This post is part 3
of a 3-part series on raising your vibration, so you can live with more energy,
peace, health, love, joy, wisdom, and abundance-so you can be a powerful,
positive, transforming presence in our world.
Step One is
increasing your energetic charge, increasing the amount of energy you have. If
you are tired and depleted, you have little energy to give and no energy to
cultivate a higher frequency of being in this world. Step Two is to recognize
and release the tensions which interfere with the smooth and joyful flow of
this energy through your body, heart, and mind. In this article, we'll explore
Step Three-elevating the quality or frequency of your energetic vibration.
Your Energetic
Vibration Shapes Your Experience
Your overall
energetic vibration is the sum total of where you are coming from at this
moment-the thoughts, feelings, intentions, and actions you are engaged in right
now. The frequency of your energetic vibration shapes how you see the world,
how you see others, and how you see yourself and your possibilities at this
moment. You'll notice I've added "at this moment" to this
description. This is because your energetic frequency is variable-it shifts
from moment to moment depending on what you focus on and how you relate to it.
For example, if you
look through a lens of fear and judgment, you'll notice evidence to back up
this point of view. You'll see the world as a threatening place to be and
anything that is different from you as a threat to your point of view. As a
result, you are likely to feel irritated and react defensively, combatively,
and judgmentally. You're likely to focus on defending your own safety by
sticking to who you know, what you know, and the comfort zone of known habitual
behaviors. In a certain sense this feels safe-even if it leads to more fear,
tension, and conflict.
In contrast, if you
look through a lens of appreciation, gratitude, and trust, you'll notice
evidence to back up this point of view. You'll see the world as an interplay of
diverse possibilities guided by benevolent forces greater than your own. You're
likely to welcome different perspectives, people, beings, and points of view as
teachers who can widen your perspective and expand your consciousness. Instead
of otherness being a threat, it's an invitation to heal from your own past pain
that leads to defensiveness. It opens you to forgiveness and compassion.
While your
energetic vibration is variable, you also have a baseline state-a vibratory
frequency in which you tend to rest. This is your dominant energetic frequency,
which is how you tend to look at life and to which you tend to return. In order
to more significantly and permanently raise your vibration, you need to shift
this baseline frequency-and this takes practice. Like anything you want to grow
in life, you need to repeatedly inhabit your desired energetic frequency until
it becomes your new normal-the state you tend to rest in and return to.
In my experience,
there are two related practices which take you there:
1) Cultivating
open, clear, spacious awareness
2) Inhabiting
specific, higher, energetic frequencies
Let's explore what
each of these means and how to practice them.
Open Clear Spacious
Awareness
If you're feeling
fearful, irritated, and judgmental, it's not likely you can just decide to feel
trusting, compassionate, and loving. That would be like having a muddy stream
and adding bright food coloring to it. You're just going to get a muddy version
of whatever color you add. Before you add color, you must first clean and clear
the stream.
First, it's important
to recognize and acknowledge your current perspective. Notice what you are
thinking, how this is making you feel and act, and the results of this way of
being. Is this the way you want to live?
If not, you can
decide to set aside your current perspective for a moment, so you can explore
other possibilities. You can momentarily let go of how you think things are, so
you can entertain alternatives. With this decision in place, it's time to clean
and clear your stream.
Here's a simple
practice. Take several moments to fully experience each step:
1. Sit comfortably
upright with the soles of your feet on the ground and parallel with each other.
Rest your hands cupped in your lap in a receptive posture. Commit to adopt a
mindful attitude for this practice: paying attention, on purpose, in the
present moment, non-judgmentally-like a curious observer.
2. Take a few,
slow, deep breaths, imagining your whole body fills up when you inhale and your
whole body empties out as you exhale.
3. Let go of your
breathing and feel your body as a whole from the inside. See if it's possible
to feel the entire space inside your skin. Allow a feeling of open, clear,
spacious awareness to spread out through your whole body. Allow any thoughts,
feelings, or sensations to dissolve in this open, clear, space. Allow this
space to expand to include the space around you...
4. As continue to
experience the open, clear space, listen to the silence underneath all sounds
within this space... Then, feel the stillness underneath all movement within
this space...
5. Within this
open, clear space ask, "Who is aware of this space?" See if it's
possible to become aware of the act of awareness itself. Become aware of
Awareness.
Now, keep in mind
that this is a practice. It is something you will get more skillful at the more
you experiment with it. At first, you may have momentary glimpses of this
experience. As you have this glimpse, see if you can sink deeper into this and
become completely absorbed in it.
When you are ready
to move to the second practice, first take a moment to mindfully notice how you
feel. Do you feel even a little more relaxed, open, clear, and spacious than
when you began?
Inhabiting
Specific, Higher, Energetic Frequencies
Now that you've
practiced cleaning and clearing your stream, it's time to inhabit a higher
energetic frequency. I suggest any one of the following: appreciation,
gratitude, trust, love, compassion, peace, light, or joy. Pick one you'd like to
experience and explore now.
Here's the
practice:
1. Return to the
experience of open, clear, spacious awareness. If you need to refresh any of
the steps above, you can do so.
2. Call to mind the
higher energetic frequency you want to experience. Say to yourself, "I
welcome ___ now."
3. Call to mind an
image which represents this state of being to you. What's the first image that
comes to mind when you think of your desired energetic frequency? Bring this
image into your heart and allow it to rest here. Notice how this image makes
you feel.
4. As you inhale,
imagine you are breathing the feeling of this energetic frequency into your
heart. As you exhale, imagine you are sending this energetic feeling outward
into every cell of your body.
5. Let go of your breathing
and soak in the sensation of this higher energetic frequency for as long as you
want.
Notice how you
feel...
As you engage in
these two practices of "Open, Clear, Spacious Awareness" and
"Inhabiting Higher Energetic Frequencies," you'll discover you can
learn to choose where you are coming from. You can choose to raise your
vibration and live from a higher energetic frequency.
I encourage you to
use these two meditative practices daily. Perhaps you can incorporate them into
your morning or bedtime routine? Soon you'll find yourself less and less
gripped by fear, irritation, and judgment and more and more drawn to trust,
compassion, and appreciation. You'll soon be living in a higher frequency
vibration more and more of the time. As you do so, you'll contribute to the
raising of consciousness of all beings and our whole planet.
Thank you for your
practice!
