The Tao of Energy

Everything you do in life depends on your level of energy! It cycles from low levels to medium levels to high levels and then back to low. It powers your movements, your thoughts, your feelings and even your responses. Contemplate how almost nothing may bother you when your energy is strong and how anything and everything can annoy you when your energy is low. nnThe character for 'Chi' as in Tai Chi is a person standing between heaven and earth carving out their world (symbolized by a tree) with their mouth and their hands. It translates as 'Energy' but the ideogram really tells us that if you have enough ENERGY then you can say what you want to say and do what you want to do and create what you WILL! Has there ever been a time when you wanted to say or do something that you knew was the right thing to say or do but you didn't because you didn't have enough energy?nnEnergy is one of the three treasures: vitality, energy and spirit. Energy relates to the solar plexus chakra and the color yellow. On a physical level it directly relates to your ability to move or propel your body and speak your truth and on an energetic level it relates to your WILL - your ability to focus your thoughts and feelings toward a particular INTENT.nnHere is a powerful contemplation on energy and how it relates to your life and being.nnEnergy is mass waiting to be liberated or it is mass that has been liberated. When you eat something, it's mass is converted into energy that is distributed throughout your body and used to move, build new cells, rebuild damaged cells and dispose of waste (mass that cannot be used by us for energy in that form) or be stored as mass on the body to be used at some other time.nnWhen you exercise you are releasing energy from your mass and at the same time splittimg your mitochondria to have more of them(they burn fat and turn it into energy) and making them more efficient which in turn makes you have more energy.nnThe more energy you have, the more you can do and create or destroy. Buiding or freeing energy is like water rising behind a dam; it rises and rises until it spills over into new worlds bringing new insights and new behaviors. If you have a realization or inspiration but don't have a consistant change in behavior then you don't have enough energy to make it so.nnYou are built to move! The act of breathing is an essential movement and the arts of tai chi and yoga cultivate the breath and are excellent for helping to free the trapped energy in your tendons, ligaments and muscles. moving an dbreathing while directing the energy with the mind cultivates "linking energy".nnI have had students who actually stopped training because they say their energy rising and they saw the changes that were going to come with their higher amped up levels and they weren't ready mentally or emotionally for those shifts. When they were ready for change, they would come back and free it, build it and let it flow linking the various aspects of their self together.nnif you aren't getting into the shape you want or have the energy levels you desire, you might wish to ask yourself, "What will I do when I have all this energy?" "What will I do when my body transforms into this shape?" Are you ready for how your energy will impact your relationships, your job, your path?nnThe tao of energy is to move, to create, to destroy and to ultimately transform us and help us evolve toward our intentions. Purifying our INTENT is a cornerstone to the right use of energy and our ability to direct it even as it directs us. I intend that you will find the energy to listen and follow your heart as you cultivate all three treasures!