Now I know that for many all information in this article will be second nature already, but in my massage and healing practice I am still at times amazed how many of my clients, doing Yoga, Meditation or Mindfulness, even in teacher led courses, do not know anything about some considerations and techniques, which are easy and can really deepen and empower ones spiritual practice.
In my experience there is three basic important parts to any spiritual practice:
- Attunement
- Practice (Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness, Sound Healing, etc.)
- Safe disposal of released energies
Many only seem to do the second one point, which is obviously the most important, essential and time consuming part, but the other two have much meaning too. Let me explain what each part can do for you.
Attunement
Attunement is to connect to a Higher Power and or greater source of energy. People might have different terminologies here, e.g. and not limited to: God/ The Divine/ Allah/ Jehovah/ The Universe/ Creation/ Spirit/ Holy Spirit/ Light/ The Good Guys. I try to be as nondenominational as possible so I personally usually say ‘Ultimate Good’, ‘Spirit’, ‘The Light’ or ‘The Divine’. And for those who do not like religious or spiritual connotations one can still connect to e.g. Qui, Prana, Universal Energy, Orgone, etc.
Why Attune? Well I like to use the analogy of ‘water’. In a sense we all have a bucket of (energetic) water at our disposal per day. We usually start out with nice clear spring water, but as we age, it might get a bit murkier. We can drink it to sustain ourselves, or we can use it to cleanse, wash or refresh ourselves . Now let’s say that those who already believe in the healing power of themind have a 10litres bucket. Those who don’t (yet) believe in using their mind to heal themselves have 10l too, but can only really access 5-6l of those. Without a spiritual practice the water can be harder to access. We can only really use our hands to scoop out handfuls to drink and wash. Spiritual practice – Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness, etc. – gives us nice large ladle, which will make it easier to drink and to wash ourselves….
Now a bucket of water a day might be enough for some, at least most of the time. For them their current life path is perhaps a dusty road, and they can easily brush themselves off at night, and wash the rest off comfortably. For others the journey regularly, or occasionally is more demanding though. They track through stinky swamps, on muddy paths, or require large amounts to drink, as they are traversing a stretch of desert. In the desert one bucket might offer enough to drink, but really getting clean and refreshed will be a great challenge. Or after a smelly swamp track a bucket might not be enough to wash ourselves properly, even more so after drinking our share…
That changes if one attunes. We connect to Higher and or greater sources of energies. Instead of a bucket we get access to a veritable waterfall of water (the waterfall even comes to us) – you can have a shower now, and drink to your heart’s content! Plus you don’t have to worry anymore that during the day the bucket water might get contaminated(if you spend time in more toxic environments).
As such , when attuned, it raises our vibration somewhat – makes us stronger (spiritually at least), it is easier to reside in ones Divine centre/ core, and we are more in-tune (it is easier to receive messages and communicate with energies.)
(N.B. Now I don’t mean to make anyone paranoid, but water comes in a lot of different qualities. There is pure delicious spring water and there is more e.g. murky, or even polluted river water. In spiritual practice one usually says – ‘Ask and it is given’! Now if one attunes to ‘The Divine’ (with whatever name), and believes that the Divine is an all benevolent force – that is clear spring quality water automatically. If one uses more all encompassing terms, such as- ‘The Universe’, one might get clean one day, and dirty the next. The same applies for more general terms such as Universal Energy, Qui, etc. One can still use those terms, but it is prudent to just add adjectives such as – ‘‘clear’ or ‘healthy’ Universe energies/ Prana/ Qui/ Universal Energy ‘only’! Thank you!’ As a Spiritual Healer I trust that ultimate good Divine energies I connect to are actually intelligent too, i.e. they know themselves where to go, what to fix, clear or balance, and how. So If you want the same from e.g. Qui, e.g. just add the adjectives ‘intelligent and healing capable’.)
How to Attune? Some people use visualizations on how they connect to energies, I prefer to ask them to come and connect to me! You can just say a prayer in your head, such as ‘I ask the Divine to connect to me as much as necessary, possible, available, and sensible. Many thanks, Amen!’
Now some of you may say – ‘Hold on! I never bother with attuning and always feel connected anyway!’ That is well possible. Some people have agreements made before they incarnate, or someone has prayed for them correctly (e.g. a meditation teacher or author). If you are not all sure though it is safer to just do it. Spirit is practical too – so one can actually ask just ones to always(!) be connected when one does any spiritual work.
Practice
I am not actually going to write anything here, as it would be too complex – and since I assume that most readers already do this part anyway, you are your own experts already! For those readers who are not practicing yet – there is tons of information about Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness etc. on the Internet. As well as on YouTube, in apps, books, you can take courses etc.
