Cycles and phases are part of what defines womanhood. More than any other earthly creature, our bodies run according to cycles and phases – whether it is the monthly cycle of menstruation, or the life cycle of ‘mother-maiden-crone.’ I have written before in this column about the power of Honoring Our Sacred Cycles, and decided this edition of Buddha Chick Life - dedicated to ‘Conscious Aging’ - provided the perfect opportunity to talk more about menopause from an energetics perspective.
Menopause represents our birth into the ‘wise woman’ phase of our life, although when I say ‘menopause’ I really mean perimenopause too, because as the medical community has come to realize, the life transit that menopause represents is actually one that spans 10 years or more for many women. For most of us, hormonal shifts begin in our early 40s or even mid to late 30s, whether we notice them yet or not. And with this comes the energetic, psychological, and spiritual shifts that usher us into our wise woman years. It’s a long birth!
Changes to our subtle body – our chakras and energetics systems – mirror many of the changes in our physical body. In spiritual traditions that work with the chakras, working with these changes is a big part of the transition into wise woman status – they are part of what enables a shift into a new spiritual perspective and skills. Specifically, it is during this time that we are guided to revisit any themes from earlier in our lives that we have left unexamined, or any wounds we have left unhealed. If we rise to this challenge, we come to own a new relationship to our subtle body, our intuition, and our spiritual selves.
From an energetics technical perspective, this ‘prompting’ often occurs through bursts of kundalini, or spiritual awakening energy, in our chakras. In chakra meditation traditions, ideally the kundalini is brought up gradually from the root to the crown chakra, enabling a smooth spiritual awakening process. During perimenopause, instead there are often sporadic bursts of kundalini (some even connect hot flashes to these bursts, since the kundalini rising often triggers a similar feeling of warmth or ‘fire’.) Just as our hormones swing during this time, so does our energetics system.
Many women experience these energy bursts as actual sensations of warmth or tingling in a part of their body associated with a chakra. If you meditate on your chakras or work with them in some other way, you may feel active energy in the chakras themselves. If not, you may not be aware of these bursts at all, but instead may see the results of them in the patterns or themes of your life during this time, because these bursts bring forth that which you are asked to heal or learn.
Whether we experience them physically or not, these energy bursts represent a tremendous growth opportunity. Each chakra is related to life themes, and we are usually called to focus on the one or two that are the most central to our growth. Although there can be a lot of complexities to our lessons, here is a basic guide to the chakras and the corresponding ‘life themes’:
· First/Root Chakra (Tailbone, Legs, Feet) – Security, Safety, Life Foundation, and Familial Heritage
The best way to work with this knowledge is to consider how the life experiences you are having during this time corresponds to these themes. Consider how they relate to your past, especially your childhood – what has been left unresolved? Do you harbor buried fears or resentments related to any of these areas deep in your psyche? Or alternatively, are you experiencing health problems related to any of the chakra physical correspondances?
The energetic shifts of this time can manifest in any number of ways. If you approach this phase of your life as an opportunity to really work through anything that you have avoided facing in the past, your overall energy will be freed up, allowing it to flow through your subtle body. You can also benefit from working with the chakras directly, particularly with any techniques that help free up chakra flow – the energy moving between the chakras. Yoga is excellent for this, as are meditation techniques that focus on the movement between chakras (here is one from my blog if you are interested.)
When the energy flows freely through our energetics system, we experience a flowering of spiritual gifts, particularly of intuition – a key part of the wise woman archetype. Our ability to sense and connect with energies and spirit is magnified. As the reproductive aspect of our physical body winds down, the spiritual aspects of our subtle body ramp up! And this shift is something that can continue to deepen for the rest of our lives. This is the heart of conscious aging to me – embracing the shift from a focus on our physical to the focus on our wisdom and insight instead. It is a new birth, a transit into our higher selves, and an exciting time, if we can truly come to embrace it in this way.
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” – Alphonse Karr
It never ceases to amaze me how much a few minutes of gratitude practice can change our state of awareness. It is such a simple thing – to stop and express gratitude for that which we have in our life – and yet it can be difficult to make the time to do it. I feel this is because it often goes against the grain of the messages and vibration we are experiencing and absorbing from all around us.
We are surrounded by messages and energies that support grumbling about thorns (to reference the quote above!) We are conditioned to see what is wrong, to judge, and to criticize. And that can be OK, because it is a step in fixing problems, in our life and the world. But our thoughts and emotions are energy, and when we are stuck in a pattern of seeing only what is wrong, we emanate that out into the world. Our thoughts have momentum, and when we repeatedly focus on what is wrong, on what is lacking, it can become more and more difficult to see what is right.
Shifting this energy is really what gratitude practice is about for me. I don’t view it as a ‘moral’ practice – it’s not about expressing gratitude because I should. Instead, it’s about counteracting the energy of judgment and criticism that we are so often bombarded by, so that within my own mind and being, I can shift my state of awareness into a different place, a different vibration – an open, abundant, appreciative, and giving place.
