As wellness seekers, most of us look for recommended resources to show us the way. If you’re a reader, like me, you’ll hunt book cover after book cover, looking for that one that resonates with your inner being. Soon, you find it! The cover of the book looks captivating, colorful, and courageous. It looks to be a guide any woman would love to help her through the next steps, and into the most joyful and successful state she has ever experienced, so you snatch it off the shelf and anticipated hours of zen-filled reading ahead.  

As you continue to read through the pages, you remain hopeful that the storyline would get exciting, adventurous, humorous, anything to capture you, but such detail never arrived. No new awareness resonates with you, your life, or your current goals. Within the cleverly artistic cover was gray, boring, and stale detail. Bummer. The same thing happens when a friend recommends a new resource. You can’t wait to dive in, because it helped her out so much. Alas, lackluster results for you. Sigh.

Perhaps if we stop looking for the answers and start focusing on feeling the answers, we can be more authentically fulfilled in our wellness journeys. It’s personal, so some of the solutions are personal to us. When I started looking inward and feeling my way through an issue, and when I started letting my intuition guide my next steps, no matter what it looked like to me, or what it seemed like to others, I found fulfillment every time. How did I learn this new way of searching?  

Energy work.  

Energy work brings me closer to the solutions tailor-made for me. Some call it Reiki, energy healing, chakra energy, intuitive work, and while it has many names, this work has one sole purpose: to guide your soul and heal your being. You are not just a physical body—you have an energy body as well, and both allow you to do life in a more powerful and fulfilling way. Plus, you’ll be in the best health of your life. Once I learned about energy work, I wondered why more people didn’t talk about this. The reality is that some areas of the world are just now opening up to this knowledge around the holistic human and caring for each other, in a holistic way. The mind, body, and spirit all need nurturing, but most humans over focus on the physical, and neglect the rest. If you had a super power, you would want to know about it, right? Further, once you knew about it, you would want to use it all the time, right? Consider your energy body this super power. There is a way to align yourself with the highest energies, so that you can function at a higher level. Suddenly, aches and pains subside, your mind is clearer, you’re getting better sleep, and you’re enjoying better health every day.  

You have seven main Chakras within you. (Some people feel there are more.) They are the energy centers in our body that manage our overall energy flow. Blocked energy in one or all of our seven Chakras can often lead to illness, or pain, so I thought I’d discuss these briefly to build awareness and understanding.  

1. – Represents our foundation and feeling of being grounded.

• Location: Base of spine in tailbone area.
• Emotional issues managed: Survival issues such as financial independence, money, and food.

2. – Our connection and ability to accept others and new experiences.

• Location: Lower abdomen, about 2 inches below the navel and 2 inches in.
• Emotional issues managed: Sense of abundance, well-being, pleasure, sexuality.

3. – Our ability to be confident and in-control of our lives.

• Location: Upper abdomen in the stomach area.
• Emotional issues managed: Self-worth, self-confidence, self-esteem.

4. – Our ability to love.

• Location: Center of chest just above heart.
• Emotional issues managed: Love, joy, inner peace.

5. – Our ability to communicate.

• Location: Throat
• Emotional issues managed: Communication, self-expression of feelings, the truth.

6. – Our ability to focus on and see the big picture.

• Location: Forehead between the eyes. (Also called the Brow Chakra)
• Emotional issues managed: Intuition, imagination, wisdom, ability to think and make decisions.

7. – The highest Chakra represents our ability to be fully connected spiritually.

• Location: The very top of the head.
• Emotional issues managed: Inner and outer beauty, our connection to spirituality, pure bliss.

Now that you know what and where your Chakras are, what will you do next? Nurture them with some Reiki, massage, a chiropractic adjustment, acupuncture, meditation, or simply breathe deeper. Go inward and send new life to each of your chakras and engage your prana -that is, your life force. I learned how to do this for myself, using the ancient Japanese practice of Reiki. Learning about and then practicing Reiki has allowed me to tap into this energy body and restore what’s needed when it’s. needed. This can easily be done by learning a few basic teachings and practicing on yourself. From there, you can start sending energy to those who need it. You can infuse your yoga practice with Reiki, to create a healing environment for yourself or your students (if you teach.) Even off of your mat, you can infuse Reiki into your daily activities. Energy work is not attached to any religion, so though there are many names for energy work, align the work to your spiritual belief system for optimal results.  

Our bodies are complex and magnificent. We can heal ourselves, but only if we set ourselves up for success. So much of what we do, on a daily basis, harms our internal wellbeing. None of my trainers, during my early years, ask me about my home life, stress levels, or emotional well-being. I was quick to receive a basic exercise regime, and a certain diet. After that, we would re-evaluate those physical needs and how they are working. Meanwhile, due to some emotional strain I endured for years, my adrenals were over-worked, my immune system stayed compromised, and my nervous system was never at peace. All of which led to some pretty substantial physical pain for a few years. I looked great on the outside, but on the inside I was a mess.  

After learning about energy work and about the energy body, so much of the way I nourish myself and the physical activity I choose for the day, now depends on how I feel. If I wake up with low energy, I’ll follow a particular eating order because I understand where my energy is overwhelmed (perhaps blocked.) The priority now is my morning ritual of meditation and breathwork. As a Reiki practitioner, I’ll do Reiki on myself to help unblock my chakras for the day. If mornings aren’t your thing, taking time for energy work mid-day, a massage, or a quick meditation can help reset you for the rest of the day. There is no particular time you must do energy work, but it is important you make time for it.