Energy Work
”Energy” is a term you will hear often in the esoteric circles, and it's a word with a wide variety of meanings. As such, it's not easy to write about it. For some it's something very real, some kind of ”soul-stuff” or ”breath of life” that you can move around and shape in order the influence the world. For some it's phenomena in human body experienced as energetic sensations. For some it's a way to talk about variety of interrelated, seemingly separate subtle phenomena. For some energy seems to be something more of the emotional realm or a kind of psychic atmosphere.
Some think this energy can be perceived, shaped and moved by mind's eye, other see it something that can only be manipulated strictly by bodily processes. And for many, they have begun with one understanding of ”energy” and ended up with another.
This profusion of ”energy” is not a modern phenomenon by any means. Basically every major culture in the broadly-defined Eurasia (and likely outside of it) developed their own notion of some kind of animating life-energy, and many cultures developed arts for manipulating it. Commonly this energy was associated with breathing, easily seen in the names for it: pneuma, anima, chi, prana...
This section will provide an experiment for sensing this ”energy” and two different ways to work with energy. One method works more with breathing, the other more with the mind's eye. This will allow you to experiment with it and come to your own understanding of what it might be.
It should be noted here that attempting advanced energy work without doing preparatory work will either not work or will result in harm. There are horrible stories out there of people developing crippling ailments when experimenting recklessly with techniques they were not prepared for. For more advanced energy work please seek qualified instructors and advance slowly.
10-20 minutes of these exercises per day should be enough to get going. You can experiment with doing more, but don’t overdo it.
Energy sensing experiment
This comes from the Chinese tradition and is a classic. There are some variations of it you can find by looking for ”chi sensing experiment”, but the simple version goes like this:
1) Put your hands in front of you so that your palms are facing towards each other
2) Move your palms so that there is some space between them
3) Try to feel the empty space between your palms
4) Move your palms away from each other, then closer to each other and observe how this sensation changes
Can you feel it?
Some people find it helpful to rub their hands together to get the initial sensation going, but if you do this, you shouldn't ”cheat” by holding your palms too closely as they are capable of sensing off the heat from each other.
Entry level energy work: Option 1 – Qigong
Qigong means ”energy work” in Chinese, and is indeed the origin of the term. It is a wide family of various exercises that utilize breathing and body movement to operate with qi, the Chinese term for the energy that we are working with.
Qigong is best taught in-person, and the general understanding is that higher levels of it require long preparatory work to change the body both on physical and subtle levels. Good entry points for qigong are the Five Animals qigong, the Eight Silk Brocades and certain forms of Tai Chi. I highly recommend getting engaged in one of these practices. They are very good for you on multiple levels.
Here is however a simple but useful qigong practice that you can begin to work with. It's intended to raise, distribute and release qi for health benefits. You should aim for this exercise to be about 5-10 minutes long. Focus on your breath and mind when you do this exercise. You should breathe deeply but not too deeply. The movements should be synchronized with your breathing: when you move your hands up you breathe in the whole time when moving up, when breathing out breathe out the whole time you breathe out. In the Chinese tradition, the general idea is to do things at around 70% of your maximum. With your mind, visualize that you are breathing in bright, vibrant energy straight from the heavens and exhaling out any negativity and stress.
The exercise:
Part 1 - Lifting the Chi
1) Stand, knees lightly bent, shoulders rolled a bit back, chin slightly tucked in, arms relaxed by your side, palms facing backwards.
2) Start breathing in deep and simultaneously turn your palms facing outward and raise your hands up by bending your elbow
3) Start breathing out and turn your palms facing downwards and lower your hands by bending your elbow
4) Repeat this several times
Meiling shows the start end end posture.
Part 2 - Circulating the Chi
1) Continue straight from the previous exercise
2) Start breathing in deep, turn the palm of your right hand and lift your right hand upwards so that your hand is roughly next to your left cheek, palm facing backwards
3) Start breathing out deep, turn the palm of your right hand facing down and bring your hand down to the starting position
4) Start breathing in deep, turn the palm on your left hand and lift your left hand upwards so that your hand is roughly next to your right cheek, palm facing backwards
5) Start breathing out deep, turn the palm of your left hand facing down and bring your hand down to the starting position
6) Repeat this right to left, left to right (contralateral) movement several times
Meiling shows the start end end posture.
Part 3 - Releasing the Chi
1) Continue straight from the previous exercise
2) Start breathing in deep and simultaneously turn your palms facing outward and raise your hands up so that they are crossed in front of your chest, one wrist over another
3) Turn your hands around so that your palms are facing outwards and uncross them by moving the back downwards to the side. They should go to a position that is slightly wider than the start position, palms facing downwards. At the same time, breathe out deeply.
4) From this position repeat the upwards swinging motion that results in your arms crossed by the palms several times
Meiling shows the start end end posture.
Entry level energy work: Option 2 – The Tree Exercise
This exercise utilizes more of the mind's eye to drive the energy, and some people might find they get more results with this than the other method. One can find similar type exercises that aim to kind of energize a central column of sorts within the body all over the Western esoteric tradition. Some of the rely on invoking particular entities. This however works simply through visualization, no entities invoked. It is said to have both grounding and energizing properties.
No particular time frame was given for how long this exercise should be done, but I would say the 5-10 minute range is probably good to get started. You should really put effort into visualizing and feeling the things described within the exercise. This exercise most likely works the best when done outside and during a season where the trees thrive.
The exercise goes like this: 1) Stand firmly and visualize roots growing through the soles of your feet, spreading down into Earth. 2) Take a deep breath. As you breathe in, imagine that you are drawing in new, fresh energy in. 3) Breathe out. As you breathe out, imagine that your old, stale energy is getting pushed into the Earth via the roots. 4) When you stop, visualize that the roots get pulled back into you.
Repeating the energy sensing experiment
A good experiment would be to first perform the energy sensing experiment, then do some energy work and then do the energy sensing experiment again. Do you feel a difference? Do you get better at sensing it over time? Does your baseline get stronger? Do you feel certain things increasing or decreasing this energy?
