A Core Energetic Explanation of Suffering

I’ve noticed that when I feel scared, overwhelmed, or don’t trust that it’s safe to surrender, it can be helpful to put things in context, and to use a certain self talk with myself. 

Right now it looks something like this: the tension in your chest, your racing heart, all the sensations that it feels impossible to live with - these are all opportunities. Something in you is crying out for transformation and release. With breath, with movement, with connection, grief can become love and fear can become courage. 

A central tenet of Core Energetic theory is that our energetic systems can become ill or restricted in much the same way as our physical bodies. While our muscles or internal systems become tight, weak, or overburdened, our energetic systems can develop “blocks” or “holding patterns”. In this case, these are protective mechanisms designed to close us down when being open is too painful or threatening to our survival. These blocks can become habitual and automatic, sticking around long past the point of their usefulness. Like our bodies, our energetic systems yearn for health and wholeness, and will always move towards those states. The bubbling up of pain and discomfort are critically valuable alert systems from our bodies - “this needs to be moved, this needs to be released.” 

It takes a tremendous amount of energy to hold back vital energies and spontaneous action - imagine a river trying to damn itself (the logical impossibility of this speaks to the untenability of energetic blocks). Both the energy that is held back, and the energy used to hold it back are unavailable for creativity or connection. 

While escape, through numbing with alcohol, screens, or a fantasy of spiritual enlightenment may be seductive, this would actually represent an enormous tragedy. Your life force, your energy, the infinite possibility of who you are would remain forever buried. So be brave, and be grateful for this misery.