Movement Matters-Keeping The Body Capable

Can You Feel Your Own Energy?

Can You Feel Your Own Energy?

Exploring the relationship between movement, stillness, and energetic awareness.

We spend much of our lives moving through the world without giving much attention to what is happening within our own bodies. We walk, reach, bend, lift, and respond to our surroundings, relying upon an extraordinary network of physical sensations to help us navigate each day. Yet beyond the movements we perform automatically lies another opportunity: learning to become consciously aware of the sensations that accompany them, and exploring what those sensations can teach us about our own energy.

For those familiar with Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Qigong, or other energetic disciplines, developing sensitivity through movement and stillness is an important part of practice. Our hands, posture, breathing, and attention become instruments through which we explore our experience. Some practitioners describe sensations of warmth, tingling, movement, expansion, or resistance when working with energy, while others experience a sense of calm, spaciousness, or heightened awareness that is more difficult to put into words.

The ability to notice these sensations does not necessarily appear all at once, nor does everyone experience them in the same way. Physical sensations can arise from circulation, temperature, nerves, muscular activity, and focused attention, while energy traditions offer additional ways of interpreting them. What matters in beginning this exploration is developing the capacity to observe without trying to manufacture a particular result.

Before we can become more discerning about what we experience in the presence of another person, it is valuable to become familiar with how we feel when we are comfortably centred within ourselves.

Finding Your Centre Before You Begin

In Therapeutic Touch and many other energetic practices, centring is considered an important preparation for working with another person's energy. Rather than reaching immediately outward, the practitioner first turns attention inward, allowing the mind to become less occupied with distractions and the body to settle into a comfortable state of awareness.

Begin by sitting in a supportive chair or standing with your feet comfortably apart. Allow your shoulders to relax, release unnecessary tension from your hands, and notice your natural breathing. Bring your attention to the contact between your feet and the floor, or the support beneath your body if you are seated. As you breathe, become aware of your posture without trying to correct every small movement.

Now notice the difference between thinking about your body and experiencing it. You can mentally describe where your feet are positioned, but that is quite different from feeling the pressure beneath them, the temperature of your skin, or the subtle adjustments your body makes to maintain its position.

Remain with these sensations for a minute or two, allowing thoughts to come and go without following each one. The purpose is not to empty the mind, but to become less involved in its running commentary so that your attention can rest more fully in the present experience.

This becomes our starting point for exploring energy. When we understand how our own body feels in a settled state, we have something familiar to return to when our surroundings become demanding.

Exploring Energy Through Your Hands

Our hands contain an abundance of sensory receptors, making them particularly responsive to temperature, pressure, texture, and movement. In many energy healing traditions, they are also considered important centres of energetic perception, and practitioners frequently use them to explore sensations associated with the human energy field.

Begin by rubbing your palms together for approximately fifteen seconds, creating a comfortable feeling of warmth. Separate your hands and hold them facing one another, approximately six inches apart, with your fingers relaxed and your shoulders comfortable.

Slowly bring your hands closer together without allowing them to touch, then gradually move them apart. Repeat this movement several times, paying attention to what you experience in the space between your palms.

Some people notice warmth or tingling, while others describe a sensation resembling gentle pressure, attraction, or resistance. You may experience very little at first, or you may recognize sensations that have been familiar to you for years. There is no required response, and the exercise becomes more useful when we allow ourselves to notice what occurs rather than trying to reproduce someone else's experience.

After a minute, rest your arms briefly and repeat the movement without first rubbing your hands together. Does anything feel different? What happens if you move your palms more slowly, or close your eyes while keeping your arms in a comfortable position?

For an additional exploration, hold one palm facing upward and the other facing downward, then reverse their positions. Notice whether the orientation of your hands changes the sensations you experience.

This is an exercise in developing awareness. As your sensitivity to your own sensations develops, you may find that you become more observant of subtle changes that previously escaped your attention.

