Energy and the Charge of Aliveness

By Anodea Judith

Before Leeuwenhoek discovered microbes under his telescope in 1677, we knew nothing about germs and their role in disease. Doctors didn’t scrub down before surgery, and many patients died from “mysterious” infections after an operation.

Just because we couldn’t see germs with the naked eye didn’t mean they weren’t a factor in many diseases, though it took people awhile to accept this theory.

But once we knew about bacteria, we threw out most of the healing techniques that had been practiced for thousands of years. Drugs became the main form of treatment.

Today, there is a new resurgence in alternative models of healing. Maybe it’s because the drugs have side effects or don’t even work in some cases. Maybe it’s because so many of our problems result from stress or poor diet and have nothing to do with microbes at all, like the 50 million living with chronic pain, the 40 million with anxiety, or the 16 million with depression. And that’s just in America!

Alternative medicines treat the energy body. And like germs, just because most people can’t “see” that energy with their naked eye, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or have a profound influence on our health and wellbeing.

We are energetic beings, living in a world where energy is in constant exchange. The earth we walk upon is mostly empty space, but the energy field in its atoms keeps us from falling through into the underworld. Our bodies generate an energetic field, and rivers of energy flow through us as meridians, nadis, and shine out through our chakras.

I call this energy “charge,” as it’s a word we can all relate to, as in “having a charge about something.”

You might feel a charge of energy when someone interrupts or criticizes you. I can get pretty charged talking about politics these days. Others still feel a charge talking about their ex-partner or a past trauma. Or you might have so much charge about a new relationship that you barely eat or sleep.

Usually, when we feel a charge about something, (whether it’s positive or negative) we focus on the subject that triggered us: the unresolved argument, the object of our affections, or the disappointment in not getting that raise. But we fail to notice that all these events can be seen as a delivery system for charge —– for feeling your basic aliveness.

So the next time something triggers you and brings up your charge, see if you can take a momentary pause. Shift your focus from the story or events that caused it, to what’s happening in your own body. Say hello to any feelings of activation, energy, or nervousness. Even if the energy seems unpleasant, like anxiety or anger, make friends with your charge and claim it as your own aliveness.

Be curious about it. Where do you feel the charge? Is it in your chest, your head, or your belly? Notice its sensations. Is there tightening, heat, tension, discomfort?

Then try to feel what the charge wants to do. If it’s in your hands and arms, do they want to reach out or push away? If it’s in your throat, is there something you want to say? If it’s in your legs, are you wanting to run or kick or stay rooted to the spot? This is called tracking the charge.

Often just tracking the charge will allow it to change. It might get bigger or it might get smaller, but either way, you become more aware of it. It might have a message for you, waiting to be received by consciousness.

Sometimes it can be helpful to follow through with the movement your charge is wanting to express. You might want to discharge by hitting a pillow, writing in your journal, talking to a friend, or going out for a run.

Other times people try to repress it, locking it up in the body, where it becomes trapped in the tissues, causing pain or disease.

But there’s a third choice, which I call harvesting the charge. Rather than repressing or getting rid of this energy, allow the charge to permeate the cells and tissues of your body. Take the label off of it, as being good or bad, right or wrong. Just experience the sensation and presence of your life force, without having to do anything with it.

As you keep the charge without repressing it, you harvest it into your tissues. You become more present to yourself and your surroundings. Your energy becomes more accessible to you, calmly under your own management, yet free to flow through the body and into your life.

This fullness of charge makes you more alive, more awake, and more aware. And isn’t that the ultimate goal of healing and spiritual practice?
 

Anodea Judith, PhD, is a worldwide spiritual teacher and the bestselling author of the seminal Wheels of Life: A User's Guide to the Chakra System... Charge and the Energy Body: The Vital Key to Healing Your Life, Your Chakras, and Your Relationships... and seven other books.

As a yoga specialist and somatic psychotherapist with trauma specialization, her work is a unique combination of techniques useful to therapists, coaches, teachers, and those on their own healing journey.

She’s the founder and director of the teaching organization, Sacred Centers. She holds a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and a doctorate in Mind-Body Health, with advanced yoga certifications.

Click here to visit Anodea’s website.