Below are 5 “keys” to recovering your inner sense of well-being, and coping with the emotional rollercoasters of life.

1. Live who you are. You would think this is “oh-duh” but apparently not. Most people do not know who they truly are, much less live who they are. So you are not alone, if you have forgotten your real self. This key is called “prevention” by conventional therapists. It is what you have to do on a regular basis to prevent yourself from sinking into an emotional whirlpool. This is about letting your inner child out, and doing more “self-love”. If you have trouble doing this, consider a plant. A plant needs a certain amount of water and sunlight, and a particular kind of soil in order to thrive. Self-love is allowing yourself your “conditions to thrive”. It is self-care and self-nurture on a regular basis. When you “flower”, you naturally bring more beauty and love into world. You need to live who you are, at least most of the time, in order to get your happy face back on. This is your number one responsibility in your life. It is no one else’s job to do this for you. For example, maybe you secretly want to be a dancer, but are forcing yourself to be in a “serious” bank teller job. This just might kill you, if you don’t make sure somehow to get lots of dancing in your life.

2. Use your healthy coping tools. This key is called “intervention” in regular therapy circles. We all need a few healthy coping or “intervention” strategies in our toolkit, for life WILL throw at least a few major stressful life events our way. When it does, we need to know what we can do to cope. And no, alcohol and drugs don’t count. Know what works for you that is also healthy. For example, you make sure you get in a power walk or some form of exercise at the end of a stressful day at work to allow the energy of stress to move through, and not stay in, your body.

3. Practice scaling your emotions. Scaling your emotions is a way to measure how light or heavy they are. On a scale of “0 to 10”, with 0 equals no anger or stress, and 10 equals maybe rage or panic attack, know what your “2-5” especially is. Whether irritability, frustration, annoyance, mildly worried or afraid. And know how those variations of emotion feel in your body, when they are in the 2 to 5 range, BEFORE you get to higher numbers on your scale. Begin using your coping tools then. Don’t wait.

4. Know your emotion constellations. In the night sky, a constellation is a group of stars that go together. Each of your emotions is like its own constellation. Within “anger” or any other emotion constellation will come certain thoughts, scents, visual cues, sounds, tastes, bodily sensations, physical environments, and even secondary emotions. Know what these are for you, so that you can be very conscious of your emotional landscapes. Know what your calm constellation is, for that will give your hints about how to bring your body into a state of calm. Those will remind you of many healthy coping tools you can use to prevent yourself from feeling overwhelmed. Maybe you like to imagine being at the beach, with the sounds of seagulls, the scent of salty air, the taste of coconut on your lips, and the feel of your toes sinking into the warm, wet waves. Perhaps aromatherapy helps you at work, with the scent of lavender on your desk.

5. Re-direct your body into the feeling you choose in that moment. Your body has a hard time being in calm and stress at the same time. If you are breathing slowly and deeply, you can’t breathe in that shallow fast way you do when you’re anxious, at the same time. Your body will calm because you are directing it to do so by breathing the way you do naturally when you are calm. If you are thinking thoughts that are consistent with feeling safe, in control or even upbeat, then your body will steer in that direction, which is why constructive self-talk, that you really believe, usually works every time!

Now that you have the keys to getting back the sense of well-being in your life, use them! And remember, the most important key is to “be you!”

