Seeing and Feeling Energy

[ervin garner]

I always teach people to see and feel energy in my meditation classes
for a couple of reasons. It's a lot of fun, and being able to see it
and feel it makes it more real and easier for them to grasp.
Applying this to your martial arts practice (and then the rest of your
life) can give you some interesting abilities. When you can feel and
see energy it makes it easier for you to be aware of the people around
you. This increased awareness can help you sense when a co-worker may
be over-stressed and more likely to engage in conflict. It allows you
to apply some sympathy and understanding and thereby increase your own
effectiveness by avoiding needless conflict and stress.
If you've been doing the exercises that I've described then by this
point you've probably had some interesting experiences with feeling
your own internal energy and drawing energy into your body. Now we're
going to work with feeling external energy. As you progress with this
you'll not only be able to feel your own energy, but the energy of the
people and things around you. Seeing and feeing energy can also be a
lot of fun to experiment and play with. It's especially fun to get
others involved.
The following exercises will help you feel your aura, the external
energy field that surrounds everything. Everything on the planet is
made up of various particles held together by energy, and you can feel
and even manipulate that energy with practice.
Exercise 1 - Building an energy ball
Rub your hands together briskly as if trying to warm them on a cold
day. Doing this increases the sensitivity of your hands.
Hold your hands in front of you about 6 inches apart. Now move them
away from each other until they are about 8-12 inches apart, and then
move them back to 2-3 inches apart, just like a fisherman describing
the sizes of the fish he caught. As you continue doing this, can you
feel a ball or energy building up between your hands? It may feel like
a thickness in the air between your hands, or a pressure between them.
Play with this exercise a bit. See how big you can make the energy
ball. Is one hand more sensitive than the other? Can you turn your
hands over and do it with the backs of your hands?
Exercise 2 - Waving the energy
Hold your left hand upright in front of you with your palm facing to
the right. Wave your right fingertips slowly up and down in front of
your left palm, but without touching it. Can you feel the motion of
your right hand across the surface of your left palm? Switch hands and
do it again. Does it feel different with the other hand? Is one hand
more sensitive than the other?
Exercise 3 - Feeling the aura
Hold your hands out in front of you at arms length, palms in. Now move
your awareness down to your palms and slowly move your palms in toward
your body. Remember the way it felt when you made the energy ball
between your palms? Can you feel the same sort of thickness or
pressure as your palms move in towards your body?
With a partner practice moving your hands slowly towards them. Can you
feel their aura? Can your partner feel your hands as you move towards
them?
Have your partner stand about 12-15 feet away. Now walk slowly towards
them. Can you sense their aura as you walk up to them? Can they feel
you? As you get deeper into this you'll be able to play with intention
and emotions also, but for now just concentrate on feeling the aura.
Some games that you can play with this;
Have your partner stand a few feet away and think angry thoughts. Can
you feel a difference in their energy? How about when they think happy
thoughts? Have them hide somewhere in the house and, without moving,
see if you can sense where they are. Try this in various places around
town as well.
Some people have no trouble at all with this while others aren't as
empathic and take awhile to learn to feel it. As usual this is all
about building up your own personal catalog and learning how things
feel.
Just as you can feel energy, a lot of people can also see it. Seeing
the aura doesn't seem to be something that everyone can do and those
who do seem to have wildly varying abilities. I've known healers who
could look at you and say things like "Oh you're blocking some energy
here" just because of what they see in your aura, while others can
just barely see it.
Personally I'm more of an empath and while I can feel energy from
across the room I don't see it that well. This is something that you
can play with and if you can do it then it's just another cool tool in
the toolbox.
? 2006 Robert Morgen. This article may be used by anyone, anywhere as
long as the author's bio and links are included.
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