After last week’s newsletter, I got a lot of questions, and they were almost all about one thing – what is the energy body? Am I glad you asked, because this is really important for your health!
When we talk about the human body, we all know there is the physical body (muscles, bones, nerves, brain, various organs, etc). Science is still figuring things out about this physical body of ours, but we can all pretty much agree on what that looks like and the basic functions thereof.
But there is more to us, which is where the energy body comes in.
In and surrounding our physical body, there is energy.
MRIs actually pick up on this, but I guarantee you haven’t seen this! Medical doctors don’t even know it’s there, because after the MRI has been done, the image has all extra colors outside of the physical form edited out, and you only get the image of where the physical body is.
When I talk about the energy body, I’m talking about the energy that comes from within you, and as far as the energy of your heart goes, that reaches up to 3-5ft outside of you.
Your heart is actually a little brain all on its own. You have the brain – brain, heart – brain, and gut – brain. They all have the same kinds of neurons, the same ones we tend to only associate with our brain.
I can go on about this for a very long time, but for the sake of not boring you I will just touch on some things you can do to help yourself and your energy body. Anytime during our appointments together when I’m talking about certain meditative practices, or the heart brain harmony, or inner peace, and so on, I’m addressing your energy body.
Just as our physical body can be ill, our energy body can have some major blockages as well and just needs some care (and most of us tend to ignore or not even be aware of our energy body).
One of my absolute favorite practices I do daily (actually, I do this right before I see you for an appointment, as well as before going to bed at night) is the heart brain harmony.
To go into Heart Brain Harmony, do the following:
- Sit or lay down comfortably
- Close your eyes
- Drop into your heart space (I know this can be difficult because we’re so brain centered in this culture, so putting your hands over your heart in any position that is comfortable for you can help)
- Slow your breath
- Now FEEL one of the four following emotions: gratitude, care, compassion, or appreciation
- When you’re done, take a breath, open your eyes, and enjoy the coherence.
If you have trouble with this, before you go to do this practice, think of a time when you felt one of these emotions the strongest. See how that feels? Now when you go into this practice, pull up that feeling again.
How long should you do this for? 3 minutes (or longer if you like, if I don’t have time constraints I just hang out in this space for however long feels good).
And the effects will last for up to 6 hours after.
These effects include increased immune strength, healing your telomeres (hello longevity and better health), increase your learning/memory/recall, create 1300 positive reactions throughout your entire body, and you can access your subconscious.
In 3 minutes. How cool is that?
The beauty of this simple practice is that it creates a heart brain coherence, and in coherence is where all sorts of lovely health magic happens. It’s not the same as relaxing, that is a very different state.
Coherence is a state of optimal function, both in the physiological and psychological (mental and emotional) states.
If you go to do this and just can’t settle down, are agitated or anxious, check in with yourself and see what’s going on. Do you feel you have too much to do? Write that stuff down quick so your brain knows you haven’t forgotten and you’ll get to it.
Or maybe you haven’t been in a coherent state in so long you don’t remember what that feels like? Trying something like General Sedate from Systemic Formulas can really help. It’s an herbal formula to help you have inner peace. It doesn’t cover up your feelings, it just lets you settle into yourself better, deal with the stressors better. It’s not immediate, but it is a gentle support that I like to have on hand personally.