Galvanize Your Vitality With Energy Psychology Self-Care

Every stage in the human life cycle is enhanced with self-awareness and willingness to affirm inner strengths. The second half of life with its unique challenges not only improves with these insights—it demands them. 

Let’s consider the realities of aging: popular belief holds that as we decline in physical strength, we also lose our emotional energy, resilience and vitality. The opposite is actually true. In healthy aging we can become more focused, more intentional, more creative than at any other time of life. The secret lies in marshalling our innate energy resources and making them part of our daily activity just as much as brushing teeth, putting on sunscreen or eating a meal. 

The new field of energy psychology has unique contributions to make because of its emphasis on easily learned self-care exercises that can be repeated as often as needed. 

Here is a sampling of five steps that are as easy to remember as your five fingers: 

1) Release any sense of pressure, tension or distress quickly whenever you notice it by brushing the part of the body that feels tight or congested with rapid downward movements. Emphatically breathe out to release even more. It’s as if you’re taking an energetic shower without having to take off your clothes. 

2) State the truth of who you are while gently rubbing the tender area on the upper mid-chest to the right and/or left of the sternum with words such as , "I deeply appreciate and accept myself with all my apparent limitations... I deeply appreciate and accept myself with all my gifts, talents and abilities." 

3) Affirm your intention for yourself each day while tapping on the center of the upper sternum (where the thymus, the master gland of the immune system is located) while stating a phrase such as , "Today I want to explore____ ...I want to remain calm while_____...I want to breathe deeply while enjoying beauty around me, etc." 

4) Energize your vital life force by ‘zipping up.’ After taking a deep breath bring the hands above the pubic area and move them upward to the acupoint under the lower lip. Repeat slowly 5 or more times. (This traces one of the body’s central meridians.) 

5) Forgive and let go of any perceived wrong in another person by letting the hands rest over the heart center. Then image bringing in golden sunlight, feeling your peace and ability to radiate caring to others. Think of loved ones near and far and absorb their caring energy. 

Each of these steps brings balance and harmony by stimulating your electromagnetic energy field without medication or invasive procedures. Indeed, they help galvanize your vital life force for a deep sense of well-being and joy. 

Dorothea Hover-Kramer Ed.D., RN is author of Second Chance at Your Dream ( Energy Psychology Press, 2009) the first book to demonstrate the principles of energy psychology self-care for healthy aging.