What do energy blocks feel like?

[Louise43]

Hi all,

I am pretty new here and also new to energy work but I have been following the guidelines in Robert Bruces book and I am starting to feel the tingling sensation and I can sort of feel a faint movement when I do a full body circuit but I am not sure what to look for with regards to energy blocks.

I know I must have some somewhere, as like most people I have a few issues that I try to understand and deal with. Mainly relationship insecurity type stuff, nothing unusal just the general battle scars you tend to aquire on the journey thorugh life. But I am not sure how these blocks would feel in my energy body. Or is it just to early for me to be picking up on them at the moment?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Louise

[Christian]

Hi

Here is a quote from Aunt Clair with regards to energy blocks:

"As you pass energy thru the body , it should flow freely and cleanly . If there is pressure , pain or the flow becomes sluggish or if it stops at an area then a blockage may be the cause ."

For me it feels like there's something disrupting the flow or stopping it completely when I encounter an energy block. And in some spots I'm unable to feel the energy at all, it's like I'm blind or better to say numb with regards to energy sensations in that particular area.

Light and power, Christian

[wstein]

The answer depends on whether they are your blocks or someone else's.

In ones own body many blocks can not be felt at all unless you are trying to channel a lot of energy through them. Repeated pain, tingling, or numbness in the same spot very likely has a block at that spot (in addition to other problems). Each block is different and often responds differently to different types of energy. Common direct symptoms of blocks are sharp pain, numbness, tingling, tickling, mild burning (heat not blisters).

Viewing blocks externally (usually another person) is slightly different. Common effects are hot spots, tickling, tingling, brushing sensation, false shadows, shimmering, sharp color spots in aura.

As Aunt Clair indicates, energy is supposed to flow freely. If you have a block then it does not. As a way to understand a block, think about a gently flowing stream. Imagine what it looks like if there is a rock in the stream, or a sand bar, or plant, or a narrow spot. The water will swirl or ripple or back up.

The answer depends on whether they are your blocks or someone else's.

In ones own body many blocks can not be felt at all unless you are trying to channel a lot of energy through them. Repeated pain, tingling, or numbness in the same spot very likely has a block at that spot (in addition to other problems). Each block is different and often responds differently to different types of energy. Common direct symptoms of blocks are sharp pain, numbness, tingling, tickling, mild burning (heat not blisters).

Viewing blocks externally (usually another person) is slightly different. Common effects are hot spots, tickling, tingling, brushing sensation, false shadows, shimmering, sharp color spots in aura.

As Aunt Clair indicates, energy is supposed to flow freely. If you have a block then it does not. As a way to understand a block, think about a gently flowing stream. Imagine what it looks like if there is a rock in the stream, or a sand bar, or plant, or a narrow spot. The water will swirl or ripple or back up.

Thanks wstein, that's really helpful. :D

[Louise43]

Thanks everyone for your answers. I think it is perhaps early days for me at the moment. Although I can feel some energy movement it is very faint and maybe not enough for me to be aware of blockages. Plus I have a very short attention span and my mind tends to wonder on to other things...something I need to work on!

Although, this weekend I have got hives/nettle rash on my wrist and by my navel and I am wondering if this may be connected as I haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary which would have brought on any kind of itchy reaction.

Thanks again,
Louise

[Lion]

But I am not sure how these blocks would feel in my energy body.

Sometimes, they feel like the memories. You're aware of a block, then a repressed memory resurfaces.You're aware of a block, then a repressed memory resurfaces. Finding resolution with the emotional issues can be enough to remove the block with no further techniques. Then, your newly undistracted consciousness can go on to better things.

In my experience with helping people, the pranic sensation of a blockage is similar to running at the bottom of a swimming pool (instead of through normal air.) Though this would be a rather large example in a person, it would be like waving an imaginary hand through colored light and then through a dark column of the filthiest water. Nothing stops the (now dirty) hand, but there would be a noticeable resistance.

The question of removal is one of personal style. Some people detect other realities by blindly swiping with an energetic stick. Some people pummel everyone off their moorings, like the china in that shop with the bull. Some are just aware before they ever asked. These things can be "intuited" away, or they can be forced.

In any case, learn to approach spiritual uncleanliness as though you're fixing an erupting sewage line without getting dirty. The situation will pretty much accept any exact commands you can imagine, as long as you don't become a part of it.

