Tips for Taking Charge of Your Energy

by Shirley Ryan

We would all like to get more out of life. An abundant lifestyle chuck full of good things, a lifestyle that works for us rather than against us, right? Have you ever wondered how to make that happen? Consider for a moment that taking charge of your life is also taking charge of your energy. The self-regulating methods of meditation work with the ebb and flow of energy, and consciousness. This creates a dynamic new way to look at life. One in which you are the maker of all that comes your way.

The possibilities internally are endless, but most of us live life looking outwardly, scanning the horizon for important data that reinforces whatever we are doing. We make the point to ourselves that it is prudent to be ever watchful, to save ourselves from problems in the long run. If you take your eye off the ball it sometimes drops like a lead balloon, right?

Actually looking within can be just as useful to enhance life, because it increases energy, clarity, adds greater meaning and a healthier lifestyle. A life that includes the discipline of looking inward is meditation. Meditation enhances our ability to observe what is inside and outside of ourselves.

Meditating regularly increases personal power and allows us to detach, find balance and continuity within. Most of the issues of living surround strenuous attachment to those things outside of us. Attachment and detachment are two of many paired opposites that need to be balanced in life to find greater peace. This duality drains the spirit of its energy. In meditation, our body and mind will spontaneously work to develop that balance, so it helps to get out of the way.

Detachment is the key to meditation. Detachment is a sense of disconnection or a neutral attitude towards what we have and see in the outside world. That is, a detachment from our need for these things, not that we must give up what we possess. It means that we must give up possessiveness in ourselves, or release the attachments that limit us. Detachment allows the freedom to fully meditate, expanding awareness of the possible. 

Symbolic things are internalized regardless of the external reality of a thing, so find a symbol that helps you detach to a greater degree of readiness.

• When thoughts interrupt, just let them pass through you as the observer of your thinking. (Keep a notepad for those things that need to be documented, and then let it go)
• Wash your hands in a symbolic gesture of finality when you quit work for the day or sit to meditate.
• Lock your briefcase in your trunk to signal closure for day or weekend. (Say to yourself--out of my life until 7:00 a.m. tomorrow or Monday morning!)
• Make an appointment with yourself to disengage a project--at 4:00 p.m. I switch gears to meditate. (Send an e-mail auto-timed to signal a private moment.) 
• Make one hour of the day off limits to business e-mail and phone calls. (Dedicate this private time to yourself.)
• Turn the phone off or lower the sound so it can’t be heard.
• Turn off the light to signal the start of meditation.
• Have a special shirt, jacket, sweater or scarf: a meditation garment which protects from external stimuli.
• Create a bubble around yourself that is soundproof to assist concentration.
• Wear sunglasses--to symbolically block outside stimuli. (Think instead, I now see my own internal light, the light of the Universe pulsating in me and through me.)
• Create a physical ritual as a symbolic gesture to neutralize the energy around you. This is symbolic, so the more meaningful to you the more you will use it. (E.g. Wave your arms in a wide symmetrical and expansive gesture of openness.)
• Then find a comfortable place to begin the process of meditation.

Connecting with the Universe through meditation helps us to live in a world that is ever, clearer and ever peaceful. When we get frustrated about things, it is usually because we see can’t see them from a higher perspective. Meditation creates a peaceful detachment from the external world and a life balance like no other. One that helps us see the beauty all around us, to see things through the eyes of God.