Because I work with the chakras, I sometimes like to do this by focusing on each of the main 7 in-body chakras in turn, and expressing gratitude for the related area of my life. You can use the guide below to give this a try. As you do this practice, try to cultivate an energy, a shift in your awareness and vibration. For some people, verbalizing thanks is effective for accomplishing this. For others, it might involve visualizing that which you are grateful for, or perhaps some other ‘trigger’ resonates for you. The important thing to remember is that gratitude energetics practice is about feeling grateful – not about robotically reciting a list of thanks.
Chakra Gratitude Practice
Center yourself and take a few deep breaths to tune-in.
Root Chakra Gratitude: Our root or first chakra is associated with our home, ancestry, connection to nature, and physical body (among other things.) While focusing on your tail bone, select one or more things you are grateful for from these areas of your life, and either verbally express your thanks, or visualize and feel your gratitude. Even if one of these areas is problematic for you, find one thing related to it to focus your gratitude upon. Perhaps you have little time to connect to nature and this bothers you; think of that one plant you own and love, or that one beautiful tree you often notice on your way to work, or the warmth of the sun on your face as you walk to your car, and direct gratitude towards this.
Sacral Chakra Gratitude: Our sacral or second chakra relates to our emotions, sensuality, creativity, and sexuality. Many chakra teachers also associate it with abundance, although I consider abundance related to all of our chakras, but you can focus on it here if you like. While focusing on your lower pelvis area, find one or more things to feel grateful for from these areas of your life. Perhaps it is as simple as feeling grateful for your favorite sweater, which you love the feel of against your skin (sensual.) Or perhaps you are grateful for a creative outlet you have in your life, or something you have created yourself.
Navel Chakra Gratitude: Our navel or third chakra relates to our personal power, will, boundaries, and ability to execute plans. What have you accomplished that you are grateful for? What activities in your life enhance your personal power and sense of will? Be grateful for them now, while focusing just below your navel.
Heart Chakra Gratitude: Our fourth or heart chakra relates to our ability to love and be loved, in all of our relationships. Here is where you can really feel your gratitude for your loved ones and those who support you, while focusing on your heart chakra in your chest.
Throat Chakra Gratitude: Our fifth or throat chakra relates to our ability to express ourselves in all forms. How do you express yourself? What was a recent situation in which you successfully did so? Feel gratitude for this ability or moment, while focusing on your throat.
Third Eye Gratitude: Our sixth or third eye chakra relates to our intuition and wisdom. When has your intuition aided you recently? When has your wisdom? Express your gratitude for this now, while focusing on the midpoint just above your brow.
Crown Chakra Gratitude: Our crown or seventh chakra relates to our spiritual connection and experiences. When have you felt grace in your life? What spiritual beliefs, teachings, communities, or teachers have blessed your life? Feel your gratitude now, while focusing on your crown.
Hopefully at this point you feel positively alive with appreciation. Note the energetic shifts that have occurred while you did this practice. Can you feel how your mood, state of awareness, and even your body have shifted? Your energetic vibration has shifted too, and this is now what you are emanating outward. And everyone around you will appreciate you for it!
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
Workplace environments can provide us with a variety of energetic challenges. We are often interacting with people all-day, and confronted with disagreements, deadlines, or other stress-inducing situations. Sometimes the problem is the opposite – we are involved in repetitive tasks we find boring or mind-numbing.
Either way, the following ‘Energy Body Tune-Ups’ are simple chakra exercises you can do at your desk to help you refocus or reinvigorate yourself. All that you need is one or two minutes of privacy, at your desk or even a bathroom stall!
Focus Power-Up
When you are having trouble focusing, whether from stress, distractions, or fatigue, focusing on your navel chakra is one of the best ways to consolidate your energy and regain your ability to prioritize and concentrate. Our third or navel chakra is the center of our personal power, determination, will, and boundaries. Interestingly, it is also linked to our mental body – the perceptual framework that shapes our thoughts. When our mind is busy or frazzled, it is often because our boundaries have been violated and/or we have been knocked off-center – knocked off of our navel center. Refocusing here can pull everything back into focus.
To pull some energy back into your navel center, try the following simple exercise, for 1-2 minutes (or a bit longer if you can spare it):
1. Sit with a straight spine, and place your hands over your navel, or just a bit below.
2. Breathe into your hands – focus on expanding your belly so that your hands move in and out as you breathe.
3. Visualize a red light into your navel. Although yellow is the color often associated with the navel chakra, red is associated with your root or first chakra, and focusing on red here will connect the grounding energy of the first chakra with the energizing focus of your third.
4. Visualize this light expanding along with your inhalation, and gently decompressing with your exhalation.
5. If you like, add a brief pause at the top of your inhalation, and at the bottom of your exhalation. Continue for 1-2 minutes, or as long as you like.
In addition to consolidating your navel center energy, the belly breathing in this exercise has the added benefit of helping to trigger the ‘relaxation response’ physically, one of the most powerful antidotes to stress. If you also feel like you need a boundary tune-up, you can visualize the red light in your navel chakra expanding outward to encompass your entire body, providing an energetic ‘shield.’
Energy Reboot
When you are feeling drained, uninspired, or drowsy, cycling through your chakras, and focusing on energizing the flow between chakras, can really help. A good flow of energy between the chakras serves as a kind of energetic ‘bath’, pushing out stale or negative energy, and vitalizing clear, productive energy. Try this exercise to experiment with this:
1. Start by visualizing red light in the ground beneath you – if you are several stories up, just imagine the earth beneath your building.