[wstein]

Although, this weekend I have got hives/nettle rash on my wrist and by my navel and I am wondering if this may be connected as I haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary which would have brought on any kind of itchy reaction.
Louise

This happened to my friend when she was working on increasing her energy capacity. Best we could tell, its a symptom of growing new bigger energy channels (the old ones were small). Sorry to say it lasted for several months. Hopefully, you can grow faster. For her they were on the wrists and hips at the base of the back.

[Korpo]

Hello,

if you look for info about energy blocks and how to clean them have a look at "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" from Bruce Frantzis.

If you get energy flowing, a blockage will feel like an area of tension, strength or constriction. For me, it mostly feels like the 1st and the 3rd. In the head a blockage that is felt thoroughly and you have developed some sensitivity for it feels like a headache or pressure. In the feet it may feel like a more solid block.

The more sensitivity you develop for Chi, the more real such blockages feel, and they're to be expected. In muscles, near your chronic pains, at your energy gates (for example acupuncture cavities and major energy ports).

If you float your awareness around them, they may be felt as lumps in your energy body. The more you tense up, the stronger they become. Gently trying to move energy through or beyond them weakens them. Gentler is better. Dissolving them may trigger cob-web sensations and other releases throughout your body in your current direction of Chi flowing. Congratulations, you have removed a small energy "dam". :)

[me]

ok, so i listen to music to get the body rush sensations that RB talks of - in order to get my energy body more active. once i get the tingling rush, i try to use it to start NEW

the annoying thing is, recently my entire left hand side is dull - no tingling what so ever. to me, this is a blockage.

@wstein you say one might feel tingling where there is a blockage, i disagree - surely tingling is where energy IS. and where there is no tingling, energy is NOT.

I cannot stimulate my LHS at all, and its infuriating!

[xxhealinghandxx]

LHS = left hand system????

[me]

no sorry left hand side

[Korpo]

@me - wstein is correct: Tingling is more likely close to a blockage, not vice versa.

Blockages can produce strong feelings - emotions or physical pain. They can show up as constrictions, feelings of strength and power, everything that does not feel "normal" during energy work.

Unblocked energy can feel transparent and non-existant. Tingling is where blocks are slightly mellowed by an energy flow, and tissue and nervers get revitalized by energy and blood flow. This is exactly where "cob-web sensations" come from - Robert mentions them in MAP.

If you dissolve a blockage, it feels like a release. Energy gets flowing, it can feel hot, flowing, tingling, stirring, like trapped energy or a soft wind. When you cleaned the place sufficiently the place feels "ordinary" - nothing obstructs energy flow, no resistance, no problem. The first resistance energy meets can cause sensations again.

If you feel normally, physically within your left arm, have no chronic illnesses there, etc., feeling not much does not necessarily mean a blockage. It could be good as well. Being very severely blocked can "cut off" the arm as well - beyond a certain point, there is no feeling at all, and moving energy against that point feels like hitting a wall or something unmoveable. Explore that place. Push it gently. Feels its contours. It can be a severe blockage. Try to place your awareness beyond it or inside it. Feel energy flow against it. Hopefully the blockage melts, or gets warmer, or you get a tingling, tickling sensation. Be patient.

I guess with NEW you would visualise a lot of cleaning actions there instead - like the brushing/sponge methods.

[Christian]

me:

Try to stimulate your right hand side and throw some energy pathways over to your left hand side, like feel the energy streaming from your right hand side to your left hand side. Or you can try to stimulate and stimulate and if you're persistent you probably will feel the energy running sooner or later. I also have some areas where I'm numb in regards to energy and I too find it frustrating. But it's just keep working and eventually it will loosen up.
I think the key is to not give up and continue to stimulate.

Christian

[Korpo]

I have problems with blockages in my thighs and calves, that are more resistant to clearing than other blockages. Since the physical body is underdeveloped and imbalanced in that area, I combine low-impact exercise with energy work to make energy flow.

Doing my energy work in standing Chi Gung pose and doing some Cloud Hands before and afterwards, which twist the hip, spiral the muscles, and align the three central energy channels (left, central and right) with body posture, helps. It releases muscular tension more deeply, gets Chi flowing, and once there is flow, blockages can be removed more easily and or completely.

