3 Energy Self-Care Techniques You Already Know!
Every living being is made of energy. In its most dense form, we know it as the physical body, but every one of us is also made up of a network of subtle and electromagnetic energies. These subtle energies vibrate at higher rate than the physical body and are largely not picked up by our everyday senses until we learn to tune into them. Having said that, you can probably think of a situation when you felt someone behind you before you saw them. That was you having an energy experience - sensing a disruption in your aura as another person’s energy came into it.
Our subtle energies are the dynamic infrastructure of the body and hold the blueprint for our health, physicality and emotional well being. The state of our physical body reflects the state of our energies and when we address issues in the energy, it can affect us in profound and positive ways. These subtle energies underlie all our physical experience, from our emotional state to muscle strength and state of mind.
Using energy as “medicine” is one of the oldest, safest and most effective forms of healing on the planet. Knowing how to shift energy to support optimal health is hardwired into us. Think you don’t know any self-healing techniques? I’ll bet you know and have used at least one of these in your lifetime.
1) OMG to Combat Stress
Throwing your hand up to your forehead in the classic “OMG” move when something stressful is happening is actually following your body’s innate wisdom to take you out of stress and allow you to think clearly in a crisis.
How? When we encounter a stressful or traumatic incident, blood leaves the forebrain as operate from our back or primal brain - the part that governs the fight/flight response. While going into fight/flight mode can save our lives, it doesn’t help us with logic or clear thinking in situations that are not life-threatening. The frontal eminences (the most protruding part of the forehead) are key energetic access points that, when held, bring blood back to the forebrain, allowing us to think clearly, relax and come out of stress. So, next time you’re panicking because you can’t find the car keys and you’re late for an appointment, take a few minutes to hold your hand to your forehead. Chances are you’ll remember where you left the keys, your heart will stop racing and you’ll feel much more relaxed when you do arrive for your appointment.
2) Pretzel Arms (or legs) to Cross Over
This is one you often see children doing - arms or legs twisted around each other, like an Eagle Pose from yoga. It feels good to do because it encourages the child’s energies to flow in a crossover or figure eight pattern. Healthy energies flow in patterns that spiral and cross each other (think of how a double helix strand of DNA looks). When we get tired or sick, our energies slow down and go back to the simpler, homolateral pattern (think parallel lines) that was in place before we began to crawl. It’s harder to function optimally with energies running homolateral, so getting them to start crossing again makes us feel much better. Doing an exaggerated cross crawl or even doodling figure eights can have the same effect.
3) Suck Your Thumb to Hook Up
What happens when you suck your thumb? Two major energy pathways known as Central meridian, which travels up the front of the body, and Governing meridian, which travels up the spine, meet in the roof of the mouth and connect to form together into a more robust energetic circuit. When they “hook up”, it helps us feel calm, relaxed and “together”. Babies and children achieve this by sucking their thumb. As adults, we can get the same result by putting one finger in the belly button and one finger between the eyebrows then pulling up on both for a few breaths.
Getting yourself “hooked up” can help with anxiety and feeling vulnerable. In an Energy Wellness session at Sedona Body & Soul's massage studio, I test for this Hook Up connection with energy kinesiology (muscle testing). If I can interrupt the energy flow by squishing the nose (the indicator muscle will then go weak), the energy needs the Hook Up technique to reconnect.
There are many more simple ways you can use to bring your energies back into harmony and get them flowing again, which in turn can have beneficial physical, emotional and mental effects.
Daily energy self-care exercises can help you better manage stress, have more energy throughout the day, sleep more soundly and feel more joyful in your life. Best of all, the techniques are so simple to learn and use, a child can pick it up within minutes, in fact they’re often already using them!
