TRANSFORMING ENERGY DRAINS

Just about everyone I’ve ever met has at least one thing that robs their inner peace and drains their energy. Often it is more than one thing, but our attention stays pretty much on the habit or relationship that is most challenging.

As an energy coach and psychotherapist, I have witnessed numerous transformations. It is beautiful to watch someone unravel a formerly unconscious energetic pattern and return to their natural state of calm energy and inner peace.

Identifying Draining Patterns

It’s easy to identify patterns that need transforming. They tend to happen over and over again, draining you every time. They come in the form of thoughts, behaviors, habits, and interactions with others. By definition, they undermine the natural flow of life, leaving inner turmoil, guilt and frustration in their wake.

We are designed to receive, contain and express life energy – as a vessel. When draining patterns twist, block, or distort the natural flow of life, feelings of discomfort prevail.

Receiving Energy

It is important to take time each day to connect to your spiritual core and allow the energy to bubble up and permeate the cracks and crevices of your mind and body. Along with pure life energy infusing your body, each time you connect to your spiritual core you add a building block to a foundation or identity grounded in spirit. This strong foundation gives us the courage to withstand changes in our daily lives.

Containing Energy

The next step involves containing spiritual energy, which can be as intense as it is invigorating. Being able to contain enough life energy to feel full-filled requires that your vessel have integrity – to be solid and strong without leaks and drains. Life depleting patterns compromise our ability to contain spiritual energy. We undermine the integrity of our vessel with habitual irrational thoughts, over-consuming, and by engaging in destructive patterns of relating with others. Transforming your part in these patterns restores your energy system to health. From here you can passionately express your essence.

Expressing Energy

Once we develop the habit of connecting to our spiritual core daily, and build the integrity and resilience to sufficiently contain that energy, we come full circle to the point of expressing our essence into the world. Life is pro-creation: in favor of extending itself. We survive and thrive because of this basic principle. Extending your essence into the world means that you tune-in to what sets you aflame, makes your heart sing, what gives you genuine passion, and then express that gift as only you can. As we extend our essence, we nourish ourselves first and then pour light into the world nourishing it as well. Just as the flowing water from a stream feeds and greens the land on either side, our bodies are fed as we express ourselves.  

Transforming Energy Drains

Awareness is the first step to change. You may need to reflect upon your life to see where you are losing energy, although chances are you already know. Once you’ve identified your biggest energy drain (It’s important to only focus on one at a time to avoid becoming overwhelmed) you can begin the alchemic process of transforming it so that you can fully receive, contain and express life energy.

Step One

The first step is to notice the way you participate in the dynamic. Perhaps you have a habitual thought that always puts you in a tail spin, resulting in stress and exhaustion. An example of this would be, “Life’s too hard – I don’t have any time for myself.” Notice how the thought is solely responsible for the stress it creates. Once aware, you are empowered to replace the thought with a life-enhancing one. For example, “Every breath I take calms and energizes me.”

Perhaps your pattern is that of over-eating or over-spending, not exercising or falling into binge drinking when your energy is low. All of these have an immediate payoff or we wouldn’t do them. Find out what the payoff is for you. Perhaps the self-defeating behavior pulls instant energy into your body, only to later deflate you even further. Or perhaps when you need grounding, you look to food rather than a walk in nature. Whatever the payoff is, find it so that you can meet your need in a healthy way.  

Step Two

Tolerate the tension. True transformation cannot occur without the alchemic property of fire. This hot energy feels like tension in the body and causes us to crave certain behaviors or substances to alleviate the discomfort. Not giving into the cravings, but simply sitting in the tension is transformative. There is no way around transformation – one can only go through the fire.  

Step Three

Enjoy your newfound inner freedom. Whenever we burn through even a small piece of a draining pattern, life energy is able to flow more freely through the body. This is the true meaning of free spirit – not doing whatever we want when we want to – but refining ourselves to the point that spirit can flow abundantly and freely.

Kimberly Kingsley is an Energy Coach and author of Opening to Life and the forthcoming book, The Energy Cure (Career Press/New Page Books). www.kimberlykingsley.com