Copyright (c) 2008 Mary Ann Copson

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ?This is the real me,? and when you have found that attitude, follow it." -- William James

I was speaking with one of my clients the other day about learning to read her energy. This was a mysterious process for her. She was more used to checking in with her schedule and her to do list to find out what to do next. She said she never really thought about reading her energy to figure out what to do. And honestly, she didn?t have a clue as to how to go about it.

Everything around you generates energy and this energy contains information. Your body generates energy and the energy you feel throughout the day contains the information you need to guide you. Your body is a big energy field. Did you know that the electromagnetic energy from your heart can be measured 5-10 feet out from the physical body?

As an energy field, your body is in constant communication with the energy around you and within you. Think of your body as an information center and central sensory perception center that receives and transmits information to and from other energy centers (be they other people, places or things) and within its own diverse energy centers.

Pretty handy thing to have, don?t you think? The trick is to become conscious of and interpret this information that we have constant access to.

Unfortunately, we often fail to pay attention to our master information processing center. Instead we tend to rely on schedules, demands, to do lists, and what "has to get done." Of course, these are "realities" of life and we have to be mindful of them. But you are missing a primary source of guidance if you don?t get in touch with your master information center and learn to decode the information that it is receiving.

Reading your energy is a skill that you can learn and develop. There are whole systems devoted to this process. A first step that I have my clients do is to get in touch with "What do I really want in this moment." Just stop throughout the day and ask yourself "What do I really want now?". Let that question and the answers that arise guide you in your actions, thoughts, behaviors, and feelings.

Don?t be afraid to find out what you really want. Your desires are giving you encoded information. Your desires carry the seed of the essential information being transmitted to you. It?s OK to get in touch with them.

Once you connect to something you really want in the moment, don?t stop at the first level of desire. Keep going deeper and wider into what you really want. As you follow this trail of "wants" it will lead you to a treasure trove of information about what to do to find your way to where you want to be.

For example, let?s say it is dinner time and you have worked hard all day. It?s your turn to make dinner and your partner, kids, the dog, and you are all hungry. Everyone is clamoring around. Ask yourself "What do I really want now?" The answers start coming:

Peace and quiet

Good food in the house

A collection of good recipes

Getting home at 3:00 so that I have time to have a life

A professional chef

A better job so that I can afford a professional chef

Publish my idea for travel magazine

Take my lifelong dream vacation to Europe for 2 weeks

Every one of these "wants" holds encoded information from your body to your consciousness about some useful experience for you. You don?t have to go out and change your life tomorrow based on what pops into your head today, but you would do well to give each one of these wants deep consideration as to how important it is for you to be, feel and do your best.

Learning to accurately and truthfully articulate what it is you really want in the moment puts you in touch with the information that is being processed in your body. Learning to answer this question truthfully is a prerequisite for the future steps in learning to decode the information being processed in your body.

This week begin to read your energy by getting in touch with what you really want in the moment. No should ofs or have tos. Move past those and connect with your energy of the moment and let it transmit its messages to you.

"When we have our body and mind in order, everything else will exist in the right place, in the right way. But usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves, we try to order things outside us. But it is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order. When you do things in the right way, at the right time, everything else will be organized." -- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Master