On this installment of the Sunday Morning Post, I was encouraged to speak about Life Force Energy – what that is, why it is important for your wellbeing and quality of life, and the role it plays in fostering compassion towards yourself and others. Learn how Life Force Energy has the potential to bring you more inner joy, and how to spread that joy to your children, your families, your communities and the planet.

We are in desperate need of this. Our challenges seem to amping up; mental health concerns, injuries, illness, dealing with Covid, stark images of climate change, human rights violations, global conflict…It’s overwhelming.

We need an influx of love, in a world full of fear.

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Life Force Energy is a subtle energy that manifests life in its many forms. Fluid by nature, constant, clear, supportive, intelligent and intuitive. In human beings, Life Force Energy holds the blueprint for your true, authentic essence. It is you at your truest form, and a key component of what makes you, you.

Think of your unique Life Force Energy as a shepherd of inner wisdom. It encourages you to have a relationship with it, to deepen that connection, and to also learn about the universal energy which is eternal; that divine force that many call God or Spirit. It also has a frequency that is constant, clear, limitless, intelligent, supportive and intuitive. And you are a divine creation of that energy.

Understanding that you have a Life Force Energy and that there is a subtle energetic structure, a subtle anatomy within you that offers a limitless amount of information and support that also responds to you, is both enlightening and empowering. Equally as exciting, you have an aura that emanates a quality or vibration that radiates around you, that has a frequency or energy signature unique to you, permeating all of your environments and belongings.

Your Life Force Energy is the driving force to self-awareness and your evolution as a human being. Having a basic understanding of this integral part of your make-up and understanding that it is a key component in the realm of self-care and self-awareness, is no different than the knowledge we seek and the steps we take to support our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing.

Like blood flowing through the circulatory system, your life force energy flows through what is called your chakra system. The chakras are not physical but part of the “subtle anatomy”, energetic points of distribution within the body where the energetic and physical worlds meet. There are seven primary chakras, acting as life energy centres which run along your energetic backbone or sushumna. Perceived as a wheel, there are five primary chakras vertically along the spine, one in the throat and one at the top the head. Chakras are a kind of intake and output valve, irrigating, feeding, nourishing and supporting the flow of energy throughout your body. Your chakras are sensed to exhibit colours, are associated with particular life issues and support the organs in the areas they are located.

Key to the integrity of the flow of life force energy throughout your chakra system is your current inner state, and in your outer life, it can be seen in your health and vitality, in the issues you have and in the company you keep. Everything has an affect on its flow, not only your beliefs, actions, interactions, thoughts, emotions, and words, but also resistance and the way in which you process incoming information from people and situations that you encounter in your everyday life.

Creating your vibe, it emanates a vibration which draws to you what you need to love yourself more, to learn, grow and engage in your purpose and begin to outwardly live the same. Basically, your inner state is reflected in your outer state and vice versa.

People have a vibe individually, and couples, groups of friends, households, businesses and corporations have a collective vibe that represents all of its members. Your Life Force Energy fills you and any space that you spend any amount of time in. The more time spent in a space, the more of you energetically resides there. Environments represent your energy, your experiences and your possessions both positively and negatively.

Vibes on their own or collectively are a powerful thing, reflecting both positive and negative qualities in people and a lack of balance between both. Every action, non-action and belief, thought pattern, creates an energy component that can linger in the body and begin to change your vibe and flow of your Life Force Energy throughout your body, positively and negatively. It’s about deepening your connection with yourself and minimizing extremes in either direction.

When interacting with other people, it’s important to understand the vibe you are giving off and a what you feel from others. Everyone feels your vibe, consciously or unconsciously, and you feel other people’s vibes, too: up close and from a distance, including through pictures, words, text messages, emails, and all social media.

There is truth to the saying, “We are One, or “We are all in this together”, because each of our individual and collective energies, does have an effect on the whole, so technically it is possible to shift the energies of the collective consciousness, if we work to achieve that individually.

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We talk a lot about how great we feel while in nature, hanging out with our pets, spending time with a friend, going to a wonderful event and generally having great time doing something fun. You are feeling the energy associated with those people, pets and experiences. Those vibes make you feel welcome, empowered, intuitively at ease, rejuvenated with increased energy and optimism, typically come from upbeat, mostly content, generally optimistic people with more balance and joy in themselves and their life. But equally, when we hang out with someone who is always complaining about something, is disrespectful, gossips, is thoughtless, a bully or just plain mean, always finding fault with others, refuse to communicate reasonably or have terrible boundaries, we feel crappy. Those vibes are uncomfortable, overbearing, even creepy and if you are not strong within yourself, grounded and present enough in that moment to just be aware of it, not get caught up or swooped away by it, it can leave you feeling as they do, angry, frazzled, scattered, anxious, fearful, drained, or even nauseated.