2. Now imagine this light rising up into your root or first chakra at your tailbone. If you like, you can use your hands to imagine pulling energy up from this earth source into your root chakra.
3. Now imagine this red light moving up into each of your other chakras – your lower pelvis (second), navel (third), heart (fourth), throat (fifth), forehead (sixth), and crown (seventh). You can hold your hands in front of each chakra to help you feel as if you are moving the energy up if you like. Then imagine it flowing upward into the sky.
4. Now visualize a gold light up above your head. If you like, reach your hands up towards this light.
5. Visualize this light flowing downward into your crown, forehead, throat, heart, navel, pelvis and tailbone. Let it continue flowing into the ground beneath you. You can use your hands to imagine directing this energy if you like.
6. Repeat the upward flow of the red earth energy, and then the downward flow of the gold sky energy as many times as you like.
Either of these exercises can be done for as long or as short of time as you like, and the hand movements are optional. Give them a try and you may be amazed at how much differently you feel after you are done. The connection between our mind, body, and energy body is truly amazing, and we all have the ability to work with it ourselves.
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
“A woman may also give birth to her own creative work, in which she has had to plumb her own depth as a woman and labor to bring it forth. The work comes out of her and draws from her talents and experience, and yet it has its own life.” - Jean Shinoda Bolen, Crossing to Avalon
(Image: Shakti Goddess Banner - Goddessgift.net)
This is one of my favorite quotes on creativity, because it connects our creative and procreative drives. Throughout women’s spirituality writings, this is a common theme – that a drive to create in some way is essential to women. Physically, we are built to gestate and nurture a new life, and all too often throughout history, we have been solely defined by this. But our drive to create can manifest in many different ways, and when we open to them, our natural link to the act of creation can become an important foundation of our spiritual path.
From the perspective of the chakras, the second or sacral chakra is the root of both creativity and procreation, and plays a special role in women’s energy bodies. Physically, the second chakra corresponds to our womb area low in our pelvis, and within energy medicine traditions it corresponds to our entire reproductive system. In spiritual traditions, our sacral chakra is our link to the power of creation – the raw energy and inspiration that drives us to want to create something new and birth it into the world. Either way, the sacral chakra is a doorway – an entrance point for newness in this world.
This is true for both men and women, but in women the sacral chakra is ‘ground zero’ of our energy being, and so creativity plays a special role in our awakening. It is central to our sense of self and personal power, and often to our spiritual explorations as well. And it is fascinating to think of all the other manifestations of sacral chakra energy – passion, sensuality, and sexuality – all of which have been denigrated or at least seen as problematic in many organized religions. Historically, they were often seen as moving us away from spirit – as distractions at best or sinful at worst.
Thankfully, that has changed in the last 50 years, and there is a growing acknowledgement of creativity as a vital part of spirituality, especially for women. When we create, when we open ourselves to inspiration in any form, we find what is larger than ourselves, and allow it to come through us. We are humbled and empowered at the same time.
We don’t need to create a masterpiece work of art to have this experience. We may simply change the organization of our room, arrange some flowers, combine our clothes in a new way, experiment with a recipe, or come up with a new way of doing something at work or home. We have dozens of opportunities each day to activate our creative side.
The actual act of creating something involves many functions, and so it involves more than our sacral chakra. It may involve expression (throat chakra), organization (third chakra), envisioning things in a new way (third eye), or any number of other skills and manifestations of our energy. But the inspiration itself, the drive itself to do things differently or to birth something new, is pure sacral energy – pure shakti, or feminine divine. Whenever we open ourselves to that energy, we have touched Creation in its purest form.
Whenever you are feeling you need a little more of this energy in your life and path, try this little movement meditation for awakening your creative energy:
1. Stand with your feet about hips distance apart and close your eyes. Begin to slowly sway back and forth, allowing your arms to swing, and your body to feel fluid and free. Do this for as long as it feels good.
2. Gradually add a gentle twisting motion to your movement, rooted in your pelvic area – twist from this point up. Don’t stress your back, but allow your arms and body to flow with you from side to side.
3. Do this for as long as it feels good, and when you are ready, gradually slow your twisting and swaying. Return gracefully to a still position.
4. Place your hands on your pelvic area and take a deep belly breath. As you do so, raise your arms out to the side, as if they are being inflated by the air you are taking in. On your exhale, release your hands back down to your pelvic area. Do this several times, taking in more and more air each time.
5. Gradually return your breathing to normal, and rest your hands gently on your pelvic area. Visualize a beautiful orange flower bud in your sacral area. Visualize this flower opening one layer of petals at a time, until you have a vibrant open flower in your sacral chakra area.
6. Now visualize light from this flower flowing upward into your navel, heart, throat, forehead, and crown of your head. Imagine roots for this flower flowing downward through your legs and feet into the ground.
7. Stand for a moment holding the visual of this beautiful flower with roots extending through your feet into the ground, and light emanating upward through your whole being and out the top of your head. Enjoy this vision of your natural creative self.
