The Practical Implications of Stuck Energy

Everything is energy. Including you. Our bodies are energetic beings. You absorb energy from and give off energy to the world around you. Right now, as you sit or stand wherever you are reading this, energy is moving through you.

It’s happening all the time. You take it in through your breath, breathing in oxygen — yogis call this prana — the life force energy that sustains you.

An Easy Way to Understand Energy in Your Body

Energy is a challenging concept to discuss because it can feel esoteric and “woo-woo,” especially if you like to “wrap your head” around something — i.e. overthink it.

No judgments. We’ve all been there.

If you get a little lost around the energy conversation, you’re not alone. I’ve found that the best way to understand energy is to experience it.

Try this:

• stand up and put down your devices
• do jumping jacks or other vigorous movement for 30–60 seconds
• stop, and stand still. You can even lay on the floor on your back.
• notice what you feel in your body

You may notice a feeling of things still moving inside your body, even after you’ve stopped moving. Perhaps pulsing or tingling. This is energy moving in you, and through you.

Like you are a snow globe and someone just shook you up.

What you feel is the consequence of having just moved your energy pretty vigorously. Often the sensation is more subtle.

What Happens When Energy Gets Stuck

Sometimes the energy in our bodies gets stuck. Imagine your body is a plumbing system. Sometimes the pipes get gunked up. When this happens, the energy can’t flow freely from one part to another.

This creates stagnation, or “stuckness.”

In practical terms, stagnation even on a mild level shows up in many ways, including:

• procrastination
• being out of rhythm
• feeling blocked in your work
• fatigue
• apathy
• general disinterest
• lack of motivation
• tight muscles
• physical stiffness
• aches and pains in the body

When energy gets stuck for a long time, it creates dis-ease in the body. Sometimes the disease shows up where the energy is stuck, and sometimes it shows up further up or down the chain.

This can show up as anything from a mild head cold to full-borne illness to chronic pains.

To keep stagnation from accumulating, we need to move the energy.

How do you do that?

The exercise above showed you one simple way to move energy.

Check back tomorrow for more guidance on this.