As an energy practitioner, I’m constantly asked if I can just “fix this” or “make that happen.” Given my lack of skills in the everyday-life category, no one seeks me out to repair roof leaks or to prepare a home-cooked meal. But aches and pains? I get the call.
In fact, recently a few of my son’s baseball teammates asked if I could perform energy balancing, or, more accurately, they asked if I could “do that weird thing.” One erstwhile Babe Ruth had a pulled tendon, and another up-and-coming all-star was hobbling on a twisted ankle. My son, Gabe, added a simple request. “Just don’t embarrass me, Mom.”
The Energy Worker in Us
We are all able to perform energy work to help lift another’s mood, ease an illness, or assuage heartache, whether we know we are doing so or not. The term energy work is short for directing subtle energy—information that moves faster than the speed of light. It is the energy equivalent of lightning bolts that create miracles, inspiration, and exclamation marks.
Subtle energy is also called psychic or spiritual energy. It differs from physical or sensory energy in its speed and alacrity. Some say that at least 99 percent of physical reality is an extension of what is occurring in the subtle realms; shift the subtle reality and physical reality will soon follow.
We are all subtle energy workers, all of the time. Focus creates form. To think a loving thought about another person is to boost his or her confidence. To smile is to encourage smiles. Of course, this doesn’t mean we are in charge of another’s reality. In fact, we aren’t even in charge of much of our own lives. We live in community; everything and everyone interacts, keeping the world in constant flux. But we can still call forth positive change through subtle activities, even if it’s through a prayer, quiet thought, or soft touch.
Professional Energy Work
When working professionally, we are often called to be more heroic in our use of subtle energy. Our clients are hurting, whether in body, mind, or soul—or all of the above. They come to us for relief. They come because they want to feel better. Being the healers that we are, we agree with John Andrew Holmes, a poet and critic, who wrote: “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.”
Some of us can afford to develop and expressively share our ability to move subtle energy. Maybe we have studied color or sound therapy, hands-on healing, Healing Touch, massage therapy, reiki, shiatsu, or any number of other subtle methods. Perhaps our practice is the type that relishes our use of these processes.
Maybe we’re in touch with our natural healing and intuitive gifts. We sense and send energy, our hands heating up when others require a subtle energy booster. We perceive images or receive messages that provide us with pertinent insight or illuminate a client’s needs. But some of us might not be in the position to be obvious with our subtle practices, at least with certain clients.
There are many simple, but powerful, ways to direct our subtle energy powers. A few I commonly use are as follows:
Ask for blessings. It’s always OK to ask for blessings for a client. This request necessitates a belief in something higher—a higher self, higher spirit, higher help. If nothing else, within each person is a self that desires only goodness. We can do this out loud or silently, depending on the situation and the client.
Be an instrument. Everything is made of energy, and most energy is subtle. Acknowledge that you are a vessel for subtle energy and the energy that can heal will pour through you.
Pay attention to intuition. Most bodyworkers follow their intuition. There are four ways we receive information: we receive images, words (or tones), bodily senses, or spiritual awareness. Follow your own guidance, but if appropriate, take a risk and ask the client if she would like to know what you are sensing. If she says yes, proceed.
Ask the client if he is sensing anything. Clients are often aware of the movement of subtle energy. Perhaps long-held emotions or memories arise. They might feel heat, which indicates new energy moving in, or cold, which signifies trapped energy being released. Ask for their input and respond accordingly.
Healing Happens
As for my young baseball “clients,” they merely smiled when I said, “Let’s ask your body to heal itself, shall we?” They have taken biology. They understand that inherent in the material self is the ability to knit muscles and repair bruises. But they also know that sometimes we need a balm for the soul.
During my mini-session with the boys, one talked about his parents’ divorce, the other his sister’s drug use. Who knows what burdens we can lighten as practitioners if our own souls are open?
Cyndi Dale is an internationally renowned author, speaker, and intuitive consultant. Her books include the The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy (Sounds True, 2009), The Complete Book of Chakra Healing (Llewellyn Publications, 2009), and Advanced Chakra Healing (Crossing Press, 2005). To learn more about Cyndi Dale and her products, services, and classes, visit www.cyndidale.com.
Sensing Subtle Energy
When we seek to heal ourselves or another, the steering wheel for creating positive outcomes is intention. It is intention that will link you with a known or unknown person to provide healing, help you uncover your own wounded aspects, and determine the mix of subtle and physical energetic effects in your work.
The following exercises are intended to assist you in recognizing your own and others’ energetic fields, and work with, and in, them.
Palm-to-Palm:
A Partnered Exercise
Find a partner who is willing to take 3–5 minutes to help you feel and sense the flow of subtle energy through the hands, and follow these steps:
1. Palm-to-palm. Stand and face each other. Both partners hold up their hands, palms forward, and bring them together so the palms are touching. Send energy to each other through your right hands, and receive energy from each other with your left hands. Take 30 seconds to sense what you feel.
2. 1 foot apart. Back up so you are 1 foot apart from each other. Hold your hands in the same position, but do not touch palms. Take another 30 seconds to sense what you feel.
3. 6 feet apart. Back up again until you are 6 feet apart, and repeat. At the 1-foot and 6-foot distances, you are experiencing quantum entanglement in action. Our fields expand, and the sending and receiving of energy isn’t contingent upon physical touch.
4. Switching the circuitry. Start over, but this time, send energy with your left hands and receive with your right. See if you get the same or different results. On average, 80–90 percent of people send with their right and receive with their left, and about 10 percent do it the other way.
Did you feel or sense differences at the various distances? How did you feel when sending energy? How did you feel when receiving energy? How did you feel when you reversed the flow? Was this reversal more challenging, easier, or comparable? What did this exercise teach you about energy?
The Light in Your Hands:
A Solo Exercise
This exercise is a simple, yet potent, way to feel the subtle energy within and around your own body. It is also a method for bringing the healing, balancing, and energizing qualities of color into your body. Follow these steps:
1. The energy in your hands. Rub the palms of your hands together, like you’re vigorously scrubbing them, for 10 seconds. Hold your hands in a vertical position about 1 inch apart, palms facing each other but not touching, and feel the energy you have created between your hands.
2. Flowing red energy. With this energy now flowing, imagine that you are bringing red energy through the back of your heart, into your chest, down your arms, and through your hands. Do you feel a marked difference between your hands?
3. Flowing blue energy. Imagine blue energy streaming in through the back of your heart, into your chest and arms, and through your hands. What sensations do you experience in your hands with this blue energy? Do you experience anything markedly different in your hands with blue versus red? Do you experience sensation anywhere else in your body? (You can continue to practice with any other color of your choice.)
4. Making an energy ball. Return to a neutral zone, dissipating your color energies. Pat your hands together as if you are gathering energy and make an energy ball (like a snowball of light). Mindfully create this energy ball, seeing how far you can spread your hands before you can no longer sense the energy.
What did you experience with each step? Do you get different results at different times of day or in different locations? What did this exercise teach you about energy?
Exercises adapted from The Subtle Body Practice Manual (Sounds True, 2013).
To read this article in our digital issue, click here.