As author Judith Orloff has written, “People give off positive energy, others negative. It’s a quality of someone’s being, a measure of the love with which they have led their lives. It also reflects the inner work that they’ve done, their efforts to heal anger, hatred, or self-loathing. Energetically these linger, precluding joy from shining through.”

Everything that has life, has energy. And every action, thought, word and emotional response creates energy that affects you at every level – physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. Simply put, if you are generally happy, have a reasonable pace of life and are aware of your responsibilities and limitations and strive to practice self-care, chances are your energy flow is fairly decent. However, if you are consistently running ragged, excessively multitasking, are often angry, unhappy or stressed, chances are there is congestion or a distortion in your energy field. Over time, if left unmanaged, feeding on energy created by conflict internally and externally, it can accumulate and expand, becoming a subtle energy in itself and contribute to a lack of well-being.

Author Eckhart Tolle calls this, “the pain body”, I call it “the staged self”. In this case, the gap between who you truly are and the self you project each day grows denser and stronger often causing difficulties and/or conflict at some level of your being, making it not impossible, but harder to access your true energy and engage in that in your daily life to make positive changes within yourself and throughout your life.

It’s actually a lot of work to present yourself daily in a way that dishonors and dismisses who you really are, what you truly value and what feels right for you. And it’s a very high price to pay. But to change your response patterns is exhausting. You get push back from those around you who expect the old you, so you often back down, reverting back to your old ways because it seems easier. We either give away too much to others, our time, our money, our peace of mind, abandoning ourselves, our values and dreams, or give more to ourselves without consideration of others. In any case, the energetic component that created is unbalanced and weighs heavily on your wellbeing and quality of life.

Renowed physician, Dr. Gabor Mate, speaks of in one of his many talks, about the subject of self care. During one presentation he reads obituaries of several people. All are similar, “this person was selfless always thinking of others before themselves”, “always putting others first”. He feels that this exclusion has a detrimental effect and that giving ourselves priority, is essential for health and wellbeing.

Your Life Force Energy, your true self, wants you to represent and respect yourself and your values, as a human being, in your daily life. It will always support you and never abandon you in that quest, no matter what. It strives to build a strong collaborative relationship with you, encouraging you to think of yourself differently, kinder, more loving and begin to build a life for yourself that truly represents you. This doesn’t mean that you are unreasonably happy all the time and are never angry, nor do you accept bad behavior, it simply means that you strive for balance. Resistance to this over time, however, causes a tremendous amount of anxiety, stress, pain and suffering.

Maneuvering your way through life requires an awareness and understanding of this as it relates to you, because it will either rejuvenate or drain you. And don’t forget, your energy fills your home and workplace environments so they are affected as well. Cultivating a positive relationship with yourself promotes a more balanced flow of life within you and throughout your life, so that you will thrive at all levels, no matter what you are facing. Your life force energy counts on you to do your bit as a human being to support and honor yourself, to build a deep relationship with yourself, then to begin to put that into action through thought, word and deed in your outer everyday human life experience to fully realize itself, by expressing yourself through your own unique gifts and talents, showing as much love to yourself as you show to others.

The key to cultivating and strengthening your inner self, to embody, to emanate your best self is a daunting task, with most people believing that it would require far too many changes and a whole lot of additional stress in their life. The thing is, you don’t need to immediately change your whole world, and it definitely doesn’t mean you have to quit your job, sell all of your worldly possessions and chant regularly. But you do have to strive to do things differently. The good news is that if you are willing to go within and strike up a real relationship with yourself, a truly honest one and outwardly begin to take small steps to honor that, things will shift positively.

It is through ordinary everyday events, self-care, relationships and actions, that Life Force Energy is rejuvenated, constricted or depleted. A circular phenomena, that serves inner and outer needs, life offers an endless supply of opportunities to cultivate food for the soul. From a practical standpoint, these are ordinary, everyday things like, taking time to eat, hydrating yourself, getting out of bed in the morning, being honest with yourself about one thing, giving yourself enough time to get to an appointment or work, letting go of a relationship that is not working for you, asking for help, setting a boundary with someone, resting when you need to rest, peeing when you need to pee, taking the time to make your lunch the evening before work, filling the car with gas so you don’t stress about it running out, cleansing your energy field through intention and/or smudging each day, but also having the courage to speak with a therapist to support you during challenging times.

Not gonna lie, it’s not easy, to take a long hard look at yourself, but it is so worth it. To accept others as they are, to focus on what you need to do in your own life and get on it, keeping in mind that it is up to you and, it is a lifelong journey, but it is an extraordinary life you are meant to have.

For a deeper dive into how my journey began, visit the The Practical Empath.