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Positive Energy
How to Build Vitality and Stop the Energy Vampires
By Judith Orloff, M.D.
I learned to honor my energy needs the hard way. As a psychiatrist who specializes in intuition I knew how important it was to listen to my body. Yet still I'd vacillate between intense weeks of speaking tours and bouts of utter exhaustion at home. I couldn't turn down "irresistible" opportunities. Here was my dilemma: I trusted my intuition, and was committed to living by it, but I had a blind spot. Although I was quite successful at helping others at trusting intuition and leading high-energy lives, I was ignoring my own energy crises. Finally my fatigue was so profound I had to change.
I know firsthand how important it is for us to cherish our precious energy so we don't compromise our capacity for passion. I now believe that the most profound transformations can only take place on an energetic level. I've met many patients who've spent much time and money on talk therapy hoping that intellectual insights will bring emotional freedom, but they're disappointed. As much as I love the linear mind, my approach, which I call "Energy Psychiatry," goes further to also facilitate a conscious rebuilding of subtle energies, the most basic life force in each of us.
Our bodies are made of flesh and blood, but they're also composed of energy fields – though sadly I wasn't taught this in medical school. Each day we encounter a wide range of energies, both positive and negative. Positive energy includes compassion, courage, forgiveness and faith. Negative energy includes fear, anger, hopelessness and shame. We need to be experts at dealing with energy so we don't get demolished by draining situations or people who're energy vampires.