For the last few months, I have been going through a silent retreat from serious blogging, due to a common ordeal that many of us know as writer’s block. There is way too much in my mind but it is not finding the appropriate expression or creative flow. On an ideal day, I always have my MacBook open on the kitchen table and I keep on jotting down any discourse, experience or thoughts that run through my mind. Later, I take my time to edit. However, just recently, I have been finding this way too wearisome and dull. I have switched back to a journal last week by my bedside and I have started handwriting before bedtime, just like back in the day. Another thing that I have been trying to do is read more, write less. More so, I don’t want my ability to spell die a crippled death at the hands of some autocorrect.

Anyways…

Many of us have started the New Year with new gym memberships, new wardrobes, new houses, new hair colour or holiday destinations never visited before and so forth. Some are still partying and are very much in celebration mode. I accept myself to simply make some important changes in my life. I am going to take good care of my energy patterns within and around.

People’s energy affects us when we come in close contact with them. Energy patterns are real. Everything in the universe is made up of energy. When a person’s energy commingles with that of ours, we notice or feel changes right away…from calming synergy, riots of laughter or an explosion in ourselves resulting in an argument with that person or leading to a drain in our energy levels, the list is endless. An unpleasant contact may even spark off a person feeling overwhelmed as though the blood is being sucked from the veins. Quite reversely though, one might feel suddenly too uplifted in one’s mood, feeling of being cheerful when in contact with another friend. Even though a lot of people might disregard this occurrence purely as a bad day / good day, bad meeting / good meeting, poor/good social skills etc. yet water runs deep.

As much as I would like to say that I am going to say no to toxic friendships around me. I am not a counsellor, yet there are people who constantly use me as a sounding board for their woes and, dilemmas and ask for advice which they never use or they ask for favours but never offer anything back in return. Little do such friends understand that perhaps their personal struggles impose on or reflect badly on my own sense of well being.

After all, it is not selfish or cruel to put my own well-being first. Healthy friendships are reciprocal and mutually nourishing, not one-sided and depleting. As much as I would close the doors of my heart to such people I can’t…

Friends help us replace jealousy with gladness. They teach us how to rejoice in the happiness of others, no matter how small or trivial. No matter how monotonous and almost sickening, don’t we all love to see our friends’ pictures and status updates on social media? Friends reassure us that it is important to cultivate appreciative joy until we really feel “your happiness is my happiness”. This is the true understanding and application of friendships.
I can’t cut ties. No matter how annoying a friend, he or she has an important role to play just by sticking around. Having a friend in life somewhat like stating the obvious…most friendships in our life help us create unquestionable trust. It could be as simple as water quenches thirst, or, the ground supports each new step. Quietly, we all keep on playing the game of friendship, doesn’t matter how disconnected and busy we remain at our personal levels, we unconsciously keep on doing what it takes to remain friends. We support one another anyhow. So when we support “others” selflessly, we get to “recognize” how intimately, accurately and infinitely the universe supports “us” – the microcosm of the macrocosm. We don’t give up on friends for this good selfish reason!

No matter how insane our dear friends can drive us at times… The need is to be natural and respond with clarity, kindness and creativity to whoever shows up in our experience.

Oh well then, what about me? In this post, I am trying to focus on some innocently ‘grounding’ techniques that may be very conducive to drain out the excess energy or negative energy that one might have accumulated by either one’s own thought patterns and behaviour or by the thought pattern and behaviour of another person. Though we have choices such as to either avoid coming in contact with a person who leaves us feeling impoverished or steering that person into a different mode, thus altering wavelength or by just ”cutting the chords” emotionally from the situation/problem causing such a reaction. How does one heal oneself from a bad energy current? How can one cleanse one’s aura from the damaging, draining, negative energy? How can one protect oneself this abundance from psychic pollution? Though there exist some strong principles to maintain ‘aura hygiene’ but I am going to talk about one such principle, which I adopted at the advice of a good friend and has worked for me miraculously recently. It is easy and quick to adapt to!

