Energy Sweeps: a step by step guide

We all function within a field of energy that gives our bodies and minds cohesion. This field is also referred to as an aura, and when it gets out of whack, or stagnant, a person may suffer from a host of ailments, mild to serious.

In North America, we aren’t taught about our energy fields, except in the original Star Wars trilogy, so knowing where to begin to “adjust our settings” can be daunting. The Energy Sweep sequence can be helpful. Start by standing in Tadasana, Mountain pose.  Feel the ground beneath your feet, feel the length of your spine. Allow the energy to flow out the top of your head, all the way from your feet upwards.

Energy Sweeps

1. Sense your energy. Let it lift your arms out to the side of your body.
2. Open your shoulders, but relax them.
3. Inhale and exhale at a steady even pace, finding your own rhythm,
4. Wiggle your finger tips, let the energy flow out them.
5. Feel your body as a vehicle of movement. Begin to gently rotate your upper torso.
6. Increase the rotations and lift the opposite heel (from the side you are rotating to) up off the floor. The toe stay grounded in a widened stance.
7. (Lifting the heel protects the lower back as you sweep from side to side.)
8. As you begin to warm up, raise the arms, still extended – up up up so they are reaching for the sky, still sweeping side to side.
9. Play with your energy field like a little kid, move for the sake of moving.
10. After a few sweeps side to side with arms extended overhead, begin to lower the arms again, fully extended to the sides, remaining in a widened stance, and gently fold downward.
11. Keep your pelvis tucked – tilted forward, to protect your lower back.
12. Hold the arms out as you sweep from side to side, lowering the upper torso – down down down to the point of hanging in Standing Forward Bend.
13. Let the tension drain out of your body…
14. Breathe into your muscles, relax…
15. On the inhale, begin to swing your arms again from side to side.
16. Start the ascent to a standing posture and then repeat the whole sequence again.
17. Go up and down at whatever pace feels right to you.
18. Repeat the sequence a few times.

The Energy Sweep sequence can be just the right vinyasa to increase awareness in moments of fatigue, to get the heart going for increased circulation to the extremities, and loosen tense muscles. All of these can help stabilize the energy field, leading to a clearer head and heart.

Advertisement