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They pick up the signals being emitted by you, other people (and things), and you feel these signals. Your energy field registers their energy field, and you have a vibratory response (aka emotion) to what you feel. Emotions that feel pleasant are a result of your field and theirs being compatible. The peaks and valleys of the energy waves synch up, and resonate with one another. Unpleasant emotions stem from energy waves coming together that are not in resonance. When your heart is open to everyone around you like a rose in summer, you open your energy field to all of their energy. So you feel all of their energy. And it can feel like too much, especially when you haven’t shored up your own field. When you internalize, you literally allow their energy to enter your being. Worse is when you can no longer distinguish your own energy field from that of other people. It is only your belief that you have to let their energy into your field in order to feel compassion, understanding and intuitive guidance. Technically, you can learn to read them without displacing your field. And you will be much more effective when you do so. Learning to set energetic boundaries helps you discern when and how much external energy to let into your field. Paying attention to who you are, and prioritizing how love and life seek to move through you as you is essential. In the meantime, qigong teaches you to use imagery to set such a boundary. For example, you can see yourself enclosed in a violet egg of protection when you are out in public. Imagine the boundary, then go about your day. Or, as Richard Bartlett, DC, NC says, “set it and forget it!” Since energy flows in the direction of your heart and focused thought, when you open your field, you literally invite all other energy to come in. But you can choose when and how long to keep your field open, and to whom. When your heart and mind tune into your children, you will feel them. When you tune into your coworkers, you will feel them. In turn, they can feel you, usually subconsciously, and will respond to what they sense as a loving energy coming into them. That is why even strangers will feel drawn to opening up their hearts around you. Intuition has many psychic layers. The first of these is the ability to tune into others’ emotions as an empath does. But you can also tune into thoughts, physical pain or blockage, or other layers of individual experience, as you decide to do. You can also tune into collective emotion, thought, or pain. When you do, you may not even be around anyone physically, but you will feel the collective grief or anger of humanity, the thoughts of a nation, or the pain of a society. (According to MIT physicist Claude Swanson, the ability to tune into collective forces involves nonlocal energy fields called torsion, but suffice it to say, these are energies that interconnect us as one in some kind of broad and “spooky action at a distance”.) Being an empath can literally be a pain. But when you learn to balance this gift of sensitivity, it no longer has to overwhelm you. You can then use your gift for healing or whatever purposes inspire you.

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Since it is Love energy that actually heals, use your ability to imagine the experience of unbounded Love to elevate yourself to the highest state of love consciousness that you can before you begin your healing meditation.

Some people do this by imagining Love as a color or as a symbol. Others do this by recalling a memory, a feeling state, of untainted unselfish love, perhaps reliving the love of a pet, a friend, a parent, or spouse. For instance, if you associate love as a white color, then you can imagine white energy flowing in through the top of your head, the crown chakra, as you breathe in. As you exhale, you can imagine the white energy being steered into the part of your body in need of healing. If you prefer to access the state of Love through a symbol, such as the cross, you can imagine the cross or other symbol radiating love in the area of the wound. In your mind’s eye, you can even become the cross itself as you meditate. If reliving a moment of shared love with the pet who has always remained at your side is what transports you to the joyful plane of love consciousness, use that now.

Feel yourself expanding with Love, and let Love energy do the healing. Get out of the way. You are not what heals. As you anchor the presence of Love into your experience, you are ready to direct healing into a region of injury or hurt.

Bring your awareness to a physical wound or state of dis-ease. Picture in your mind that area restored to its healed state. The mental picture says what words cannot, and instantly communicates your complete intention to all of the cells involved directly in your healing. If your lungs are congested, for example, imagine your lungs as clear and open. It is as if you are giving leadership direction to all of the little cells, or workers, in your body that are striving so hard to please you.

To expand upon the above example, breathe in dazzling white light through the crown of your head. In your mind’s eye, see your lungs sparkling like they are made of diamond. Imagine what healing feels like as the light of love clears and expands the passages of your lungs. Feel what it feels like to be completely immersed in Love, to have white Love energy radiating through this part of your body. Close your eyes, be Love, move Love, allow Love to heal.

Now you select an area of your body in need of some healing help. Access the highest state of love you can. Breathe Love in until you are one with Love. As you breathe out, move Love through your exhale into the area you are choosing to heal, whether a physical wound, an emotional one, or some other hurt.