Moving From Stillness Into Motion

In traditions such as Qigong, movement and energetic awareness are closely connected. Rather than performing exercises solely for muscular effort, practitioners coordinate movement, breathing, posture, and intention, often working with the traditional understanding of Qi, or vital energy.

We can explore this relationship through a gentle standing movement that encourages awareness of the entire body.

Stand comfortably with your feet about hip-width apart, keeping a chair or counter nearby if you need support. Allow your knees to remain relaxed, your shoulders to settle, and your arms to rest at your sides.

As you breathe in naturally, slowly raise your arms forward and outward to a comfortable height, allowing your hands to travel as though you are gently opening the space around your body. As you breathe out, lower your arms with the same unhurried attention, noticing the movement through your shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers.

Continue for approximately one minute, keeping the movement within a comfortable range. If standing is uncomfortable, the exercise can be performed while seated.

Now repeat the movement, but this time pay attention to more than your arms. Notice the support beneath your feet, the movement of your rib cage as you breathe, the position of your spine, and the sensations throughout your hands.

The physical movement has not changed, yet your experience of it may be noticeably different because of where you are directing your attention.

This illustrates something important about energetic practices: movement does not always need to become larger or more demanding to become more meaningful. At times, the greatest development occurs in our ability to notice what is already happening.

Becoming Aware of Your Personal Space

Each of us has a sense of personal space that influences how comfortable we feel when other people approach. That space can change according to our relationship with someone, our emotional state, and the environment in which we find ourselves. Within energy healing traditions, practitioners may also explore this awareness through the concept of the aura or human energy field.

To begin examining your own experience, stand or sit comfortably and extend your arms outward, noticing the space you occupy. Slowly draw your arms inward, then extend them again, paying attention to whether the movement changes your feeling of openness, comfort, or awareness.

Next, allow your hands to rest and imagine the space surrounding you extending beyond the physical boundaries of your body. Some people find it helpful to visualize themselves surrounded by light, while others prefer to remain attentive to their breathing and the physical sensations of being present.

If you would like to explore this with another person, ask someone you trust to participate. While you remain comfortably seated or standing, have them approach slowly from several feet away, stopping whenever you indicate. Notice when you first become aware of their proximity and whether your physical or emotional response changes as they move closer. Repeat the exercise from another direction, allowing enough space that neither person feels crowded.

There are many reasons our comfort with proximity may change, including sight, sound, expectations, previous experiences, and individual preferences. Energy practitioners may also interpret impressions through their understanding of personal fields. Regardless of the interpretation, becoming aware of our responses can improve our understanding of what feels comfortable, what feels intrusive, and how we recognize our own boundaries.

This exercise should always be voluntary, with both participants respecting one another's comfort and personal space.

Bringing the Awareness Back Into Everyday Life

The real value of these exercises develops when the awareness we practise becomes available during ordinary activities.

You may notice that your shoulders begin to tighten before a difficult conversation, that your breathing changes when you feel rushed, or that spending time outdoors allows your body to settle into a more comfortable rhythm. You may also become more familiar with the sensations you associate with energetic balance, including the feeling of being centred, receptive, and at ease.

In Reiki practice, the traditional Gassho meditation offers another way to develop this quality of attention. By bringing the palms together in front of the chest and resting awareness upon the meeting of the fingertips, practitioners develop the ability to remain present without continually following the activity of the mind. It is an exercise that can be incorporated into a few minutes of daily reflection, whether or not someone is trained in Reiki.

As we become better acquainted with our own state of being, we may also become more discerning about what changes when we interact with others. Instead of immediately concluding that another person has affected our energy, we can notice what is happening, examine our response, and make a conscious choice about how we wish to participate.

The greatest achievement in these practices is not necessarily feeling something unusual between our hands or experiencing a dramatic change during meditation. It is developing an awareness that remains available when life becomes busy, when emotions are strong, and when the demands of other people begin competing for our attention.

The more familiar we become with our own centre, the easier it may be to recognize when we have moved away from it, and the more readily we can find our way back.