I remember almost 15 years ago, I was driving home after a day filled with client sessions; from drug addicted adults and suicidal teens, to abused children. I began to feel nauseous and a huge painful migraine started coming on. I had no idea what brought those symptoms on. I had plenty of water, ate healthy food, and even practiced the somatic energy release techniques I had learned from my therapy training.

Inevitably, I needed to pull over to the side of the road and threw up. A thought came to my mind at this moment: “Maybe I’m too sensitive for this work?” But I had just invested so much energy and time in graduate school and I really wanted to help people in this way. I felt confused and prayed for support.

New Connection with Nature: A Integrative Daily Practice

A few days after this incident, I was invited by some friends to learn about a practice called de-charging, using the five elements found in nature. This practice is used to release energies we take on from others or from our environment with or without our notice. And boy, had I taken on things (energies) without my notice! The practices are fairly easy to learn and do, and felt really good to do them. After practicing and implementing de-charging techniques, I began feeling less nauseous, the headaches, no longer disturbed me, and I gained more energy.  But, like any researcher, I decided to test the practice and stopped de-charging for a week. By the end of that week all of my prior symptoms had returned. So, I immediately went back to the de-charging techniques I had learned, even more so, and felt much better by that evening. De-charging through nature gave me relief and because of it, I felt better overall, had more resilience, and was able to do the work I love without suffering from it.

Symptoms

Over time, and as I did more energy healing work with clients, I discovered specific symptoms I felt in my body that told me I needed to de-charge. Sometimes it showed up as irritability, tight, painful legs, lack of appetite, eyes burning, or anxiety. It became clear that I needed to integrate the de-charging practices throughout my day. Once I did that, I felt much better and the capacity to help others increased dramatically. This was when I realized I first needed to bring myself back into harmony before I could truly help others.

And this is true for each of us. In order to take care of and nurture others, like your family, friends, colleagues, and clients, you have to take care of yourself first. It’s just like when you fly on an airplane. In a case of emergency, you have to put on your own oxygen mask first, before you help your children or neighbors. The same is true in everyday life, too. Only when you yourself are nurtured, feeling strong and connected, are you able to support and love others in an authentic and embodied way.

How is it possible that we take on energies and influence from each other?

Relationships, are essentially affecting all human function, which therefore determines one’s sense of overall well-being. Research shows that humans all have electromagnetic fields that surround us. The research done through the Institute of Heart Math, plus the science of quantum physics, “the unseen”, says, we are constantly overlapping our fields with each other, especially when we are within 10 feet of one another.

Whether its subtle or gross, what we see through our two eyes, what we feel in our bodies and hearts, affects the overall health of that field. This field of energy exists is in and around each one of us. It flows through our chakras (subtle energy centers), through every single cell in our bodies, and flows out and around each of us and looks like a globe; a torus. This structure is vital to our sense of well-being on all levels, body, mind, heart and soul. It’s where we gain energy and where we lose energy. It is part of our life-force energy.

Our overlapping fields, can shift the five elements in us, the foundation of our human makeup. If those five elements go out of balance, we move into a state of disharmony which eventually may lead to cause dis-ease and unnecessary stress in our relationships, with ourselves and others.

De-charging the energy we take on from others may be a powerful way today to remain healthy, especially for practitioners working in a helping and healing capacity with their clients. When we bring our five elements more into balance, we create more harmony and regulation within all of our human systems. This allows us to be the best versions of ourselves, and the greatest support for our clients. It is in this place, we can feel more love, and can experience more joy in life.

Below are some self-care practices you can “try on”. Please feel free to pass this article on to a friend or colleague. To learn more about self-care practices through nature join me for my online course “Nurture through Nature: Practitioner Self-Care through the Five Elements”.

Self-care practices to try on:

1. See the beauty around you with the two eyes, consciously become aware of the beauty that surrounds you. Then pull that beauty in your heart. Breath it into your heart.
2. Review the article on the healing power of water: https://yoursoulsspark.com/water-is-a-great-healer/
3. Online Course: “Nurture through Nature: Practitioner Self-Care through the Five Elements”

Enjoy! And I love hearing from you and your experiences.