You’ve been trying to quit smoking, become less dependent on mood altering drugs, or even get off your high blood pressure medication. But you can never seem to find the time, or courage, to change. Consider taking a daily dose of energy medicine to boost your willpower.
Energy medicine can unlock our subconscious desires, revealing the unfulfilled needs that trigger us to reach for that cigarette or swallow another anti-anxiety pill. Once revealed, we can use energy medicine to balance body and brain for optimal health and happiness.
Addictions and substance abuse stem from anxiety or a sense of disconnection from others. They are not a sign of weak or immoral character.
It is basic human psychology that, to change a behavior, fulfill the unmet need that’s causing it. If someone drinks excessively because they are lonely, for example, supplying a sense of belonging or community to that person would reduce or completely eliminate his craving to drink.
By tapping into your own body’s electrical currents and life force, you can experience dramatic shifts in your energy flow. Meditation, hypnosis and other energy medicine techniques can put your body back in balance more naturally.
When you find yourself physiologically and mentally at peace, the triggers or causes of your bad habits—such as cravings, disruptive desires and impulse—dissipate.
Energy medicine is a relatively new field that marries neuroscience and psychology. It shines the spotlight on the real reasons we get stuck in destructive patterns or engage in negative thinking that keeps us from reaching our goals.
Research consistently shows that, while we literally think our decision making comes from conscious choice, it is
our subconscious that is really in charge.
Here are five energy medicine practices that can shift your willpower into high gear:
Yoga
Yoga improves the balance and flow of prana or Qi energy. From pranayama breathing exercises that increase respiratory circulation to position therapy that opens the meridians, many types of yoga are designed to put both mind and body in the flow.
For people who are prone to nervousness, a yoga class that integrates exercises such as Breath of Fire or Lion Pose are excellent for relieving anxiety, releasing tension and reducing social isolation.
Hypnosis
“Hypnosis, which is a state of deep relaxation, puts your mind in a state of receptivity that allows new programming to download,” says hypnotherapist Debbie Taylor-Lilly of
Intuitive Hypnosis.
Hypnosis helps you access positive beliefs about yourself and is excellent for highly insecure people who normally use drugs or alcohol to feel good about themselves.
Hypnosis puts you in the present, overriding negative programming that has kept you locked away from self awareness, says Lilly. Reprogramming does not consist of completely erasing our lives and memories. Instead it is a matter of laying down new, positive tracks over the negative, limiting beliefs that make our reality a prison of impossibility.
Repetition is the key, Taylor-Lilly explains. Just as physical therapy rebuilds and realigns our musculature, positive belief messages, consistently applied, overwrites the subconscious mind’s recorded messages about our beliefs and what is possible, or not possible for us.
Meditation
Meditation comes in many forms, from walking meditation to inspire the mind, to sitting for long periods to still the mind. Either way, every time you meditate you are giving your brain a mini vacation.
For people who feel they must perform for others or are overachievers who use stimulants to keep up with self-inflicted impossible expectations, meditation can be a welcome respite.
The side benefit of a relaxed mind is more self control. You experience fewer cravings for toxic substances because your mind already feels fulfilled. Meditation also helps the body produce less stress hormones such as cortisol, a major contributing factor in the desire to light up or take anti-anxiety medication.
Acupressure/Acupuncture
Both acupressure and acupuncture promote the flow of Qi and restore energy in the body. Both access the meridians to increase Qi circulation, and both are good for the self critical or depressed person.
Acupuncture needles which are actually small, thin wires can reset the body’s electrical firing patterns to release blocked or stagnated energy throughout the entire body, including the brain.
The ‘buzz’ you get from this type of energy medicine is often a very satisfying replacement for chemical stimulants or relaxants.
Sound Healing
Chanting, drumming, bells, rattles, nature sounds such as rushing rivers, trickling creeks, raindrops or birdsong are extremely soothing to the mind. Sound has a way of lulling the mind and body into altered states of feeling, from pleasure to extreme bliss, without the use of drugs.
Sound healing is great therapy for people who are triggered by shame, trauma or nervous anxiety.
Because our brains process music and even singing differently than language and speech, sound bypasses the critical or judgmental mind that so often keeps us locked into stressful patterns. Sound goes straight to the part of your brain that tells you all is well. Sound vibration can give you an energetic ‘massage’ whether it’s the soothing notes of a violin or the sonorous beats of a drum.
When you need more than willpower to abstain from unhealthful habits, rely on any or all of these techniques to make change easier and your life healthier and happier!