I confess. I know I am supposed to be better at not taking on other people’s energy. I teach my students about protecting their energy.

If I was to be really honest, I have to admit that during the pandemic the fear of the world had taken over my energy. Fear was everywhere.

Fear of catching the virus.

Fear of getting sick.

Fear of dying.

Fear … fear… fear.  

Everywhere.

I had become hooked on my TV news channel.  It had pulled me in and kept me coming back for more and more of the same depressing news.

Fear was keeping me locked to the screen during my normal yoga practice time.  

Fear of missing information. Fear of what to do. Fear of the world around me. 

As an empath, taking on other people’s fears is very common.  Energy attracts like energy. So my fear, combined with the world’s fear was building every day.

When we take on other energy like this, eventually it begins to show up in the physical form. For me, it was my body.  It had started to fall apart.

Yep, during the pandemic, I completely stopped doing my yoga practice.

Confession…  I had taken for granted how good yoga was for me. (FYI…That is actually a human trait, not just an empath trait!)  It wasn’t just the asanas, the physical practice, but also the pranayama, the focused breathing had stopped, too.  

Noticing my body was falling apart and asthma was coming on strong, I couldn’t rake leaves led me to a  point of realizing that if I didn’t start to do something about this, I would really fall apart… mind, body, and spirit.

So, as an empowered empath, I went to my toolbox of energy techniques with all my superhero skills to figure out what to do.

The first tool intuitively came right out.  Yoga… I needed to rebuild my practice.  But how?

My shoulders, my spine, and my knees all needed attention.  My abs were nowhere in sight.  

I kept hearing my guides say… yoga, yoga, yoga. 

Then I would hear breathe.

Intuitively I knew I needed to cut the cord on fear.  Viruses all have an outside feeding source of energy and fear was the brain behind covid-19.

I could see how the fear of the virus was growing all around me. It was taking a lot of time, every day to clear it out of my system.  I knew I work on my Energy System, pull my energy together, release the fear of the world, and strengthen my physical body.

It’s not just one layer we work on my many layers of self-care.

As empaths, we must separate our energy from the energy of others. Having practices, tools, and techniques that work on this layer of the body is key.  I knew I had the tools but I had to figure out how to put them all together.

I knew I needed to find something to work my spine and create movement in the body, especially to release the trauma going on around me.  As I have learned, underneath all physical ailments are unresolved emotional issues.  For me, it was both fear and grief. Fear of what was to be and grief over the world that once was.

I found myself guided to use a very basic form of yoga, one that works the spine.  As I built this practice for me, I was also guided to add in some of my Energy Medicine techniques that work on all layers of the body, helping to get the energy moving in a concise and unified manner.  I added in some tapping and even some Ho’opopono techniques of love and forgiveness.  Thank goodness for all these RITES for my everyday life!

Finally, as the world opened back up and I was ready to go back to teaching, I also decided to teach what I had been practicing and call it Energy Yoga.

I mean there is every other kind of yoga these days… face yoga, goat yoga, and chair yoga to name a few so why not apply the principles of Energy Work to my yoga teaching and call it Energy Yoga.

Here I am, thinking I got this brand new idea but as Elizabeth Gilbert talks about in her book, Big Magic, ideas exist in consciousness and even when we think we have an original idea, it could just possibly exist somewhere already.

So when I was asked by Llewelyn Publications to interview Lauren Walker on my podcast about her latest book, The Energy to Heal, it was all about what she was calling, Energy Medicine Yoga,  I practically rolled right off my yoga mat trying to get to my computer to respond so that  I could talk to her and bring her on the Empowered Spirit Show podcast.

Could this really be a thing?

Yes.. it is a thing!

As empaths, we do have this ability to tap into the consciousness and know what is current and needed.  So even though I thought I had this original idea maybe it wasn’t so original, just needed!

Taking a break and coming back to my practice was exactly what I needed to do.  Sometimes pulling back and getting a different perspective helps to reset, clear the excess energy and allow for new growth.  Using these tools was the self-care I needed to find a way to move through the pandemic so that I could come out better, stronger, and with no fear.

Check out the podcast here and see how it aligns with your energy and how you choose to show up in the world as an empath.

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