Safe disposal of released energies
Now this may be a stretch for some, but I believe that thoughts and emotions actually have substance, a body of sorts. But for the more science minded among you one could maybe call them energy, perhaps created by nerve impulses? And energy supposedly does not just disappear, it can only get transmuted. Have you ever tried tapping, as in EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)? It is one possible technique to rid ourselves of negative emotions. Have a look on YouTube for a clip about it. It might not always work instantaneously for all emotions (big, complex and ingrained ones might be stubborn when attempting to remove them), but you will likely have some success with some (less complex) emotions straight away. It is quite a weird sensation when one feels an emotion, and then it just lifts and dissipates. Now I ask where does the energy go? As an empath I am quite energy sensitive, and in my experience/ feelings all sorts of things can happen. In a more natural settings such energies might be taken up by nature – healed/ transmuted by sunshine, trees, (salt) water or else. In a more urban environment they might float about for a while though, such energies can accumulate, and ultimately either reattach to the person who released them or attach to someone else… As such humanity has made great progress with regards to physical hygiene (most places have canalization, waste water treatment plants etc.), but with regards to energy management many places are still a bit like the middle ages, when folk just dumped their chamber pots out the window. That is why most healers learn to ‘dispose’ of the energies they help remove from their clients. As will many more clued in yogis, meditators, etc.
It is quite easy actually. For released energies we do not have to build expensive canalization – you just ask the same Higher Power(s), or sources of energy you attuned to before commencing your practice, to please safely take care of any negative or stale energies released. I tell my clients they are taken to the big cosmic recycling heap, but it is probably more like energy rehab clinics.
There is another benefit to asking for safe removal of released energies – many people are actually not very good at releasing negative and stale energies/emotions. I feel it is because subconsciously they feel/ know that these energies might float about and attach to others, so unless they feel very safe and certain that what they release will be taken care of, they hold on to stuff. (NB. And yes, some of our negative energies/ emotions can feel quite toxic, so we might not want to burden another being with them – BUT there is beings that enjoy recycling such energies. There is an abundance of such helping energies/ beings just waiting on the side lines, and they often hugely underused. And if you have problems releasing/ flushing out such energies, because you have basically been holding on to them for year, if not decades, there is energies there too that can help with that, which enjoy helping, and which we just have to allow to help…..)
Now before you start to worry, as you might never have asked for safe energy removal – don’t. There is no use. If there is still anything floating about, you can ask for it to be taken up now. If anything created any discomfort anywhere, just ask for potentially necessary healings now too. And if you tend to do your spiritual work under a divine umbrella, your energies might have been taken care off before anyway. As with the attunement some of us have arranged these things before we entered our bodies, someone clued in might have prayed for you, etc. It only takes a few seconds to make double sure, and ask for this too. And here too you can even do the economic thing and pray/ ask that any negative or stale energies you release, or which may come through you, are always taken care off !
The above are the basics for good spiritual work. As with most things there is potentially even more to learn/ rediscover. I’ll just briefly mention a few.
- Grounding- Grounding is to consciously connect to healthy (Divine) Earth energies. Some might call it Mother Earth, or if you are looking for more non-spiritual nomenclature you can say e.g. Earth Qui. It is basically specialized attunement, concentrating on ultimate good Earth energies. Ultimate Good Earth energies can be very healing capable and nourishing. The connection is a good avenue to get rid of negative or stale energies too. (Do not worry here either. The Earth is big enough to take all our crap energies. It is a bit like putting feces on a field – they get transmuted and new things come out of them.) Grounding is great stuff, and an essential tool for most healers, many Lightworkers, and widely recommended as essential in the Empath communities. I wrote a whole chapter on Grounding in my book – ‘Tours and Cures of a Lightsoldier; Surviving the Path to Enlightenment.’
- Setting a healing intent – Setting a healing intend can make spiritual work more targeted. If we ‘just’ attune and practice there will be healing effect, but usually general (and there is often a lot of things to be fixed in life). It can be understandable to want to concentrate on specific areas of one’s life – e.g. upcoming exams, weight loss, a particular pain or emotion. Or we can dedicate our practice to the wellbeing or healing of another, like a sick relative.
- Asking for protections – Now when we attune to the Divine, protection is quasi built in. There won’t be much room for other energies to come in. When you use more neutral energies like Qui it can be prudent to ask for additional protection. When we practice we basically ‘open up’. Our chakras open up, and we become more receptive. Now as mentioned not all energies out there are all benevolent, so it is good to take some safety precautions, so that shadier energies do not see out ‘opening up’ as an invitation to intrude.
- Saying thank you! – Which is common sense, but it is still good to remind oneself. If a person helps us with something (especially without expecting anything in return), we usually thank them. They are there in the flesh and hard to miss though. Energies are usually much more subtle, and it is easy to forget that we might well be dealing with another conscious entity, which/ who might appreciate a quick ‘Thanks’.
All the above, if you are not considering it already should help deepen your spiritual practice. It should improve the quality of your practice. But just to keep it real – after 20 years of meditation, I still do not levitate, and I still can have bad meditation days (where the mind can be all over the place). The fruits of spiritual work are often best measured in the long term, not the short term.
I hope you enjoyed this blog. Feel free to share it, but please retain any reference to me as the author. Love and Light – www.alexander-king.com