Many of you may laugh and find me crazy but on occasions when I feel that I have consumed a lot that is harmful to my personal well being, when I feel excessively irritable, nervous, and volatile basically emotionally out of gear – I simply get out of my cemented surrounding and Embrace Nature! Simply surrender!
I don’t have a garden or a well-groomed backyard that I can rave about! However, there is a lovely ravine not even two minutes away from home. I go for a walk with a mission… A mission to hug a tree! It is just like running home to the open, warm arms of a parent. There’s an increasing buzz about benefits of encircling your arms around a tree that all of you may already know of. There are ancient and legendary tales about the healing power of trees. Apart from supporting environment and sustaining life in living species, trees have a certain spiritually enlightening and strengthening significance to our lives. Trees are rooted firmly in the earth, receiving water through the roots and from rain, light from the sun – Trees are enduring source of earth healing, they have the power to heal the earthlings like me!

When I go for a walk, I no longer go to meet the targets of one of my fitness apps, I have actually developed a habit to notice trees,  I am learning to pause and observe. Over a period of time, there have been trees among many that I feel a natural affinity for. I can never ignore the quiet pull from that tree; I walk up to it and encircle my arms gently around its sturdy bark. Next to the uneven texture, the ruggedness and smell its wood. Initially, I used to be scared of interruption from insects, ants, big and small birds, bats, lizard or dead animals but I am getting more and more comfortable now. Trees really do have the powers to quieten unruly thoughts; I begin to feel a soft shift in my mood and a very pleasant rearrangement in emotional frequency. As I come out of the ritual I come out having absorbed the most grounding energy from the most deeply rooted source on earth! I have tried this on more than a few occasions and each time I take back more than the last time.

So if this appeals to your senses, I urge you to ”find your pal while you are taking a morning walk in the neighbourhood park, put your intention to finding your healing tree. I am sure you will find one such tree. Having found one you might want to keep going back to it or even more trees whenever you feel the need to be ‘grounded’.

A simple caution… please restrain from ‘over thinking’ this as an exercise rather surrender to it and ‘feel’ the experience and this may hold true for all spiritual journeys. The mind may have a logic of which the heart knows nothing but if one turns to one’s inner guide, that little intuition, you will receive a world of calming wisdom. Hug a tree today! As you hug one you would feel a hug back- perhaps warmer, gentler, and firmer.

Also, I want to keep life very simple and basic. Last year the only items that I bought for myself were a pair of slippers with a lot of bling and two pure cotton tops. Now in January, I reflect that I could have happily survived my last year without all these additions. Hell yes!!! My goal is to learn to optimize the utility of the things that I already have. My goal is to downsize, at least try! I am not contemptuous of material items; just learning to eliminate whatever little I can do without. I would like to watch more light-hearted TV shows and add more honey to my daily diet. Life is complex but the TV does not have to be 🙂 Honey gives us stamina, disinfects small cuts and bruises, slaves chapped lips and dry skin, besides it tastes really delicious and soothing. I am learning to relish a teaspoon of natural honey licking with my index finger as I sit carelessly in front of the TV with my feet stretched up on the coffee table.

Last week, I mixed some honey in an egg, juice of a lemon and some coconut oil and applied the concoction to my hair as an overnight mask, trust me it made a favourable difference 🙂 Never underestimate the power of a spoonful of honey 🙂 I find unexpected sense of bliss in a spoonful of honey, which is mostly lost and forgotten when I eat out in a restaurant or when a buy a chai latte at an overrated coffee joint.

My little pleasure helps me re-establish on the theory that money is the last thing one needs to actually “be” and “be happy”!

Last but not least, I have been applying Ojas Way’s principles (that many of you may have heard of) of living a content life. While driving these days, I try to consciously say thanks to people I pass by, their cars, homes, shops, the flying birds and the silhouettes of ones sitting lazily on wires, the changing colours of traffic lights; you express my gratitude in all earnestness. The “gratitude drive” requires no props no equipment and no special effort. I am just a work in progress on integrating this attitude and to make gratitude a living, breathing, pulsating presence in my life along with a spoonful of honey!