Kristin Shepherd
Yoga and Energy Management
Oh, I adore yoga today.
Over a 20-year career in health care practice, you can't help but see that health care, indeed life care, has everything to do with management of energy.
Some people have a strong sense of their own power. They're generally unafraid of their bodies, other people, and life events. They trust. They're the optimists, the resilient ones who know that even when things look bad, they're headed in a great direction. They act out of confident joy. They are motivated by fun, happiness, feeling good. ("It makes me feel fantastic," they say about traveling, about new careers, about highland dancing, photography, about going back to school.)
At the other end of the spectrum are those who are afraid of life, of their own bodies, of viruses and bacteria ("Of course I'll get that cold, I get all the colds"), of the unknown, of scarcity, of the future. They don't trust--they suffer. They act out of fear. Their choices are based on just-in-case scenarios and preventing bad things from happening. They're all about anti-cancer, anti-poverty, anti-aging, anti-heart disease ("My mother had it, my father had it, my brother's going to get it, he eats so badly, god, I might as get on the transplant list now."), and on and on.
Some days we're at one end of this scale, and some days at the other.
We also manage our energy differently in different areas of life. Think of finances, parenting, work, death, career choices, sports. Think of your mother, your ex, your taxes. Think about going back to yoga class.
This is a huge subject, worth far more than a wee blog, and my intention is not to trivialize.
I raise it to say this:
I love that every morning brings us the chance to find out where we are in terms of managing our energy, and the opportunity to make a new choice.
On those days when the monkey mind, before I have even opened my groggy eyes, is chatting about stiffness, getting older, and what I can't do, I remember this difference between fear and joy, and that's enough to stop my nonsense.
Most days it's enough to snap me into joy so that by the time my gnarly feet reach the mat, I'm managing my energy in a way that takes good care of my body and of the rest of my life.
I'll bet anything we were born to learn to manage our energy through love and joy, and to leave fear behind.
What are your thoughts?
Thanks to morning yoga for teaching me about choice, and thanks to you for the conversation,
kristin
Dr. Kristin Shepherd is a chiropractor, actor, and speaker (About All Things Wonderful) in North Bay, Ontario. Join her on the web, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on iTunes.
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Comments
Yes! I completely agree. Today was a day I was able to step back from my fear a little. Thoughts kept popping in, like, "I hate my life, I hate my job, I hate this day." But when I stepped back and looked at the thoughts honestly, with a sense of yogic detachment, I really felt my energy in the day skyrocket.
No one wants to have hardship, but our fear of hardship is usually so much worse than the actual trials we face.
Thank you for a beautiful post!
Posted by: Marian | June 2, 2011 5:26 PM
I really think this thing we call balance in life is truly about managing our energy. For me it has been a life long learning curve finding that balance. I think yoga (and maybe dance?) gives physical form to the constantly changing nature of life energy,
Posted by: Genevieve Rohan | June 3, 2011 6:12 AM
I found this interesting and helpful...
Think about love. Think about the kindness of love, the comfort of love, the acceptance and warmth of love, the simplicity and generosity and forgiveness of love. Think about the gentleness of love, the patience of love, the compassion of love. Think about the refuge and relief of love. Think about love.
That, I believe, is God. Love itself, perfect, eternal and infinite, flowing among all of us, shared as our birthright, our love uniting us and living on within God. There is nothing to fear. It's love itself that is the God we seek, here within all of us and living on forever. Love has always been here.
The rest, I believe, is nature. Our bodies and our minds, the self we identify as soul, heredity and upbringing, all part of nature. There is no evil, only nature, a broad scape from marvels of beauty to tragic aberrations, all nature, all fleeting. All of nature shares the same preoccupations at its own level...we seek food, continuation of our species, pleasure, safety, status and territory. Those are the things of nature and the joys they give us are the gifts of nature.
But our greatest days are made of love, in hours of unbearable loss, it's love that comforts us. We thrive on it, we long for it. With love, we do what we would have thought impossible, through love we make the miracles that others are praying for. It's through our own love that God comes into the world.
Our prayers have already been answered. We have been given love, it is already here for us. Hunger and sickness, sadness and loneliness, fear and cruelty...what we can't overcome with love, we can comfort with love so that none suffer alone and abandoned.
This, I believe, is our purpose. To free our love from the fearful cautions of nature, to let love dissolve the divisions that separate us, to look for love in every other being and find God. With love, we live as in heaven.
Think about love often, nurture love within yourself, give over some time of your days to meditate on love, to pray that we will have more love. Think about love and pray that one day we will all have the love we need for all the world.
This is not a religion and there is no need for money, preachers, books, or buildings. The truth is in love itself and the only outward sign of love is love. This is for you, offered in hope that it will help. The person who wrote this is an ordinary person of unexceptional virtue who will say nothing further.
loveisthegodweseek.org
Posted by: Dotty | June 3, 2011 8:56 AM
What a truly wonderful (and right on) blog. Our energy source is everything: it's the "be all" and "end all" of every aspect of our lives. I'd like t think that I'm relatively conscience of how I chose to exert energy. Thanks to reading however, I'm reinspired to be more aware. I think that's all we can really do: be aware and listen to what our bodies tell us.
Namaste
StudioLiveTV.com
Posted by: StudioLiveTV | June 3, 2011 11:09 AM
I think that in many ways, part of managing energy means generating energy. Not to beat a dead horse, but I think exercising, whether yoga or something else, every day is the optimal way to generate energy. The process of generating energy through exercise allows us to sort through our thoughts and prioritize what's really worth spending time and effort on each day. Simply put, a healthy body means a healthy mind. Exercising and meditation on a daily basis can combat anxiety, worries, and even depression.
Posted by: Kristyn | June 5, 2011 3:52 PM
The answer of the energy source lies in the Kundalini.
Find out more - see Hasmukh Taylor seminars, Sedona June 25/26.
http://www.sedonacreativelife.com/02events.html
Dr. Taylor explains how to awaken the Kundalini through various Yogas, not necessarily exercises or asanas. Gain control over your personal energy
Posted by: Avi Taank | June 5, 2011 4:20 PM
I enjoyed reading your articles. This is truly a great read for me. I have bookmarked it and I am looking forward to reading new articles. Keep up the good work
Posted by: brady | June 6, 2011 4:04 AM
I am finding this discussion of "fear" and its relation to energy in the body interesting. Doesn't it come back to the idea of not having enough? Of functioning in this life as though we are missing something that others have either more of, or enough of.
Energy is a gathering of positive thoughts, movements and actions. Prana. We increase it through breath. We increase it through this notion of "love": compassion for ourselves and others. Rejoicing in the happiness of others. Rejoicing in our own happiness.
Back to the "fear" concept: is it "fear" of losing what we already have, or is "fear" of not having enough? Does it cause one to shrink physically, therefore mentally and spiritually? For sure the answer for almost anything is to love more. But, realistically, how? How do we truly raise our enegetic level while trying to live in this world with all the bombards us? Practice:Yoga:Love: All Yes!
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