Whether we are into spirituality or not, it is a basic fact of our existence that we are made up of energy. We can each experience that in a very physical way. When we have more energy, we are able to enjoy life more, be more, do more, create more in service to ourselves, others and our planet. When we have less energy, we can’t do those things, or at least we can’t do them to the full extent of our capacity. It sounds like making sure our bodies have the energy we need to do all the things we want should be somewhere on our top priority list, doesn’t it? Oftentimes, however, it is not a priority. And when it is a priority, we don’t really know what we can do to actually bring back our energy. In this article my intent is to share an approach you can use in restoring your energy, especially when it comes to cleansing yourself from bad habits.
How important is our energy to us?
It might seem obvious – yes, of course, my energy level is very important to me! However, in practice, it is very easy for us humans to come up with stories as to why it is OK to have our energy drained and wasted. Sometimes, it is simply because what is familiar and comfortable is pushing us in that direction – “Oh come on, it’s OK, I am just a human after all”. At other times, we don’t know how to replenish our energy or believe we don’t have strength to execute on what we know we need to do. Still other times, we believe other things are more important – eg. “I have all this work to do, I can’t afford to give priority to restoring my energy right now”. Underneath that also, often giving priority to nurturing our energy gets associated with bad habits.
“If I give priority to where my energy naturally wants to flow, it will just have me splash on the couch and browse on facebook/watch netflix/eat junk food/etc.”
When we are operating in such a mindset, it is easy to get ourselves exhausted – the very thing we reach for to replenish our energy actually drains it and reinforces the loop of exhaustion. When that continues for a prolonged period of time, it can pile up in a way that we find our energetic home actually is one of not having enough energy. And really, if we come to face it, it is a disservice to ourselves, to everyone around us and to the capacity, beauty and strength of the human spirit we carry to remain in such a space! One of the biggest enemies we have in getting out of low energy is settling – believing ‘It’s not a big deal’, which really is a way of saying “My own life energy is not so important to me”. What that means is that we actually need to make it a big deal in order to heal from it.
Making our energy level a big deal
I learned the importance of this the hard way and I feel my story can be useful in illustrating this point. Those of you who are more pragmatic, please have some patience, it all makes sense at the end 😀
On a recent mushroom trip I encountered a disembodied being, a spirit that was sucking out my life energy. Although I had heard about this kind of thing, it had never happened to me before. So when I realised it was there, I had a mix of doubt (‘Is it really true that this is happening or am I making it up?’), confusion (‘I have no idea what the hell this is and how to deal with it’), exhaustion (‘Where the hell do I get the energy to deal with this?’) and fear (‘This is scary as shit and it is even scarier if I don’t manage to get it out of my system’). With mushrooms, everything is sensed in a very deep and intense way, so this really felt like a life or death kind of situation. I had an actual enemy in front of me and my very life energy was at stake! Winning back my energy BECAME A BIG DEAL.
As I was lying exhausted, trying to figure out what the hell this was, I had a series of thoughts that quickly turned into decisions:
1. I cannot afford to keep having my energy drained! It is important to me, there is so much I want to be and do and I need my energy for it. I have no choice, but to fight this bastard and get my energy back.
2. I am stronger than this being. In order to win this battle, I need to stand firm in my belief of that. I am an entire human with body and spirit and he only has spirit. So by definition I am stronger than him! And I will kick his ass.
3. My power is in my decision. I don’t know how to do this, but I don’t need to know the ‘how’ in order to do it! I just need to know that I have decided that this energy draining will stop today and trust I will find my way to accomplish what is needed.
It took me several hours of exhausting inner work to get the spirit to leave and go back into the dimension where it belongs. I tried so many things and eventually what worked was generating a high level of intensity in my body with absolute conviction and decisiveness and it was gone. I felt a healer from a nearby village watching me as I emerged out of my battle. She said I had done it. She said I can trust he’s gone now. I spent the rest of the evening and the next day recovering, it was one of the most exhausting experiences of my life.
The role of bad habits in our energetics
Now comes something that might make better sense to those of you who are not so spiritual. Two days after this experience, I encountered a strange disconnect between my mind and my life energy in an authentic relating circle I was hosting. As I sat journalling after, I realised that my mind was mistrustful of my natural energy flow. I had a story – if I’d let that energy guide me, I’d splash on a couch and sink into scrolling on my phone for hours. Then suddenly I saw the link – it was the exact same pattern of my encounter with the spirit! There was something sucking on my energy that I hadn’t addressed and it was creating an inner separation and mistrust between mind and body. This time, it was not a disembodied spirit with no name – this time, it was my own habit and my relationship with my phone. As long as it was there, my body and mind were pulling in different directions and that was draining me. And this time, I knew exactly what to do about it! So what follows below is a step by step process that can be useful if you find yourself being drained out of your energy by a bad habit.