This meditation draws upon many themes of the sacral chakra – fluidity, sensuality, openness, and the color orange – as well as the flower visual representing the nature of creativity as grounded in the earth, but extending to the heavens. Enjoy it – or a variation you create yourself! – whenever you are feeling like you need to reconnect to your inspiration and drive to create.
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
Nature and energy medicine have been linked together in cultures around the world for thousands of years. In energy healing traditions, imbalances or blocks on an energetic level, which include both our mind and body, are treated. Among the many methods used to do so is contact with natural elements. Historically, each tradition had different ways of classifying the elements – the Greeks used the classical four of earth, water, fire, and air. Hindu systems added a fifth element – ether. Chinese systems included these, and added others such as wood and metal.
In the classic 7-chakra system, each chakra is associated with an element, and we can work with these elements to help strengthen, balance, or clear our chakras. Although the elements vary, the most common mapping is:
1st (Root) – Earth 2nd (Sacral) – Water 3rd (Navel) – Fire 4th (Heart) – Air 5th (Throat) – Ether 6th (Third Eye) – Light 7th (Crown) – Space/Source
Spending time in nature connecting to each of these elements is one powerful way to clear and strengthen the energies associated with the corresponding chakra. However, visualization work is also very powerful – you can connect with the vibration of each element within your mind, particularly if you visualize somewhere you have actually been. By connecting mentally with the energy of the place and its elements, you can actually shift the energetic balance of your subtle body, benefiting both your physical body and mind.
Here’s some ideas for working with the elements and the first four chakras, each of which is linked to one of the natural elements of earth, water, fire, or air:
Root Chakra - Earth
Our root or first chakra is associated with our ability to feel grounded, safe and secure, as well as being physically associated with our bones, adrenals, and immune system.
To strengthen your root chakra using earth try:
· Gardening, or working with plants indoors or out.
· Sitting or lying down on rich, fertile earth, focusing on the feeling of solidity and nourishment beneath you.
· Anchoring yourself into the earth by visualizing tendrils of light extending from your root chakra (at your tailbone) down into the earth beneath you. You can do this even when meditating inside, by imagining the earth beneath the building you are in (I start my meditation each day this way.)
Sacral Chakra - Water
Our second or sacral chakra is associated with our emotions, creativity, sensuality, sexuality, and ability to adapt. Physically it is associated with our reproductive organs, bladder, ovaries (in women), and prostate (in men.)
To nourish your sacral chakra using water try:
· Soaking, standing, or swimming in water. Imagine it cleansing and dissolving that which you do not need.
· Gazing a body of water. Watch the way it moves – the fluidity and adaptability, and the way it parts and moves around obstacles.
· Visualizing yourself sitting on a beautiful beach, preferably one you have been to before. Imagine streams of light flowing between the body of water and your sacral chakra, in your lower pelvis area, cleansing and nourishing your energy there.
Navel Chakra - Fire
Our third or navel chakra is associated with our personal power, will, mental activity, sense of individual identity, and boundaries. Physically it is associated with our digestive system, including our pancreas.
To clear and empower your navel chakra using fire try:
· Standing in the sunlight with your eyes closed and focusing on the heat of the sun on your skin (with sunscreen on of course!) You’ll get your vitamin D quota for the day too.
· Gazing a candle flame, or fire in a fireplace. Allow your eyes to blur a bit, and connect with the heat and movement of the flame.
· Visualizing the sun or a flame in your navel chakra, just below your belly button. Imagine the heat of the flame is clearing away debris, fueling your will, and empowering your sense of personal boundaries and identity.
Heart Chakra - Air
Our fourth or heart chakra is associated with our ability to love and be loved, to connect with people, and to feel compassion, equanimity, and balance. Physically it is associated with our heart and lungs, and with our thymus gland.
To heal and open your heart chakra using air try:
· Spending time in a clean, green park with plenty of fresh air. Focus on breathing in the oxygen produced by the trees and plants around you. Feel the breeze on your face and skin.
· Standing in the wind and asking it to take whatever is blocking your heart with it as it blows through and by you. Ask it to bring in new insight and compassion.
· Visualizing a beautiful light breeze blowing from front to back through your heart chakra. You can also work with breathing exercises – focus on taking long, deep breaths, inhaling healing and compassion, and exhaling anything you no longer need.
Don’t forget to say thank you to Mother Nature when you are done – gratitude can shift our awareness and energy faster than almost anything else. I hope you enjoy these simply ways to work with your chakras and the elements.
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On a side note, I’m very excited to announce my first teleseminar – Healing and Empowering Your Sacral Chakra, starting June 4th and running for 6 weeks. The sacral chakra is central to women’s energy bodies, and the focus of many women’s spirituality traditions. In this class – which you can participate in live or through recordings - I will guide you through many methods for working with it. Here is the link to learn more:
Also, I’m doubly excited to announce I will be teaching at a retreat in Bali this Fall, with Cyndi Dale, Chantal Monte, and Anthony J.W. Bensen. This will be an amazing, transformative spiritual adventure - I hope you can join us! ~ Lisa Erickson.
