This series is about moving beyond visualization, to gain better control of energy and enable new techniques by consciously guiding the energy.
Last post covered step by step visualizations. This post builds on that one.
In this step, we’re going to notice the energy as it moves.
Pick any step by step visualization you’re comfortable with. Something you’ve done many times, that’s easy for you now.
Do one step, then tune into your energy and notice how it feels. Notice what’s changed, what’s moved. Do the next step, then tune in again.
In doing this, you’re learning the skill of shifting from moving the energy to sensing the energy. Practice this, doing a step then reading the energy then doing the next step, until it’s easy.
As you do this, you may notice times where a step works better or less well. That’s good, that’s the point of this whole endeavor of making your energy conscious. If a step doesn’t work quite right, repeat it then read the energy again, and keep at it until it’s working. With practice, you’ll learn the feel of that step when it works and when it doesn’t.
But the real point is to get better at shifting from moving the energy to reading the energy, because of this next step:
Now, remain aware of the energy as you visualize moving it. Hold both in your mind at once. Feel what happens as you visualize the energy, as it begins to move.
If this is too difficult, go back to the previous step. Move the energy, then read the energy, then move the energy some more. Practice switching faster between moving and reading the energy, and practice it with other visualizations. Then return to reading as you visualize.
Practice this until it’s comfortable.
As you move the energy, you’ll notice times when the energy isn’t quite what you expected, when something isn’t working right.
This is the turning point, when you move from visualization to consciously moving energy.
Instead of fixing the energy via a visualization, fix it by feel.
Think about how it feels when the energy is right. Think about what differences there are that tip you off that something isn’t right, but instead of focusing on what’s wrong, focus on what you want to be there. (Since we tend to aim for what we focus on, so focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.)
Once you have that feel, just think about adjusting the energy back to the how it’s supposed to be, for whatever technique you’re doing. You’ve already done the technique 100 times or more, you’ve done it successfully many times, your ethereal muscles know how to do it. So instead of focusing on the visualization, fix whatever is wrong by focusing on what feels wrong and how it would feel it if was right.
Over time, you’ll be able to leave the visualization behind entirely, and just focus on the feel of the goal. But that requires another skill, which we’ll cover next: Mental posture.
(After that is another technique to get a much more precise feel for what the energy is doing, so you can guide it more precisely: Sensory connections.)