Time to make some decisions
In order to get yourself out of a bad habit loop that is reinforcing a pattern of exhaustion and low energy, I’d recommend going through a series of decisions with yourself. Take some time to meditate/journal on the following:
Decision 1: My energy is the most important resource that I have!
Recognise its importance – why would that be true? What can you be and do with more energy? What will you be and do with less energy? Gather up the inner awareness and motivation through those questions to make the decision itself. “From now on, I will honour my life energy and prioritise it as the most important resource I have for everything I want in life!”
Decision 2: I can’t afford to have something sucking on my life energy!
Why is it that you can’t afford being drained out of your energy? Why is that important to you? Imagine the consequences of continuing down your familiar track, imagine all the wonderful moments and opportunities you are missing if you do so. Are you ready? Then make the call: I will no longer let this bastard suck my energy!
Decision 3: I am stronger than this pattern/bad habit/belief!
Remind yourself how much energy you do have, how much greater you are than any one part of yourself that might be giving you trouble right now. See the streams of energy coming back to your body from wherever you’ve left them. Feel your strength filling you up. Know you can kick this bad habit’s ass. Decide to remember, connect to the knowing deep in your being that you are stronger than whatever it is that you have in front of you!
Decision 4: My power is in my decision!
Before making a strategy of how to sort this out, commit to your decision. You know how they say once there is a will, there is a way. Activate your free will and know with absolute certainty in yourself that this bad habit dies right now. Not tomorrow, not when you feel better, right now. Once you’ve connected to the power of your own decision and made it, you can look at two little final steps:
1. Know how you will show up from now on: how do you go about implementing this decision? It doesn’t need to be complex. What are you replacing the junk food with? What are you doing instead of watching Netflix? How do you relate to your phone from now on exactly? Eg. when it comes to social media scrolling, I decided that I will no longer be its slave but let it be my servant. So I will only pick up my phone to reply to a message, do a task (eg. check the clock, set an alarm) or share something I feel inspired to share.
2. Get a worthy witness: you need to make a promise to follow through with your decision to something or someone you respect very deeply. It doesn’t need to be a person – actually, the best candidate is oftentimes a force you believe in that is bigger than yourself: god, goddess, creator, nature, love, freedom, spirit guide/animal, a nature being. Pick the one that resonates for you and inspires a sense of deep respect and make a promise to it. Then you can share about your decision with a close one or with a mountain, a tree, a forest, a lake – a nature being you feel connected to. Give them a promise. Give yourself a promise to follow through.
Next steps
When you’ve made those decisions in a strong and anchored way, you will immediately feel more energy in your body. The next steps should flow easily for you. You might find yourself still having those impulses from time to time – as soon as you catch the impulse, remind yourself of how awesome it feels without that bad habit, smile and stop whatever the impulse is driving you towards that very second. Celebrate your power to choose, how awesome it feels to be stronger than that. See it shrinking even further, getting weaker and weaker as you get stronger and stronger.
I hope this article serves as a reminder to you for the importance of your own life energy. I hope it is a reminder for the incredible power you have to DECIDE to do what is needed to honour the beauty and the strength of your human spirit by NOT settling for anything that undermines it. We don’t need those phones, those Netflixes and junk foods – we need to remember how powerful we are and we need to remember our planet, our close ones, our clients, we ourselves need ourselves functioning at our top capacity. There is so much to be done and experienced while we have this precious life. We can’t afford to waste a single minute of it on things that are not in service to our flourishing as individuals and as human collective.
Love,
Zori
About The Paradise Vlog
I believe we already are in paradise, regardless of where we are and what’s going on in our lives. I believe life is a journey towards becoming aware of this and enjoying as much of it as we can in the limited amount of time we have here. The ‘The Paradise Vlog’ youtube channel is the space where I share my process of shedding patterns and beliefs that obstruct our view in order to replace them with presence, joy and wonder. It’s also my invitation to you – an invitation to connect and journey together in creative ways, as we help each other see through to the greatest expression of ourselves. I also love creating spaces for growth-oriented people to connect to their soul power and life purpose. I do that in the form of coaching, shamanic work and group sessions in the Connection Playground. Reach out if you feel curious to explore any of those with me.
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