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
Read more May 2012 articles by clicking the "Previous" link just below
Cyndi Dale’s Energetic Boundaries: How to Stay Protected and Connected in Work, Love and Life
A Review by Lisa Erickson
and a Book Giveaway!
Courtesy of the publisher, Sounds True, we are delighted to be able to give away a copy of Energetic Boundaries to one lucky commenter. Leave your thoughts below and you'll be entered into the Giveaway Drawing!
Do you often feel as if you take on other’s emotions? Does being around certain people drain you? Do you find yourself attracting the same kinds of people or situations over and over, although you have tried to change this? Do you frequently experience psychic phenomenon that you can’t explain and don’t know what to do with?
If any of these describe you, Cyndi Dale’s Energetic Boundaries: How to Stay Protected and Connected in Work, Love and Life may be of great help to you, especially if you are open to working on an energetic level. This book offers a comprehensive guide to working with your own energy body using many of the tools energy healers themselves use – color, gemstones, visualizations, and more. Cyndi is herself a renowned author and healer, one I have personally studied and worked with, and I have read most of her books. What I like about all of them – including this one – is that she includes concrete examples from her own life and that of clients (anonymously of course) to show exactly how energy healing works. She also empowers readers to work with themselves energetically, by providing exercises and information for doing so.
In Energetic Boundaries Cyndi begins by offering a little background on the energy principles upon which this book is based, including the three energy body components of the channels (meridians, for those familiar with this term), centers (chakras), and fields (including what’s often called the ‘aura’.) This book is mostly working with the fields, although these are intimately connected to the other two, particularly the chakras. However, you don’t need to be knowledgeable of these components in order to work with this book, although you do need to be open to the idea of them.
Cyndi then outlines 7 of the most common boundary issues, along with how they manifest in an individual’s life. Stuck in repetitive patterns? You may have ‘Paper Doll Syndrome’, in which your boundaries have become rigid, attracting the same people and situations over and over, despite inner work you may have done to shift them. Feel severely drained by certain people in your life? You may have ‘Vampire Syndrome’, in which you feed others energetically with your own energy, rather than insisting they function on their own. Always caring for others to your own detriment? You may be stuck in ‘Healer’s Syndrome’, in which you transmit caring energy out to others, but take in their problems and difficult emotions.
After outlining these 7 common issues, and how they relate to energy boundaries, Cyndi offers exercises for helping you to heal these issues. These include guidance on how to uncover old storylines in your life that might have helped create and perpetuate boundary issues, and steps for releasing old intentions and creating new ones. Visualizations working with color are included for helping you to focus in on strengthening particular chakras and their corresponding boundaries. Also included are suggestions for working with crystals, gemstones, metals, symbols and numbers that are associated with strengthening your various energy fields.
This information is presented within chapters focused on health, work, finances, and love, as our energy boundaries are our interface mode in every area of our daily lives. My favorite chapter was actually the final one on parenting, which outlines boundary issues that contemporary children tend to have (based on the different energy ‘types’ of children being born today) along with suggestions for working with each type of child to help them strengthen their boundaries.
Working with the material in this book does require being open to energy studies, and trusting in both your own intuition and your ability to self-heal. Nothing in this book is a meant to replace medical care or therapeutic counseling, but it may be a great complement to work you are doing in those areas, or the ‘missing piece’ for completing that work on yourself.
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You can learn about Cindi Dale's new book by visiting SoundsTrue.com. You can read an excerpt from the book here.
Learn more about Cindy Dale and her good work in the world by visiting her website:http://cyndidale.com/
Remember to leave a comment to be entered into the Giveaway Drawing for Energetic Boundaries!
The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. ~ Marcel Proust
One of the reasons I love chakra, or energy center, meditation so much is because the chakras are doorways to levels of consciousness that transcend religion. Mystics throughout history from all different cultural and religious backgrounds have described similar mystic experiences – profound visions of light and ecstatic waves of love. Visions of light and experiences of universal love are two of the most frequently described spiritual experiences by seekers of all types.
For me, it is truly personal experiences of this type – rather than dogma – that propel our spiritual journey. And it is not only ‘big’ experiences such as these, but smaller moments of stillness, gratitude, or appreciation for beauty that pull us deeper into ourselves and spirit.While it’s not necessary to meditate on the chakras for these moments to arise, I find it fascinating that so many mystics do have similar experiences, particularly related to the opening of the heart chakra and the third eye. I wrote about the heart chakra here a couple of months ago, so thought I would focus on the third eye this month.
In a way this is the perfect chakra to discuss this month, as Buddha Chick Life celebrates Interspiritual Connection, because the third eye is what enables us to see beyond the surface - beyond the limits and categories that our brain and conditioning usually impose. It is through our third eye that our intuition and subtle senses are activated, as well as our ability to inquire deeply into the nature of reality and truth beyond convention.
The third eye, also sometimes called the ‘mind’s eye’, is considered the sixth chakra in the most common 7-chakra system, and is located in our forehead, just above the midpoint of our eyebrows. From an energy healing perspective, it is most commonly associated with our eyes, and frontal brain lobe, as well as our pituitary gland, sometimes called our ‘master endocrine gland’. Some healing systems also associate it with our pineal gland, whiles others associate the pineal with our seventh, or crown, chakra.