Cloud Hands includes movements for spiralling the arms, and is a whole-body exercise, you may benefit as well. It trains the midriff by proper alignment, bending at the kwa (horizontal bending to activate lower back and thighs, producing a bend in the abdomen), massaging the abdomen and internal organs. Hands and feet are spiralled as well, by weight-shifting, opening and closing of joints, etc.

It's described in "Opening the Energy Gates of Your Body" by Bruce Frantzis, but a lot of Chi Gung and T'ai Chi movements and postures have similar effects. I find it beneficial to build the physical body together with the energy body, as the energy body can give feedback if you do postures and alignments correctly, and releasing tension from the physical body and detoxifying it eases the cleaning of the energy bodies.

It all boils down to a matter of personal perference in the end.

[Louise43]

After reading these I think I am full of blocks. I have tension in my shoulders, jaw, back of my head, forehead and ocassionaly in my thighs. A lot of blocks for me to work on.

I have recently brought a body scan meditation cd which is helping me relax a lot more but I find the minute my attention is one part of my body the other parts (mentioned above) just start to tense up again. Although I am also starting to feel some tingling so hopefully things will start to improve soon.

Louise

[Korpo]

Hello, Louise43.

I have some things to say about your last post:

The places you have noticed blockages in seem quite likely to be correct. Stress for example tends to accumulate as tension in jaw, neck, shoulders. Perhaps you can already feel yourself tense up in stressy situations - clenching your teeth. Or you feel "the world burdening you down"? That's what tension in the shoulders can do for you.

I had quite strong blockages in the forehead as well, I'm not as sure what they correlate with. But removing blockages at the temples and in the forehead felt exactly like pressure headaches I was having regularly (not that often, but regularly), and since I softened those blockages I haven't had a headache I couldn't clear with the same cleansing process. I'm now "aspirin-free". ;)

As for the thighs - in our highly sedentiary culture that's no wonder. People's legs are usually blocked. This is because the normal Chi flow developed by muscular activity is well below what our genes and ancestry had to deal with. Chi is the energy sustaining muscular activity and correlated with blood flow as well, and since our legs tend to moved much less than they were centuries ago, Chi and blood circulation deteriorate.

While tension triggered by emotional or mental stress in the head regions should be able to be countered by relaxation and Chi development exercises of the meditative kind, such as NEW, I would recommend a combined regime:

Either stuff like NEW combined with low-impact exercise like walking, jogging, etc. This would give you something to relax and clear blockages, and any activity raising your leg activity should help "open your thighs".

Or a full standing Chi Gung practice like Zhan Zhuang (pronounced Jan Jong (yes, I know! :oops: ;) )). It is composed of a set of exercises done standing, and the practise can be translated as "Standing like a staff" or "Standing like a tree" AFAIK.

With two standing poses, the Wu Chi stance (= "Original Void" or Empty Stance) and the "Holding a Balloon" (more traditionally known as "Hugging the Tree" ;) ) you start to open your body with exercise that develops muscular and tendon strength without exhausting your cardio-vascular system. I recommend the book "The Way of Energy" by Kam Lam Chuen BTW. He then follows up with the "Eight Pieces of Brocade", as set of movement exercises which trigger certain energy flows.

Complete together you get a set of five stances and the brocade exercise pretty well explained in one book, and a complete table what initial sensations are, how and when they occur, and what they mean. This includes numbness and tingling (feeling blockages and start of release), aching (healing and refeeling old injuries), warmth (Chi gets moving), shaking (activation of additional muscles), asymmetry (your body feels developed in some parts and not in others) and finally comfort/relaxation.

I'd give it a try if I were you. I already have. :) Whatever works for you or you can relate to.

[rainwing]

I think you are definitely on the right path, Louise. I could hardly feel a thing when I started NEW, but it seems you might be a natural at it. Couple that with your motivation, and you're definitely on to something special.

Chris

P.S. If you have any problems of the physical nature (relationships and such) don't feel shy about posting or PMing about them if you want any advice or just a place to vent. I just recently got off a two and a half year relationship, so I may be in the same boat as you.

[me]

now i'm totally confused, if energy blocks are where the tingling is, then how on earth can i be sure that energy is flowing at all if it doesn't provide me with any sensation what so ever.

[CFTraveler]

now i'm totally confused, if energy blocks are where the tingling is, then how on earth can i be sure that energy is flowing at all if it doesn't provide me with any sensation what so ever. As you continue the practice you will become more sensitized to energy movement, and you will feel a difference as your energy moves. Not strong enough as a blockage (then those become almost obvious) but a difference nonetheless. It all comes with practice.

