Free Your Energy!

Unblock your pathways and kiss fatigue goodbye.

by Donna Barker

We’re a society of people who work hard, play hard, and ultimately, collapse hard. If there’s one thing most of us wish we could have more of, it’s energy. Certainly, the $5-billion (and growing) energy drink market attests to this, as do the number of coffee shops around town. Even those of us who try to eat well, get enough sleep, and take weekends to relax often find ourselves melting into a puddle at the end of most days. (I am no exception to this. My son, however, loves those evenings since it means Cheerios for supper and no homework-haranguing from me.)

So what gives? Why are we so tired?

Michael D’Alton, director of Michael D’Alton’s School of Bio-Energy Healing, has treated more than 10,000 people in the last 14 years; he says lack of energy is the most common complaint he hears from new patients.

“I find that even tired people have loads of energy, but that it’s all congested like a traffic jam, blocked up in their body. And if energy can’t move, the result is a feeling of fatigue.”

Blocked energy, says D’Alton, is most often due to chronic pain. We lose energy both to pain and to keeping the pain suppressed. “Many people have recurring episodes of pain. Perhaps once a year your back will hurt so badly you’ll seek help to fix it. The recovery will take four to six weeks, and within a year, you’ll need treatment again. Because even when it’s suppressed, the source of the pain is still in your body. That pain is often just blocked energy.”

Bio-energy healing works on the principle that everything is energy. Using a series of hand movements around the patient’s body, D’Alton works to release the energy block that was the original cause of the recurring problem.

“I trigger and create the space for energy to flow so the body can heal itself. And once energy is flowing, your pain is released and you don’t feel as tired.”

Leoncio Ventura, a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and registered acupuncturist at Etznab Natural Healing, has many patients who have not found relief from chronic health issues in the mainstream medical system. He says most health problems are related to the amount and flow of energy (or chi) in our bodies.

“In Western medicine, the concept of energy does not exist. There is no lab test or X-ray to see how your chi is doing. So you have a blood test, the result is normal, the doctor sends you home without treatment, and you continue to suffer from fatigue or pain.”

In Chinese medicine, chi can be either stagnant or deficient. If it’s stagnant, acupuncture and massage will help get it flowing again. If the problem is a deficiency, patients ingest herbs to increase their chi.

In both situations, the digestive system plays a critical role, says Ventura. “The body is designed to create energy every second of the day through food, water, and air. If your digestive system is overworked, it gets tired. Then your immune system becomes compromised and you start to have allergies and energy problems.”

Many complaints that we simply dismiss by taking an antacid or laxative or by burping and passing gas can be hints that our digestive system is not functioning at its best. (Having won the “burpiest, fartiest mom” award several years running, this information gives me hope that I may one day relinquish my crown.)

Meanwhile, Julia Watson, a certified Lightwork meditation teacher (lightwork.ca ), says our energy can get “muddied” by the energy of other people (if, for instance, you have a charged conversation with someone, and you still feel charged after you’ve said goodbye, odds are you’ve taken on some of that person’s energy, Watson explains). When that happens the flow can reduce to a trickle.

“We know how important a clean body is to maintaining good health and so we shower daily,” says Watson. “Cleansing our energy system by running our energy every day is equally important to our wellness and can be done through meditation.”

All three practitioners agree that ensuring our energy is flowing freely plays a key role in our overall health and well-being. They also agree that they are simply facilitators in the process.

Understanding that my energy is my responsibility, and that I can manage and control it through energy work, diet, herbal medicines, and meditation, I, for one, am going to stop pointing my fatigued finger at all the people and situations that sap my energy and start pointing it inward.

To maintain good health and keep her energy balanced, Donna Barker works from home and spends weekends in the country.

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