Airports. An energetic nightmare. So many people, all completely unaware of what they are doing energetically to themselves or others. Emotions are everywhere here. Some are happy. Some are sad. Some are just mad because they missed their flight or flights are delayed. Some just want to get home. I don't do well in crowds. I never have and airports freak me out. So here I am....in a busy airport first thing in the morning. Mornings are not the best time for me however on this day I am going on vacation to a tropical place. I had coffee and breakfast so I’m actually feeling pretty good. Much to my partners' dismay, we are early because that reduces my stress, so I venture out to check out the airport shopping. All of a sudden, I feel irritated, the feeling I get when I haven't eaten in a few hours. Where did this come from? I ate. Blood sugar is good. Had coffee. Did I eat something that irritated my bowels? These are always my first thoughts, i.e, what's going on with me? Then I realized.....it's not me. I have been affected by someone else's emotions. Right, so now that I know it's not me I can solve this problem. It's actually much harder when it's your own stuff. I head to the bathroom because this is really the only place in an airport I can have some privacy. Here, I proceed to ground myself, cut cords, clear my energy field and put protection around myself, something I clearly forgot to do before I left the house. I feel better and proceed with my day.
I have been a Reiki practitioner/teacher for more than 10 years. For the most part I am aware of what my emotions are doing, but not always. This day at the airport made me mad. All these people walking around completely oblivious to what they are doing energetically. It is not their fault. They weren't taught about this invisible energy field that is all around us. They weren’t taught about how much their emotions and thoughts have an effect on others. I wasn't either until my 30's so how can I blame anyone for what they don't know? But people need to know because what’s going on in our energy field is a huge part of who we are. Interestingly, it is our signature when we meet people. It is a pin-up board with all our stuff hanging out there for people to see. Our nice stuff and our dark stuff is all in there too and so is our feelings, personality, insecurities and our state of mind. All of it! We know this innately because we feel something when we meet people. We just don't know how to separate what we are feeling from what we are thinking. Therefore, we spend far too much time listening to what people are saying with the mouths rather than how we feel when they are speaking. For example, when we do pick up something about someone, i.e., we don't trust that feeling as our mind will step in and say, “don't be silly.' We spend far too much time in our own heads, thinking about what we are not feeling!
You might be a bit confused as I am using the terms energy field and emotions/thoughts interchangeably. Let me simplify. Our thoughts and emotions are IN the energy field and are effecting us as well as others all around us! Thoughts, emotions and our energy field are not independent of each other. We must be aware of thoughts and emotions in order to understand how we are affecting our energy field and, therefore the world around us. Once we know that, we can separate our stuff from someone else's. In this process, we can understand who we are; what drives us and what is the dominant vibration we are giving off at any given moment. Our dominant vibration could be an emotion such as love or sadness or a thought such as; i’m ugly or fat. Are thoughts and emotions different? That’s a discussion for another time! All I am saying is we need to look within to discover what we are vibrationally (thoughts/emotions are vibrations) giving off at any moment in time. We spend time searching for answers outside ourselves when we only need to look within. Yes, look within. Once you determine what your energy field is offering, you can not only use it to your advantage to alter situations but you can also use it for protection and to heal yourself/others. More importantly, if you know what your energy field is doing, you can choose to change it for a better outcome in any situation.
You probably think we should start our awareness exercises on how to scan our energy field as that is what we've been talking about thus far. However, the physical body is important too in that it acts as a guide for what we are feeling and where we are feeling it. If we have a problem with our left shoulder, for example, there is an emotion stored there. Also, if there is pain in that shoulder it could be making us irritated or frustrated further affecting our dominant mood. Knowing the body is another tool to understand where we are vibrationally with our thoughts and emotions.
The body holds tension in it. So a couple times through the course of your day, evening or night, check in on your body. It helps to go somewhere private initially to do a body scan. I would go into the bathroom at work as it was the only place I could sit quietly and not be disturbed for a few minutes. I can do it quickly now but when I first started all this, it took a long while and then I would forget to do it. I had to put post-it notes around my house and on my computer. All the note would say is, 'breathe and scan.' Then I would know to stop and just be quiet for a bit.
Technique 1
• Start by taking in 3 deep breaths and letting the air out slowly. Sometimes you will need more than 3 breaths and that's fine. This helps you to center a bit, slow the brain down and get more into your body. I need about 10 minutes of intentional breathing to slow my brain down so if you need longer, take the time.
• Now bring your attention to your feet. It can be difficult to do both at the same time (at least it was for me) so perhaps focus on one foot at a time. What do they feel like? Hot? Cold? Heavy? Light? Tight? Relaxed? Do you see or feel a color?
• After your feet then go up the legs (knees, thighs, hips) and ask the same questions.
• When you get to the solar plexus take in a few deep breaths into that area. I say that because many of us hold tension there and we don't know it until we focus on it. This may take you a while so stay here as long as you need to. It took me years to be able to breathe deeply here.
• Now go to the chest, shoulders, throat and face.
• Check your jaw for clenching.
• Now that you know where your tension is, go back to those really tense areas and relax them. Breathe into them and feel your muscles relaxing with every out breath. See that area expanding and contracting as you breathe. Feel it releasing and allow yourself to let go of what is yours and what you have carried for others. You may need a visualization for releasing tension so perhaps think of black stuff being released from that area of the body. Sometimes I think of that movie, The Green Mile, when John Coffey releases all that black stuff from his mouth after healing someone. Find a visualization that works for you. That is the most important.
Through this scanning and releasing in the tension areas you may get images of people or a scene from your past (or currently) that plays out whenever you are in a particular area. Pay attention to everything and trust that you will understand what you need to. Trust that whatever images your are getting are real and deserve to be acknowledged. You may say to yourself, 'well, that's just my head making up stuff.' This is what I battled with for a long time until my teacher said to me, 'but why did THAT particular scene come up?' We have many scenes that could be played out in front of us so why is that one playing at that moment? So don’t toss it aside as nonsense. Additionally, your guide to understand what is real and what is made up in your head is how you feel when that image or thought comes up. Let me say that again. YOUR EMOTIONS ARE YOUR GUIDE. If nothing else, just trust that.
My plan is to teach you to become aware of your body, mind and soul, to trust yourself, grow your intuition and get out of your head. So we have much work to do!