Our third eye has many layers, and meditating on it connects us with each of these. In our third eye we can find a still-point, a way to connect to the space between or beneath our usual thoughts and busy mind. While meditation is often described as stilling the mind, in our third eye we can discover that this isn’t necessary – stillness is always with us, just waiting in our awareness for us to pay it a bit of attention. Stillness isn’t something we have to ‘do’ or create, but something we can simply see when we turn our attention towards it.
Our third eye is also the center of our intuition, especially visual intuition, and some people experience visions of light when meditating on this chakra. For others who are less visual, meditating on it may initially trigger waves of energy, or a physical feeling of lightness, as this chakra helps shift our attention away from our usual focus on our physical body. Our third eye is also a doorway into a sense of metaphysical oneness – the experience (rather than the thought) that we are all rooted in one Source.
On a more mundane level, our third eye is connected to our ability to see ourselves clearly. It grounds our capacity for self-awareness – our ability to contemplate our own thoughts and actions, and to revisit them. In this way, it is also the center of self-inquiry practice, or any practice in which we inquire into the contents of our own consciousness, seeking to find its root and Source.
As you can see, our third eye is truly another organ of sight, opening our inner vision to all that our physical eyes cannot show us. We naturally connect with our third eye through almost any spiritual practice, but if you’d like to try a more formal third eye meditation, here is a simple one that anyone can use:
1.Sit comfortably with as straight a spine as possible. Take a few deep breaths to center and calm yourself.
2.If you like, use one finger to gently press and release on the third eye spot on your forehead a few times. If you are not sure of the location of your third eye, gently pressing like this, and focusing in on where you feel the most sensations, will often help you locate it.
3.Close your eyes and visualize a white sphere of light in this location. Each time your mind wanders, simply return your focus to the sphere of white light. If you see other colors, enjoy them for a moment, and then return to your visualization of the white light.
4.If the visualization of the white light is difficult for you, you can instead try imagining you are floating forward, out the front of your third eye, as if you are on a roller coaster in the dark. For some people this sense of moving forward helps open their third eye, and then you can try the white light visualization, or it might occur spontaneously.
5.If you feel any sensations in your third eye area, you can shift your focus to those instead. Some of us are more visual, while others are more physical and sense the chakras vibrationally, so honor however you connect with them. If you feel a sense of profound stillness or silence, surrender yourself into this experience, however long (or short!) it is.
6.When you are ready to complete your meditation, shift your focus down to your heart area for a few breaths. Then shift your awareness to the ground or chair you are sitting on, or wherever your feet or legs are touching the floor. This will help ground you again in your physical body, which is important after third eye meditation.
7.Honor yourself and your meditation however you like – with a small bow, prayer, chant or other expression of gratitude.
Feel free to post questions in the comments. May true seeing be yours this month!
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics
Buddha Chick Life’s February theme is ‘In Love With Life’, and I find that refreshing in a month that we usually associate with cupids and valentines. There is so much pressure around the search for romantic love, and the expression of it. Women especially are conditioned from a young age to consider romantic love as the primary foundation for happiness. But isn’t loving your life the real key to happiness?
In relation to Energetics and energy body mappings – the topic of this column – the heart chakra is the center of our ability to experience love in any form. It is also the center of our energetic structure – literally the center chakra in the most commonly used 7-chakra mapping. And although there are many different energy center mappings that have evolved around the world through various healing and spiritual traditions, I have yet to find one that does not center on the heart chakra. The heart is the universally acknowledged center of our being.
What does it mean to open our heart chakra? In a way, all of life is about opening our heart chakra, especially once we consciously embark on a path of self-development. In our relationships with everyone in our life, from parents, children, and closest friends, to those we just interact with once a day or once a lifetime, we are always faced with choice points – situations in which we can choose to act from love or some other emotion or state. And either way, we feel the results. We learn over time, how it feels to live from love vs. something else. As social creatures, every human interaction becomes our spiritual practice, an opportunity to open our heart more.
But there are also formal spiritual practices and meditations designed to help us open our heart.Within these practices, our ability to access love is often described in terms of levels:
-The first level might be called emotional love. This is what we are culturally conditioned to think of as love – the actual feeling of love. The affection or warmth we feel for someone when we are intimate with them, or when we have a meaningful encounter in some form with them.
-The second level can be thought of as expanded or unconditional love. This is when we begin to experience love as a force that comes through us, and that does not require an attachment – a person we have feelings for – in order to be triggered.
-The third level is universal love. This is when we begin to know the source of our own being as love. We experience our entire being as an expression of love, as opposed to experiencing love as an emotion or state that comes and goes.
These levels are of course just a way of talking about love – the gradations and variations are infinite, perhaps as infinite as the number of people on the planet. But in many spiritual traditions – some people might say all spiritual traditions! – the spiritual process is about moving from emotional love, through expanded love, into universal love. And then learning to integrate that love into our every thought, word, and deed.
