Subtle Energy Awareness

Other people notice these changes in us, just as we notice them in other people. Obviously we notice changes in expression, posture, breath etc, but if we really pay attention to our experience, we become aware of an additional sense. We feel a difference when someone withdraws from us. We sense a change in emotional atmosphere, which may, or may not be in keeping with what is being expressed in more obvious ways.

There is no commonly accepted name for this sense, and so it is often referred to by general, and ill-defined terms such as 'intuition' or the 'sixth sense' (biologist Rupert Sheldrake calls it the seventh sense). Some people trust this extra sense above anything else; others may be inclined to dismiss it because they have no clear way of understanding it, and therefore find it difficult to retain in awareness. Whether we dismiss it or not, it is an aspect of our every interaction and relationship. It is therefore important that we can bring this level of communication into awareness. Doing so enables us to relate to each other with much greater sensitivity, and to un-tangle mysterious misunderstandings, and intractable difficulties in relationships. Such awareness also allows us to move around our inner landscape with much greater fluidity. Most of us talk about being un-grounded or un-centred, or getting back into our bodies, without any clear idea of exactly how this happens. Paying attention to where we are in relation to our skin - whether we are extending beyond it, shrinking inside it, or jumping out of it - allows us to find our way in and out of the various states of being that are characteristic of us, and to choose to move out of a particular state of mind, mood, or aspect of ourselves if it is in some way inappropriate to our situation at the time. If we are familiar with the specific ways in which we typically become ungrounded, or become stuck in a state of panic or in a particular mood. we can easily free ourselves up to respond to the present moment, with the full range of our inner resources.Because we do not

have a commonly accepted concept for an aspect of ourselves that really can expand or contract in this way, we usually think of ourselves as just feeling as if this is happening. We tend to not think of it as real. However, behaving as if it is real is very useful indeed. This additional perspective on inter-personal and intra-personal processes adds immensely to our understanding of ourselves and our relationships.