We hear people say it every day “I am full of energy or my energy is low”, but what does that really mean?
Your energy levels are not only affected by the foods that you eat but also by your thoughts and emotions.
Emotions that are freely experienced in a person are expressed without judgment or attachment and tend to flow easier without impacting on our overall health. On the other hand, repressed emotions can lead to mental stress, negatively affecting the body, and may lead to further health problems down the line.
Most people are unaware of their daily thoughts and emotions, only recognising them fully when they are overwhelmed with sadness, anger, fear or extreme happiness. Our energy has an affect on our overall well-being, our behaviour and relationships.
Negative attitudes and feelings of helplessness or hopelessness can create chronic stress, which upsets the body’s hormone balance, depletes the brain chemicals required for happiness, and affects our immune system. Chronic stress can lead to further complications.
So how do you learn how to recognise what is going on in your energy?
Through your awareness
Most people only recognise something is ‘wrong’ when they are getting physical sick all the time or are feeling like they can’t cope with the stresses of life. For many it is a feeling of being overwhelmed and not having the clarity or focus to find a solution.
“Awareness is the birthplace of possibility. Everything you want to do, everything you want to be, starts here.” ~Deepak Chopra.
Self-awareness means that you have an understanding about who you are and how you relate to the world. This means being mentally and emotionally present in situations and understanding how your actions affect you and other people. It also means that you also know what you are truly passionate about in your life and what, who and where you want to spend your energy on.
To determine if you’ve got an issue with self-awareness, ask yourself if you feel everyone else is always to blame for things and you feel everything is out of your control.
I hear people saying “I just want a break”
I had believed this for much of my younger life, feeling like a victim and having no control over my own life. As I grew into my adult life, it took me to nearly end my life before I realised that my thoughts and emotions were being triggered by events from my childhood. It was an automatic response that I had learned to cope with through trauma and it was held in my heart and in my subconscious. It became ‘natural’ for me to react in difficult or challenging situations.
A trigger is a stimulus that evokes upsetting feelings, which may lead to problematic behaviours. We all have triggers, and we all have unhealthy ways in which we deal with them. We have the power to stop our automatic responses once we have a better understanding of what they are and how they affect us. The challenge is learning to identify our triggers and then recognising them when they are happening, so we can respond in a different way.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~Viktor E. Frankl
For me, recognising my triggers was when I started practising mindfulness or mindful living over 20 years ago. I simply tried to live in the moment, to not let the events of the past hold me prisoner in my mind any longer. I started to fully focus my attention on the now.
I forgave!
Forgiveness means fully accepting that a negative event has occurred and relinquishing our negative feelings surrounding the circumstance. This was probably the most difficult thing for me to do at the time, but I realised that by forgiving the person/people that hurt me, I was setting myself free from believing that they held any power or control over me now.
I also practised gratitude daily.
It’s not joy that makes us grateful, but gratitude that makes us joyful.
Acknowledging the good aspects of my life and giving thanks had, and still have a powerful impact on my mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. I am joyful every day, even on the days where I may struggle with my mindful practise. I always tell myself that not everything in my life is going wrong, it may be just one thing in that moment, so I sit with it whilst reminding myself of all the good parts too.
I became resilient.
I didn’t deny the pain or suffering I had experienced, instead I held the thought that this was a trigger to a past event and was not happening for me right now, I allowed myself to repeat the words ‘this too will pass’. It helped me to grow personally and develop into the person I am today.
Heart – Brain Connection
The Institute for Heart Math pioneered a study of the relationship between the energy fields of the heart and emotional states, feelings of love, compassion, and appreciation beneficially affect every cell in the body. Likewise, fear, anger, and anxiety affect the field, and this, too, is communicated via energetic pathways to every cell in the body. (heartmath.org)
I believe what I hold in my heart has a direct impact on my thoughts and emotions. The more grateful I am, the more my thoughts are clearer and focused on the present. The more present I am, the more I accomplish. The more I accomplish, the more I am passionate about doing more for myself and others. It is a loop of conscious choices that create positive changes not only in my mind and body, but also in my energy field.