Here is a simple heart chakra meditation that anyone can use to begin to open their heart energy and explore the movement between these levels:
-Sit quietly and take a few deep breaths. Now visualize some being that you care deeply about, and who instantly evokes a deep sense of affection and connection in you. Often our most ‘uncomplicated’ relationships are the best focus for this – young children or even pets, with whom we have little emotional ‘baggage’, so that our mind doesn’t get pulled into mental conversations or distractions.
-Visualize this being for a few minutes, until you are actively feeling the emotion of love towards them. This may even manifest as a warmth or tingle in your chest area – your heart chakra. Don’t worry if your mind wanders – as with any meditation, just keep bringing your focus back.
-Now let go of the visualization, and see if you can sit in the feeling of love that you have generated. Don’t try and control the experience, but see if you can simply sit quietly in the feeling, without the visual cue. If it fades, simply re-establish your visualization for a bit.
-If you feel as if you are able to sit in this beautiful feeling of love without your visual cue, try to move your awareness towards the center of this love. See if you can find this center. In other words, actively seek the source for this feeling of love. Over time, this search will open you up to love in a universal way, to love as the source of your being. You may begin to experience yourself as an expression of love, rather than the other way around.
This practice is really a lifelong practice – in some spiritual traditions, it is literally so. There is no end to love, and so there is no end to the deepening this practice can activate. As our heart center evolves, we can learn to work with that energy in a new way in our daily lives as well. And that truly gives a whole new meaning to ‘In Love With Life!’
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
Nature is full of cycles. We have just passed through Solstice, which for those of us north of the equator officially ushers in Winter, and for those in the south, announces Summer. Each season of the year represents a different phase in the ongoing natural cycle – birth (Spring), maturity (Summer), aging/release (Fall), and death/transformation (Winter).
Our own lives mirror this cycle – over the course of a lifetime, and in smaller versions within each year and month. Our spiritual growth is a continuous cycling through these phases in the form of new realizations, maturing wisdom, release of old patterns, and personal transformation. Most world religions have holidays, rituals, contemplative practices, or retreats that are tied to each of these phases.
In women’s spiritual traditions, the cycles of our bodies are linked with these cycles as well, and we can deepen our spiritual practice by embracing this link, and working with it in our lives. Biologically, our life phases are defined by our procreative phases –the onset of menstruation, our fertile years, peri-menopause, and post-menopause. In women’s energetics – the energy body teachings drawn from energy healing and spiritual traditions – there are energetic shifts associated with each of these phases:
- Our entrance into womanhood with the onset of menstruation signals the first opening of our 2nd chakra, or sacral energy center, in our pelvic area. This is the seat of the kundalini, or spiritual life force, in women. Much of our teen and early twenties is spent learning to deal with this energy, and particularly its sexual expression.
- Our mature, ‘fertile’ years are our birthing and nurturing years, when our creative abilities manifest as children, career building, artistic creations, service projects, building a home, or whatever we apply ourselves too. Energetically we go through many sub-phases during this time, often working on issues associated with one or the other energy centers (chakras) as we experience challenges in our lives.
- Our transformational, peri-menopausal years, which science is realizing can span our entire 40s or even longer, spiritually represents a time of shedding old conditioned identities, and owning a new definition of ourselves. Often this is a tumultuous time energetically, as we strive to redefine ourselves, and literally remake ourselves.
- Our ‘wisdom’ years, in our post-menopausal phase, are ideally a time in which we can fully own our power and accumulated wisdom. Energetically, it is again a time of manifesting, but also a period of increased stability, as we integrate our intuitive and intentional aspects.
Up until the final phase, we are also dealing with the mini-cycle of menstruation, which has its own energetic phases:
- The first half – from the end of menstruation through ovulation - represents an outward, manifesting, intentional movement of energy. We are most effective at accomplishing goals and interacting with others during this time.
- The second half – after ovulation through menstruation - represents an inward, contemplative, intuitive energetic movement. This is a time when we need to honor our need for solitude and contemplation to the greatest extent possible.
To begin to work with these phases and cycles, spend some time contemplating where you are, first in your overall life phase, and then within your monthly cycle of outward/intentional and inward/intuitive movement. It’s worth noting that many post-menopausal women feel that they also have a similar outward/inward cycle, sometimes consciously connected to the cycles of the moon, and in other cases just a personal rhythm that reveals itself over time.
Consider first if there are any ways you are resisting honoring the phase you are in. Are you wishing you were in another life phase? Can you see the challenges of this phase as potentially opening doorways to new wisdom for you? Can you identify and appreciate the gifts your current phase has to offer? Can you sense yourself as engaged in a natural, ancient, sacred cycle of birth, maturation, release, and transformation?
Now think back to the prior phases of your life, and consider the energetic themes listed above. Do you think you were able to successfully learn the lessons of those phases? Are there any experiences or challenges that you feel you need to revisit for yourself, to re-frame and understand in the greater light of your current maturity? Often we hold on to self-blame, regrets, or anger from prior phases that inhibits our ability to fully claim our power in our current phase.
When working with your menstrual cycle, or your natural outward/inward cycle if you are post-menopausal, consider how each phase manifests for you. Do you suffer from intense PMS? Because this is our most sensitive time energetically, our symptoms can often be compounded by a high level of activity or social interaction during this time. Experiment with adding just a little more space for yourself during each day of this part of your cycle, whether engaged in explicit spiritual practice or other self-nurturing activities. Likewise, think of ways you might harness your greatest creative potential at the height of your cycle each month.
