The ebb and tide of energy work

[Korpo]

Energy work has it both - the times when everything is easy, progress is constantly made, every day brings a new understanding, a refinement of skills, and then suddenly you gaze into this "gaping hole" (okay, okay, I'm being dramatic! ) where nothing much happens.

Here is an excerpt of something to read while sitting in that "hole" - it might just help:

When you consider anything that has to do with meditation, or self-cultivation at any level, the idea that you're ever going to get something is blatantly false. And, you cannot reach a high level of excellence unless you are doing what you do because you like the journey. You actually have to like the roads on which you must travel.

Now, some people can just get in - they want to win a marathon so they push themselves to run 26 miles and constantly train. But what is rarely acknowledged is that few can really take running to its heights unless they actually like running - they get some degree of joy from it. This goes much further when you talk about chi work. A lot of what is involved with chi work is going to take you through very long plateaus to where you are never going to have any idea about whether you're progressing and this process could become mundane.

[...]

All of the awe-inspiring moments are going to cease if you do not go through the plateau periods which are not glorious or glamorous. At this stage of the game, it is your infrastructure, the work that seems to be boring that is actually setting you up for future development. If you have the first floor of a building, it's setting the stage for the second floor. Of course, each time a floor is complete it's a great event because you're reaching another level. So you push, become re-enthused, recharged because a whole new vista is in sight and your inner world opens up. Although before the second floor is actually built, you're in the same position as if you had a hole in the ground - you've got to go through the hard work to actually construct the road.

Plateau points make the difference between whether you will break through to a low, middle or high level of accomplishment. During this phase, virtually nobody can just say, "Well, I have to keep practicing if I'm going to end up at the other end." This is especially true in an over-marketed, stressed out, instant-gratification society. So, the question arises: What makes people capable of persevering? And, you're not going through a plateau phase once with chi work - you'll go through them many, many, many times, depending upon the level to which you aspire.

The answer is quite simple and it's not about the hype and need for yet another identity. The fact is that you actually must enjoy the game. In this case, you actually love doing whatever chi practice you're doing. You love getting into your energy - rooting and finding out that which is not working inside you, the places in your mind that are mucked up, the places in your energy that are blocked - an enjoyable or at least worthwhile process in itself.

(taken from:http://www.energyarts.com/Articles-a...me-or-Ego.html)

Oliver

[Nostic]

For me, I wouldn't know how to stop even if I wanted to. It's been over 4 years of daily practice and energy work is just automatic for me now. It's just become a part of my being. Although I can't really say I like or dislike it. I just do it.

[Korpo]

Would you continue doing something you dislike? What are your feelings about it when you do it?

Oliver

[Nostic]

I feel it's something that needs to be done. I feel it's my life path.

[Korpo]

Ditto.

Oliver

[Seeuzin]

Another thing that might help - is to realize that it's not always easy to discern when you're making progress energetically / psychologically.

An example: in therapy, if you have a good therapist and you're getting stuff worked through, what usually happens is you'll have a period where you'll be discovering new things, changing old patterns, and working through painful emotions in a productive way, and things just seem to be going great. Then, you hit a "slump" in the pace of discovery. You may wonder what's wrong, or even if the therapy is worth continuing.

The reason for these "slumps" is not always that therapy has become ineffectual. Sometimes, it is, but if you have the funds to give it a few months, things will often pick up again. Then you'll hit another slump, then another period of discovery, then yet another slump....etc....

In the course of good therapy, these periods of seeming inactivity are not inactive AT ALL. The cause is the pace of discovery in therapy. It can get so intense that a certain kind of "resource" within you can actually become drained. I don't know what to call this resource, but the slumps are actually a "rest period" of sorts, where it is gradually replenished, to prepare for the next jump forward.

With energy work, it's often the same way....your system needs time to recuperate after a period of intense development. This doesn't mean stop doing development work - it just means that the percievable results may not be as substantial. Not only that, but sometimes the work continues during the slumps in subtle, but necessary, ways, that you don't even notice. Our awareness may say that nothing's going on, but as I'm sure most people here know, what we are aware of in ourselves is only a fraction of the picture.

So next time you find yourself facing a drop-off in your rate of progress, think of it as a potential necessity and good thing. That really helps me to continue.

[Korpo]

I don't know what to call this resource, but the slumps are actually a "rest period" of sorts, where it is gradually replenished, to prepare for the next jump forward.

I tend to call it "mental capacity". The sum of what your mind can really handle. It expands, sometimes with growing pains , and then it starts to work through all the lesser things that block further expansion, and then comes the next jump. It is the same capacity you need for self development, meditation or good therapy, because it is our internal capacity to handle anything, IMO.

Or much less wordy: I agree.

Oliver