The following is a chapter from my book, "Healing through Awakening," and addresses the process of consciously channeling energy.
..."I had been counseling a woman for about a month regarding a traumatic event that she had experienced earlier in her life. The event had involved watching one of her family members kill another family member, and had caused her to develop overwhelming anxiety and depression. She had begun the sessions not wanting to talk about the trauma, but rather, focus on other aspects of her life. We had four sessions together, during which I could sense that she was not yet comfortable talking about her traumatic experience.
By the fifth session, however, something had shifted, and I felt an opening to ask her about the event in her life. As soon as I did she became quiet. Though she continued to look at me with her familiar smile (she was always very pleasant during the sessions, and often smiled), I could sense her energy changing to that of fear, and I started to sense a change in my energy field as well. And then suddenly the energy within me became very strong. I felt a surge of panic and terror. My heart began pounding, and adrenaline flowing. For a split second I wanted to scream and run out of the room it was so intense. But I caught it very quickly, realizing that it was not my energy, but rather the energy coming from my client. I relaxed my body, focused on my breath, and allowed the strong energy current to flow through me.
Within a minute or two, much of the energy had dissipated, and I was left in a state of intense presence and stillness. In order to transmute the energy I had closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I saw that my client had begun crying, something that she later told me she had not been able to do in years. She was then able to relate to me her experience of the traumatic event, which marked a turning point in her journey of healing. Later she thanked me for the session, expressing that she had finally felt safe enough to allow that pain and fear to come to the surface
This session was instrumental in my learning process about how to transmute energy. By staying present and allowing the energy to move through me (without reacting to it or resisting against it), an opening was created for the energy to move and dissipate. Perhaps it was my willingness to transmute this intense energy that had helped lighten the load for her, allowing her to finally let go of that significant emotional blockage. It seems that the more empathic we are, the more energy can be transmuted through us, and the more helpful we can be in dissolving trauma in others.
Having experienced my own emotional healing, it has become second nature for me to offer a safe container to help lighten the load for others. It was not so much a decision on my part, but rather, it just began to happen. Whereas before in my life, feeling someone’s heavy emotional energy was unpleasant, now it felt like some kind of gift to transmute the denser energies of fear and grief back into loving presence. I experience it as a deepening of my connection to Source, as well as an influx of life energy. It seems to serve the highest good of all involved, and bring more peace and light into the world.
And so continued my journey of learning how to be more responsible with my energy, as well as learning how to transmute the energy coming from others. There is much to understand about this process, and it is an experiential journey of exploration and investigation. Learning to differentiate between what energy another is creating, and what you are creating can be helpful, but is not necessary. To understand that channeling energy is impersonal means to let go of ideas of separation, to drop blame, and to surrender the idea that you need to protect yourself from other people’s energy. The energy of the Universe is the energy of love, being expressed in a myriad of ways (even fear, grief, and anger), and there is no point in judging or resisting any of it. This remembrance of loving unity allows freedom, openness, compassion, and more love to flow into your life and the lives of others.
As each one of us develops the ability to remain in control of our reactions, choosing to accept life as it comes, then we can easily maintain energetic autonomy without being so affected by others. In fact, the more we learn to stay in a state of acceptance and allowance (no matter what is occurring around us), the energy of love and peace naturally flows out from within. Instead of absorbing other people's energy, we become an energy channel for deeply positive energy to help heal others.
Paradoxically, it is through letting go, relaxing, and being at peace with whatever is, that you develop this control over your own state of being, and can bring healing energy to others. While the mind would rather come up with a strategy for controlling and transmuting energy, love naturally returns when you let go and surrender your personal desires, dropping the belief that you are separate from others, or that you need to fix, control, or change life situations.
What happens as you practice surrendering the need to control or fix the "problem," is that over time you will find yourself naturally and effortlessly speaking healing words, or offering your energy in a healing way. And most importantly, peaceful energy will naturally be emanating from within you. The difference now is that your words or actions are no longer coming from your mind and your own selfish desires, but rather from a higher place—from your heart and Higher Self." --a "how to" for channeling energy and transmuting energy