How Do Disruptions of Energy Flow Impact the Ability to Flourish?

As mentioned previously, when we are stressed or threatened, our energy  flow is increased to prepare for fight or flight. If neither of these is possible or chosen, we override the impulse even though the

body has been energized. Repetition of situations that we cannot overcome results in living with an energetic contradiction of activation and inhibition. An increase in energy flow at stressful times is a

defense that allows us to survive and function in the short term. It is not meant to be a permanent condition.

If trauma or stress is repeated over time with no safe place to release and discharge the energy, it becomes frozen. This condition of frozen intensity is known as tonic immobility or the freeze response. A

portion of the energy gets locked in the trauma and the full, free expression of our whole selves is inhibited. This can happen with either overwhelming trauma or through low-level but chronic,

repetitive stress.

Damage to our energy can also occur through physical injury, emotional hurt, or lack of attention to a particular part of our selves: for example, overdeveloping the intellect to the detriment of the

emotional body, which is common in our culture. Damage to the energy system manifests in limited belief systems, conditioned responses, and restrictive and exhausting habits. Changing limiting beliefs and balancing the energy system helps to release reactive, conditioned responses. Energy is returned to the