If these cycles have not yet revealed themselves to you in your own life, consider keeping a little diary for a month or two focused on how you are feeling in terms of inward vs. outward expression each day, and note where you are in your biological cycle.
Just noting our life phases and cycles can be a big step towards beginning to honor ourselves and our lives as part of something larger. We can begin to sense the rise and fall of our own energetic patterns, and work with these spiritually. Instead of the passing of time being something we rail against, we can truly begin to honor our sacred cycles, and where we are in them.
Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."
I was so happy to see that December’s theme for Buddha Chick Life was "Enjoyment and Delight" because enjoyment and delight are central energies of the second or sacral chakra, and this chakra is also the center of a woman’s energy, or subtle, body. Although the holidays should be a time of great enjoyment and delight, too often they can begin to feel like burdens, especially for women. So much planning, shopping, cooking, and coordinating. So much money spent! Where is the joy, the soulfulness?
Connecting with your sacral chakra, and making a special effort to clear and nourish it, can be a wonderful way to open yourselves to the true spirit of this season. It is also a great way to generate momentum for your New Year, as this chakra is also associated with creation, and our ability to manifest the lives we want and need.
Your sacral center is your womb energy center, located deep in your lower belly, or pelvis area. From an energy healing perspective, this chakra rules your reproductive organs – your uterus, ovaries, etc. – as well as your bladder. From a spiritual perspective, it is the seat of a women’s kundalini, or spiritual life force. Since this chakra resides in your energy body, it is intact even if you have had a full or partial hysterectomy.
Women sometimes have difficulty accessing the power and joy of this center, because of social conditioning, and the shame that they have been made to feel about their sexuality, menstruation, and even their reproductive function. But connecting with this center, and freeing up its energy, is central to our health and well-being. Almost every health condition a woman will face has some hormonal component, and this chakra is intricately linked with hormonal function. On a spiritual level, our connection to creation – whether procreation, or creative expression – is at the heart of feminine spiritual traditions.
In addition to creativity, this center is linked with emotion, and our ability to feel passion and joy. It is the seat of our sensual selves - the part of us that loves a warm bath, a colorful painting, or a cool breeze on a walk through a park. It is of course also linked to our sexual selves, and our ability to own our sexual energy – a force that radiates our being and awareness all the time, not only when we are sexually engaged.
Of course both men and women have sacral chakras, just as we all have brains, hearts, and stomachs. But this chakra functions differently in men and women, just as our reproductive organs do. In women, it is the seat of our kundalini, and so its health and vibrancy is especially linked to our ability to access our deepest passions and manifest the lives that we want.
Here are some easy ways to connect with and care for this special energy center within your being. See if you can weave some of these into your busy holiday season, and connect with the joy and pleasure seated there:
- The sacral chakra is associated with the element water, so connecting with water in any way has a beautiful, cleansing affect. Try taking a warm bath, walking or meditating by water, or even drinking a glass of pure water with full focus and attentiveness. See if you can feel a resonance between your lower belly and water. Even visualizing yourself seated near a lovely pond or lake can have this affect – our minds can connect vibrationally to energies even when we are not there physically.
- The sacral chakra is also connected with our sensual selves. Any pleasing tactile or sensory experience will awaken the delight that emanates from this chakra. Set aside time to gaze and enjoy holiday lights, decorations, and candles. Sit by a fire with a hot cup of tea and truly feel the warmth and power emanating from the flames. Indulge in music, foods, fabrics, sights and smells that you love. You don’t need to overdo it - when you are fully engaged, it doesn’t take much of something to awaken your connection to sensual pleasure.
- The sacral chakra is also connected with the color orange. Although this isn’t traditionally a color associated with this season (and it’s a hard color to pull off in clothing!) see if you can find ways to bring a little orange into your world – an orange blanket perhaps, towel, or candle.
- Orange foods are also considered nourishing to this chakra, so consider having an orange a day, orange-spiced tea, or building other orange foods such as sweet potatoes or carrots into your diet. Other foods that nourish this chakra are tropical fruits (regardless of color), and foods rich in essential fatty acids/Omega-3s (flaxseed, certain nuts, fish). Incorporating these foods into your diet can also help decrease the chances that you will overindulge in sweets and high-fat foods, because your sacral center will be well-nourished, which cuts down on cravings.
- Dance! Turn on some music and dance around your house for a minute or two. There is nothing more joyful or sensual than dancing, when we truly feel it from our cores.
- Finally, consider meditating on your sacral center. Simply holding your hands over your lower belly, and breathing into this space, will help you connect to this chakra within yourself. Moving from this to focus on your heart, and then your ‘third eye’, as described in the meditation I posted last month in the article Understanding Your Feminine Energy Body is also a beautiful option. Keep it simple and accessible – this chakra is about intuitive connection, not technique.
These are all simple and fun ways to connect with and nourish the energies of your sacral chakra. Taking time to do so will help keep this energy flow open at other times of your day, enabling you to truly enjoy the season. Happy holidays and New Year!
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