5 Tips for Feeling Energy

Listening for energy is tricky. How can you know you’re really feeling energy and not imagining sensations?

The key skill is quieting your own energy. That allows you to listen for other peoples’ energy.

Here are 5 tips for feeling energy (and not imagining sensations). Some of these tips came from my year-long students — thank you, it’s been amazing teaching and learning from you!

Attention is a Spotlight

In our first game, we’re trying to discern if the energy is in our left or right hand. In our second game, we’re using a sensory connection to discern if the energy is in our partner’s left or right hand. In both games, we have two locations to pay attention to.

The thing is, attention is a spotlight. It’s hard to split it between two locations. So don’t. Focus on one hand / sensory connection, then the other. One at a time. Even today, after decades using sensory connections, I still only focus on one location at a time.

Try Imagining Sensations

What if you feel something in your left hand, but you’re not sure whether it’s energy or imagination? Try imagining the sensation in your right hand. See how it feels. Is it the same as what’s in your left hand? Or is it different?

Similarly, try imagining that there is no sensation in your left hand. What happens? Does the sensation go away?

Neither of these are definitive. But both of them are useful for students in learning to feel energy, rather than imagine sensations. (This tip came from a student, by the way.)

Don’t Withdraw Your Energy

One student was pulling her energy back, instead of quieting it. And it’s true, if you’re playing an energy game, trying to discern which of your hands is receiving energy, then withdrawing your energy from your hands will probably work.

But for later techniques, like sensory connections and communicating with ethereal software, the whole point of quieting is to have energy present, just to have it still and unchanging. By pulling her energy back, she wasn’t able to learn those later techniques.

Make sure you’re keeping your energy where it is and quieting it, rather than pulling it back.

Visualize Sediment

To quiet her energy, one student visualizes sand sinking to the bottom of her hands. Other students found this visualization helpful.

Don’t Reach

In the first game, your partner sends energy to your hands. It can be tempting to think about reaching out, trying to find their energy. Don’t. Reaching means moving your energy, which means your energy isn’t quiet, which means you can’t listen as well. Paradoxically, thinking about reaching for energy makes it harder to notice the energy.

Instead, focus on quieting your energy, and let your partner send to you.