We are all conscious & aware of how stressful modern life can be. I don’t need to enumerate the various demands that can plague both our personal & professional lives. If I ask the question “what is robbing your energy right now?”, people usually point the finger to a never ending todo list, not enough time, unhappy at work, not enough support (both professionally & at home), etc. However, in my experience, these “obvious culprits” are rarely the real cause of your stress. As an Energy Healer, most people who come to me complaining about tiredness, low energy, stress, overwhelm (or underwhelm), a lack of enthusiasm for what used to be their main interests or for life in general, are “leaking” their energy for reasons they often least suspect.
Recently, Jane (not her real name) came to me complaining of a general lack of energy. She felt that her todo list was never ending and was feeling overwhelmed. No matter how much she did, she could only find more to do, and found impossible to prioritise her work. The realisation that her work would never be done and that she would have to start “all over again” tomorrow was really getting her down.
During our initial conversation she became very emotional and I intuitively knew that simply cutting down on her todo list would not solve her problem and that something deeper was at play here. So using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques, an energy healing modality often referred to as “tapping”), we did a bit of investigating. I often like to compare EFT to a “key that can open the gate of our subconscious mind”. It is a great tool to uncover the real “core” issues that often hide behind the apparent symptoms, deep in our subconscious.
While Jane was successful & happy at work, the rest of her life was starting to get her depressed. With EFT, we soon identified that her sense of lack of control hemmed from her need for having everything done perfectly - everything had to be exact, at the right place, in the right order. While this was not an issue at work where the various time constrains as well as rules & regulations that she had to follow & abide by made her feel very productive, in control & generally successful, these boundaries did not exist in her personal life. As a result, she was starting to feel overwhelmed as she felt her “personal work” would never be done. Her mind would not rest and was constantly projecting into the future, to “tomorrow’s todo list”.
With EFT and various tapping techniques, I helped Jane get over the various emotions she felt about the issue – hopelessness, guilt, fear and shame where the main ones. We also worked on her need to have everything done to perfection. Finally, I gave her various energy healing tips to help her live in the now and not the future.
Following is one simple practical tip I gave Jane to help her focus on the present.
This technique involves stamping on a specific energy centre called a “chakra”, which, in the ancient Indian language Sanskrit, means “disk”, “vortex” or “wheel”.
In brief, a chakra is a centre of energy that regulates an area of our life. We have hundreds of chakras in and around our body, but 7 main ones in our body. Together they form a subtle energy system that, as the meridian system used in tapping, also affects our health physically, emotionally, mentally & spiritually.
In the following exercise, you will be stamping on a chakra which resides outside of our physical body. This chakra is all about rooting or grounding – connecting us to Mother Earth’s healing energy. Combined with visualisation, the stamping action activates the energy of the chakra. It anchors our energy into the “now” – the present moment.
By using this technique, whenever you notice that your mind is wondering into the future (or the past) and that you are not fully living in the now, you will anchor your energy (and your focus) into the present moment:
- Take a big breath in & out & relax.
- Visualize that, about 1 or 2 feet below your feet, into the ground, there is a disk of bright white energy. Make that disk as big as you want.
- March on the spot, stamping your feet on the ground. With each step, breathe in & out deeply and visualize the disk getting bigger & brighter. Do this as long as you wish but usually stamping 10 to 20 times is enough.
- Feel your mind refocusing on the now.
If not able to march on the spot, simply visualize the action. Energetically, this visualization will have the same effect of refocusing your thoughts in the now. Practiced regularly, it should lower your sense of overwhelm & your stress levels.
So next time you feel stressed, think about what could be the real trigger(s) of this stress. Remember, it could be that the “obvious culprits” are only easy targets for your frustrated consciousness. Take the time to come back to yourself & start stamping. Once back in the NOW, your real “energy robbers” might reveal themselves.
