self discipline. When out of balance we get stagnant and run down as a result of fear of rejection, criticism, whether we’ll look foolish and worried about whether other people think we are meeting our responsibilities. This drains us of energy.
How we feel about ourselves, whether we respect ourselves, determines the quality of our life, our capacity to succeed in business, and relationships. Self understanding and acceptance, the bond we form with ourselves, is in many ways the most critical spiritual challenge we face. This is really then the entry from spiritual babyhood or adolescence into spiritual adulthood. Managing our energies is a big part of this. From a spiritual perspective, in fact, the entire physical world is nothing more than our classroom, but the challenge to each of us in this classroom is: Given your particular body, environment, job, family, and beliefs, will you make choices that enhance your spirit or those that drain your spirit? Will you be able to maintain your energy boundaries and sense of identity as part of your tribe but not based only upon it.
A favorite meditation I have from my friend Constance Hart is this: DRAW YOUR ENERGY BACK TO YOU - imagine that you are gathering your straying thoughts and energies back into yourself. Or visualize yourself casting a net and pulling all the disparate parts of yourself back to the center of your being, creating a sense of balanced energy. From this place of centeredness, we can begin again, directing ourselves outward in a more intentional way.
Life life on purpose, with purpose, maintaining the energy necessary to propel yourself towards your dreams! Think big! Silvia
"Time in life is short. Robert Bucco,