Energy is the life force impulse that is inherent in all things, living or otherwise.
I’d like to share with you a lecture that I developed, which I’ve shared with a couple of classes so far.
The lecture introduces energy medicine and hopefully answers the question, what is energy and what does it have to do with me?
Albert Einstein said that concerning matter, we’ve been all wrong. What we have called matter is really energy whose vibration has been lowered as to be perceptible by the senses.
There is no matter. There’s only light and sound.
So, what is energy?
Energy is the Life Force Impulse that is inherent in all things, “living” or otherwise. It is within the acorn; it is what compels the acorn to become an oak. It is within the zygote; compelling it to become an embryo, a baby, a child, a teen, an adult. It is within this planet earth, and it is what the stars burn.
Energy vibrates. It vibrates at varying frequencies. When energy is vibrating at a slower rate, it shows up as matter; rocks, wood, plants, animals, bodies. When energy is vibrating at a faster rate, it becomes more difficult to detect with our senses (as well as with our technology), but we see it in sunlight and in heat rising from hot pavement, we hear it in sound, we feel it in emotion.
The mechanism that propels energy is polarity. Rising, falling, pushing, pulling, expanding and contracting, light and dark, warm and cold – seemingly opposite, but in fact just different poles on the spectrum of the one Life Force Impulse. One cannot exist, or be sustained, without the other, and each polarity is always relative to the other.
We see this pulse in the cycles of nature. We see it in the contracted and contained energy of a seed moving outward into the plant it is destined to become. We see it in the expanding stages of sprout, leaf, and fruit, and the contracting stages of harvest, decay and compost. We see it in the cycle of a day as the sun makes its way across our sky. We see and feel it in our environment as it responds to sun; from cool and still in the morning to active and warm in the afternoon, and back to cool and still in the evening.
We experience this same pulse, on micro and macro levels, moving within our bodies and throughout our lives. It shows up in our life cycle as we morph from that zygote into an aged human. We feel it on a daily basis as we sync with nature’s changes – rising, being active, winding down, resting. We feel it moment by moment in the expanding and contracting of our lungs and in the expanding and contracting of our heart muscle. We are tired and we are energized, we thirst and we are hydrated, we hunger and we are satiated.
This pulse of polarity is called YinYang in Chinese. Not Yin and Yang, as we say in English, but YinYang – one thing, one energy, two polarities. The etymology of the word duality, comes from the Latin dualis means ‘containing two’, which suggests there is One thing, made up of two parts.
Often you will hear these polarities labeled as masculine and feminine, or positive and negative. I try to avoid using the terms masculine and feminine when describing these polarities because as I said, they are always relative to each other, and never purely one or the other. YinYang is so much bigger than the terms masculine and feminine can describe. I will occasionally use the terms positive and negative, but I want to be perfectly clear that in doing so, I am referring to an electromagnetic charge, not a judgement of good or bad. Whenever possible I prefer to describe the nature of what the energy is doing: expanding/contracting, hot/cool, light/dark, active/passive, giving/receiving, etc.
When considering the nature of YinYang as it animates the human body, it’s important to remember that the Yang side of the spectrum works in short bursts of energy, whereas the Yin side of the spectrum is slower and more steady. Yang takes action and then withdraws into rest and refresh until action is needed again, while Yin steadily maintains its supportive pulse. I like to say that Yin is the currency of Yang – or Being is the currency of Doing. Those bursts of active Yang energy rely on there being a reserve of Yin energy to spend. This is why it is crucial to consciously replenish our Yin energies with time in nature, authentic rest, and contemplation.
In relationship to the sun, our planet Earth is more Yin. It does not beam light or heat out into space as the sun does. The earth is more cool and nourishing relative to the sun’s hot activity. Though the earth herself has two poles, the overall charge on the surface of the planet is negative – there is a field of negative electrons that cover the surface of the Earth. The light that reaches us from our sun has a positive charge, which is pulled in by the negative charge of the planet. These two polarities, which are constantly attracted to each other, move through all living things on the planet, including us.
In Chinese medicine the body is looked at with the arms raised, palms facing forward, legs wide and feet turned out – the stance of active vitality. In Western medicine the body has been studied from the perspective of the cadaver – parts, without the life force energy moving through it. In order to better understand how the Life Force Impulse moves through and energizes our bodies, it behooves us to take a closer look at that stance of vitality.
To begin, our bodies also have poles with positive and negative charges. The bottoms of our feet have a more positive charge, which attract to, and pull up on, the overall negative charge on the surface of the planet. The top of our heads have a more negative polarity, which attracts to, and pulls in, the positively charged energy (ions) coming down from the sun.
We have pathways in our bodies that carry these Life Force Impulses from above and below as they make their way toward each other, and which transport vital energy into all of our organs and physical systems. These pathways are called meridians, and they are identified as either a Yin pathway (carrying energy up), or a Yang pathway (carrying energy down). The Yin energy needs to be able to move freely from the feet, up the inside of the legs, up the front of the torso, up the inside of the arms and off the fingertips, where they merge with the Yang energy. The Yang energy needs to be able to move freely down from the fingertips and face, down the back, or “shell” side of the body, and off of the feet where it merges with the Yin energy.
The meridian pathways transport vital energy to the organs.
Energy wants to move, it needs space to move, and it wants to move in specific patterns. If these pathways are obstructed, the YinYang (-/+) energy cannot easily flow through the body in order to meet and merge with its polar opposite, thus inhibiting the energy’s ability to serve the organs and functions that it would otherwise be serving.
Like streams in nature, the flow of energy in a meridian can become compromised, resulting in problems downstream. This is one of the origins of disease in the body – the inability of the Life Force Impulse to move freely and easily through the meridian channels (as well as other subtle energy systems).
There are many ways that the YinYang energy can be obstructed and inhibited in its movement, the primary one being a disconnection from the earth. In our modern day and age, and in our Western culture, it is more and more rare to be literally touching nature. Most modern humans wear rubber soled shoes, walk on sidewalks, ride in vehicles, and spend the bulk of their time in buildings. Without spending time outdoors with our hands and feet touching the ground, we lose out on all the rich negative electrons which blanket the surface of the planet and which provide our bodies with antioxidant properties, helping to neutralize free radicals in the body.
For true vitality, our energies need to vibrate in harmony with the earth’s vibration. This is why the act of grounding is the first and foremost step in organizing the human biofield – the subtle energy that surrounds and penetrates the human body. For some people, this can be achieved by simply standing barefoot on the ground for 10 minutes at a time, at least once a day. For others, whose energies have become scrambled or incoherent and can no longer connect with the earth’s vibration, simple intervention with energy medicine techniques can restore the flows of YinYang and synchronize the body’s energies with the energies of the earth, thereby providing the physical system with a steady sustenance of Life Force Impulse.
We are holy conduits for the sacred dance of YinYang, and this dance is the pulse of Creation. With the use of energy medicine techniques we can dissolve obstructions and restore coherence of the Life Force Impulse as it moves through our body – resulting in vitality, clear thinking, and an increased capacity for joy.