Inner Peace

For thousands of years ancient wisdom has recognized life energy within and around living human beings. It is known as chi in China, prana in India, ki in Japan, nishama in the Jewish tradition, and the state of grace in Christianity.
Despite this knowledge accumulated over the millennia, Western health practices had largely ignored life energy as worthy of study. Fortunately, the 21st century has witnessed an important change of policy with a growing group of health professionals now paying attention to the human energy system and its role not only in improving your healing and immune functions but also in maintaining your emotional health and well-being. This group is exploring the territory beyond your physical constitution by investigating the energetic constitution of your mind.
One important development has been the growth of support for the idea that your mind is more than just your brain. At the frontiers of research of the mind, scientists are suggesting that every cell in your body has some capacity to remember; and that failure to consider and treat “body memory” accounts for the continued power of a psychological trauma despite years of talk therapy. In addition, they are talking about energetic processes involved between your heart and brain and the importance of the fascia (a component of the connective tissue system in your body) especially in what has been labeled unexplained illnesses like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. When these scientists discuss the roles of the heart and the fascia, they talk about electromagnetic fields and electronic signaling, both of which are forms of energy, and therefore are part of the energy you. Lastly, they are looking at what could be considered energy fields that exist as part of and also outside of what is considered the boundaries of your physical self. Through this research, professionals have shown why it is impossible to separate what has been traditionally referred to as the physical you from the energy you.
In order to consider the energy you in terms of energy inside and outside what you would normally consider your physical self, you might want to compare the influence of your personal energy to magnetic fields. Remember in school when you placed a magnet under a piece of paper and sprinkled iron filings or paperclips on top of the paper? The small filings or paperclips then arranged themselves in a pattern that outlined the magnet’s field. Also, if you moved the magnet, the filings or paperclips moved despite the paper that came between. In the same way, it is hypothesized that materials in your energy fields influence areas outside your skin surface.
In addition to the fields generated by your heart, brain and other cells, your actual thoughts and beliefs generate fields because they too are energy. Their energy can influence the energy system whether by disruption of energy by a negative belief or freeing up the energy flow by way of a positive belief. Expanding on this idea, a new branch of psychology, called Energy Psychology has emerged that provides you methods to release emotional distress, and eliminate negative beliefs, thoughts and behaviors.
The methods not only allow you to actually recognize blocks in your energy system, they give you simple techniques to correct them. One such method is Touch and Breathe (TAB) which uses the acupuncture meridian system, mindfulness, and breath as core ingredients. Mindful breath while lightly touching certain acupuncture meridian points coordinated with your thinking about a problem in a prescribed way, gives you access to your energy system and an opportunity to release blocked energy for more useful purposes.
Through this method you get past walls, develop your future goals and rehearse the life you want for yourself. You learn step-by-step ways to use affirmations and focus your intention to bring your energy system into inner balance. You also learn steps to identify and release the stuck energy that is encoded in a negative belief, which then offers you an opportunity to replace the negative belief with a more helpful belief. As you continue to free yourself from the negative beliefs that hold you back, you naturally emerge into a state of inner peace, which then extends beyond your personal space to your environment and ultimately the world. Could inner peace be just a breath away?
This article is excerpted from the book The Energy of Belief: Psychology’s power tools to focus intention and release blocking beliefs © 2007 Elite Books. Permission is granted to any site or individual to reproduce this article online provided a link to http://www.energyofbelief.com and this copyright notice is included in such reproduction.
About the Author
Psychologist, Sheila Sidney Bender, Ph.D. and Social Worker Mary T. Sise, LCSW are well known for their clinical acumen and administrative leadership in furthering energy psychology, a specialty of mind -health and well-being. In their book The Energy of Belief, Bender and Sise describe in clear and simple step- by- step techniques, ways for you to overcome your life- compromising negative beliefs, thoughts and behaviors. http://www.energyofbelief.com