I would feel a rush of pride at such a small achievement, having managed to have someone not only feel something but to feel it enough to tell me it was there. But then it would be gone again, I would feel shaky like from an adrenaline-crash, and I would need to stop. Finally one day, months into my first fledgling steps, I was sitting with my Great-aunt over some tea while we talked about chocolate-chip cookies and guides. The topic rolled towards energy working and I mentioned my frustrating exhaustion whenever I tried to do what she did so effortlessly.
"Why is it that I can't help but feel really tired after trying to move energy? I always feel weak and like I need a nap after. I can't do it for long or else I feel shaky and spent."
She set down her cup and leaned forward to look me in the eyes with her matter-of-fact, 'isn't it obvious?' face and said, "Well why are using your own energy?"
...She gave me that face a lot when I sought her advice. It became a sort of trademark as she would so simply point out exactly what I was doing wrong. Usually in ten words or less as she stared at me with her patient but slightly-mocking 'You doofus!' look.
I don't know what made me feel more sheepish as I blushingly sipped my own tea; That my problem should have been so obvious to me, or that the issue was so obvious to her. Either way the moment glued itself into my memories, and the next time an opportunity came my way to put it into practice I immediately felt a great difference. I still had a long ways to go and many more things to learn, but that moment was one of the first important steps of real progress I took in actually becoming a healer. Since then that discovery has grown into a list of what I like to call my 'principles of the practice'. Thoughts, philosophies, and perspectives that could serve as a foundation to help anyone who is walking on the healer path grow in their practice.
All things begin within the Self;
Begin your journey within your self. Meditation, stillness, learn to pay attention to the state and feel of your body, mind, and energy. Before you learn to act, learn to listen. Before you move energy in others, find and move energy within yourself. These first steps will help greatly in forming your first discoveries.
Physician, Heal thy Self;
Your own state of well-being is important. Physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual health and growth all have an effect on your practice. It is difficult to heal others while you need healing yourself. What energy you may move can be diminished or spent on your own needs. Like water passing through a sponge, if the sponge is dry then the water will be absorbed. If the sponge is dirty the water will carry that with it. You can do no good for others if you neglect yourself to the point of harm. There is no need to carry extremes or to attain perfect personal health. But it is wise to engage the healthy balance of the golden means. Be aware of and have care for your own health so that you can better bring health to others.
Mild, regular exercise is invigorating and limbers the body. Drinking fresh, clear water and eating fresh, varied food nourishes the body. Cleansing, clearing, and opening the energetic body provides personal and spiritual growth, raising the value and potency of the energies you can reach and connect with. If you are in ill health, or poor spirits, that can be carried from you to the one you are wanting to help. Like a cold in the office you can end up passing along your own baggage to block or confound your efforts.
Be not an oasis running itself dry to feed the desert;
Rather, be as a river directing the rains to the fields in need. Whenever you work energy, do not use your own as it is finite and contained within a single living body. The world, and the universe around it, are far greater pools. Imagine yourself a pipe or a line of wire. You are here to let the energy pass through you on its way to where it is needed.
Energy comes in many forms, and we maintain ourselves on many levels and in many ways. Metabolism, rest, inspirational thought, spiritual connection, meditation. But we can only make, and hold, so much. As we press ourselves outwards, as we spend our energy in our endeavors. That energy is not inexhaustible. Draining your batteries can leave you feeling weak and tired. Even emotionally spent and flat. Then you need to recover before you can act again. There is no need for such a cycle of expenditure.
Every day begins anew;
Every session of practice should begin with reaching outward to a source of positive, healing energy. Always aim for the best, highest vibration, most compassionate energy you can conceive yourself connecting with. As you grow in practice and experience. As you become more connected with yourSelf, what you can reach will change with you. Treat each day like a new one. Each session as a fresh, new connection to be made.
Reach out to the spiritually connected awareness of your Higher Self. Or the nebulous energies of the higher planes. Ask for help and guidance from a deity you work with or a Guide you have connected to. Or even a simple, abstract idea of healing and well-being. Whatever you feel drawn to, each session is its own. Everything around us is always moving and changing. If every time you practice you try to reach higher, eventually you will.
Do not try to control what you can allow;
Imagine a field laden with puddles. Big ones, small ones, wide and narrow, some near overflowing with water while others are dry hollows. In a moment of whimsy, you see a dry bowl begging to be filled. You could step to the side and find a full puddle and carry it over a handful at a time. Or you could try to kick it across the gulf or sweep it across the surface. Losing much for every burst of effort, water running in any direction it wants. Taking time and effort for every drop you chase towards your goal.
Or.
You could drop your heal at the edge of the water, and drag it to the thirsty earth. Cut just the tiniest of gaps and then step back and watch the water move to its own rules. Create a path and allow the water to make its own way according to its nature.
Working energy is the same. The more you get out of the way the easier you will find the flow to occur. There is no need to grab and move- pull and push. Let it go, trust the flow.
Action follows thought;
What you achieve is defined by the goal you hold. Maintain an idea of care and concern for the well-being of the one you want to assist. Consider the feeling and benefit of being bathed in the warmth of compassion and restoration. Release of tension and pain. Keep simple images like a flow of light or warmth but worry less about where it 'belongs' or what colour or vibration it 'should' be. The energy that you need will be attracted by what you want to gain. It will reach where it needs to dwell. Energy is a thing of balance and movement. Strength flows towards weakness, presence flows to absence. So think about your goal more than the potential process.
Just as you do not make yours theirs, do not make what is theirs yours;
Do not take on the energy of pain and harm. It is not yours to hold. As you bring forward a session of healing and peace allow it to wash away what does not belong. Envision it as if soil being loosened and washed away to the ground. Or as energy flows from you to the one you are helping recognize the harmed energy as being gathered to one of your hands where it can be cast off like water.
Healing is not an action, it is an enablement;
Think of it as a lesson of Humility; You are not healing the other person. You are not stitching cells or destroying infection or sucking off pain. The person you are working with is healing their self- you can't do it for them. You can, however, provide an environment friendly to healing. A person's body is an amazing machine, designed to replenish and repair itself on a constant and ongoing basis. But things get in the way. Pain. Tension. Emotional worry. Negative, fearful thoughts. Tension. Just as with poor eating or other harmful habits these things draw energy away from the task at hand. What you are doing as a healer, is removing the things that get in the way of that process. Healing is an act of enabling the body to commit more focus and energy towards mending. Your power lies in helping others experience their own. By working energy you are creating a relief of stress. You are providing a source of energy and along with it an emotional connection to the idea of wellness which becomes fuel to make it a reality.
Thou shalt not charge.
This last principle is not directly related to the act of healing, but it is an important pat of your practice to consider very carefully. My own teacher received this as a commandment early in her journey. I was not bound to such a commandment as she was, but it was not long before I chose to take it on. She had only to mention it and it felt intuitive and sensible. Though, it took me a few years to truly understand why. During that time I conjured up many reasons regarding the ideas of money and obligation. Or responsibility and blame. Risks and liabilities. But I think at the center of all these things what I found to be truly important can be boiled down to two major questions;
?Are you acting as a healer to make money, or are you acting as a healer to help people.?
?Do you heal to be recognized for your strength, or to help others find their own.?