I remember the first time I used healing imagery. It intuitively came to me as I was immobile with severe chest pain. Unable to get out of bed, I froze, holding my breath for as long as I could because the pain intensified whenever I moved, even with the slightest breath. I had had chest pains since I was a child, but this time was unexpectedly traumatic. What usually lasted for 3-10 seconds, ended up lasting almost an hour. When I realized the pain was not going away, I prayed to God for healing. The idea of using white light to symbolize Divine Love then entered my mind. I imagined the most radiant light I could envision. I pictured Christ, angels, my husband, and all those who love me, sending brilliant white Love energy into my heart for healing, feeling their searing touch upon my skin. I imagined the deepest and highest love I could feel. To start, I thought of my dear kitten, whose presence immediately filled me with joy. (Many people use imagery of their pets to get into the state of unconditional love that heals, for pets just seem to know how to be unwavering in their love for us, unlike people.) I then reached into memory, and retrieved images of moments in which I was filled with ecstatic and mystical love…..the kind that burns away any sense of material self, that radiates with the power of the sun, and expands beingness to both nothing-ness and all-ness simultaneously. As I melted into Love, I moved Love energy in through my breath, inhaling Love into my beingness, exhaling Love into my heart. I then allowed myself to get lost in this meditation. Later, I became again aware of my heart and body, then the room.

When I visited the cardiologist two days later for a diagnostic, he found nothing wrong with my heart. I told him I had once been diagnosed with mitral valve prolapse. He repeated, “I don’t see mitral valve prolapse. I don’t see anything wrong with your heart.”

Allow Love to heal.

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Imagine Divine Love as a white stream of energy pervading the space around you. Breathe in this Love energy. See it enter the top of your head, the crown chakra, as you inhale. As you exhale, send Love energy through your breath deeply into your body. Allow your breath to carry Love to its holy destination. Inhaling Love…..exhaling Love…..sending Love into every cell, every organ. Notice which areas of your body feel tension. Breathe in Love. Then with your outbreath, target Love energy there. Feel the area lap up the Love, and relax, smooth, expand. Become aware of which organs are most in need of healing. Inhale Love energy. Exhale Love energy, sending it to your organs with intentions (instructions really) of healing. See the white energy of Love as a jewel, radiating, sparkling, illuminating your organs with its healing light. See the organ you are healing as a jewel itself. Become that jewel. Notice which colors within Love’s light spectrum you feel called to infuse within the cells of the organ. If purple, become the amethyst brilliantly radiating purple throughout your organ body. If red, become the ruby. And so forth…..diamonds, pearls, dark blue sapphires, green emeralds….. For any color you feel drawn to, see it in your mind’s eye as clear and bright. Try it on, like a new shirt. Become aware of how it feels as you are wearing it. Magenta, daffodil yellow, coral orange…..notice the unique and varying sensations that each color brings into your body. Linger with each that feels particularly soothing and nurturing. Breathing in Love, exhaling Love…..sending Love’s magical light into every cell, organ, or system in need of healing.

***

The key to healing meditation is to use whatever helps transport you to the highest state of love you can feel. It is the state of loving consciousness that is healing, not anything that you do. For most people, imagery is the fastest way to achieve the joyful healing state of love. Rather than seeing Divine Love as a color or jewel, you can use other imagery. If the image of your loving pet most quickly elevates you into an unconditional felt presence of love, then use that. If it is a sacred object, symbol, person, saint or even a picture of God that transports you into multidimensional experiences of Divine Love, then use that. Imagery is more than visualization. Imagery involves every sense, not just the sense of sight. In imagery, we are enraptured by the scents, sounds, tastes, and felt touches, as well as the sights of our imagination. Once you are in love, in the highest state of love you can achieve in the moment, then allow yourself to fully marinate in its bliss. This is the healing state. This is the state of being that fully allows healing to take place, oftentimes at accelerated, even miraculous and instantaneous, rates. Sometimes it feels like being dissolved. In one minute you are actively engaged within imagery. And later you return to awareness, but only then realizing you drifted away, yet not to sleep. Awake, yet altered in consciousness. Lost to awareness is the person. Found in awareness is soul, monad, Divine Spark. Egoic consciousness gives way to Divine Love consciousness, the stream of quantum water and source of all that heals.

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