[Korpo]

Well, confusion stems from the fact it is hard to describe - it's a matter of degree and subtle differences, not of black and white.

In the beginning, it will look like this: If you lead energy through your body, the places where you feel strong or constricted or unnatural or pressure are blockages.

Basically you learn to relisten to your bodies, and this is the first message. Along these lines come the messages when you start to mellow those blocks - tingling, itches, warmth and possibly pain.

All these are signs that a flow is restored where formerly there was none. Minor blood vessels get reactivated, tissue reaches a higher level of oxygen-saturation, nerves "regrow" - this is tingling or itching. It's like the itch you can get when a cut heals, or the tingling you get when you allow bloodflow in a foot you sat on for a time.

When you continue practising your sensitivity for these phenomena increases. At first you feel the blood - where the Chi leads, the blood follows. Blood and oxygen - detoxification and rejuvenation. You may now get (light) diarrhea, pimples (especially along meridians in the facial region), yellow urine, unpleasant smelling sweat - all these are signs that your body expels stuff that was clogging it. Renewal of blood flow starts the healing process. Sometimes you may feel sleepy and exhausted now. This all will disapper with time. Should happen pretty similar as with a well-balanced fast.

When you continue an energy practise you will become aware of subtler feelings. Where you established flow, feelings like a warm liquid, an electric shudder or like a wind on your skin can be felt. These are stages of unblocking and moving Chi - ice (stagnant) to water, water to gas is one description I read. This is a process of purifying the Chi pathways and reestablishing a natural flow.

You will feel these sensations on top of the physical ones - like a modulated wave on a carrier wave. It was always there, but now you can discern the background signal from the information you want. Or another way - now you no longer look at the forest, but can tell the trees apart. Chi and blood flow are linked - Chi leads, blood follows. The more free Chi flows, and the more attention is spent on leading it, the more likely it is you develop the ability to feel it directly.

On this stage it gets easier to identify blockages, feel their exact contours, penetrate and dissolve them with a more gentle approach. The new approach use more subtlety - instead of throwing your Chi against a place needing repair you simply put a lever in the right place and exactly remove that blockage, take its Chi and flow it either in your Lower Tantien or below your feet (this depends how much Chi your tantien can currently store and this expands through regular practise and additional exercises as well). Be sure to store or flush excess Chi.

Now, you can layer by layer feel deeper inside your body. You will be able to identify Chi meridians, pathways and vessels. You can feel into tissue, starting with muscle and tendons. Then comes the contours of bones. Then internal organs. Constrictions now feel like small peebles or knots in the center of wobbly and hard-to-pin-down balls - I go for the point of maximum resistance and try to dissolve that, and the whole ball will dissolve, drop and get expelled/dropped down. Excess Chi (of Yang/hot nature) feels like a pressure or warm liquid under slight pressure, and can be moved or dissolved by applying energy work techiques. Somewhere in the excess Chi, denser areas of stagnation may hide, and within the knots of really dense blockages.

Especially when cleaning organs emotions can come back, like anger from the liver. Taoists identified different organs with basic emotions through meditation, it is part and initial stage of "Inner Alchemy". Excessive anger can heat your liver and go up to your head. Cleaning your liver may at least partially or temporarily calm the anger.

I for one am now becoming more and more sensitive to my organs and deeper tissues. Certain things become discernible from the inside - how stomach, liver, lungs or brain feel. It's quite an experience. At the same time I still am in the process of revitalising malfunctioning muscles, tendons and bloodvessels, like in my shoulder where I was diagnosed to have bad constrictions. I'm coordinating energy work, moving Chi Gung and starting T'ai Chi to help there, and I really start getting results.

Unblocking such a block feels after a short period of warmth like a cool flow. Before you really get the Chi to dissolve you can note progress by things like this - when I dissolve shoulder "knots", I can feel my hands expel Chi as a warm flow, and heating up. This shows that agitated Chi starts to emanate from a blockage and moves along the meridians to the major energy ports like the palms and soles of feet. This is a major sign that you are about to clear at least part of that blockage.

I hope these details give you an impression where the journey could lead you. Just try not to overdo it - if you feel exhausted too often you may not make much progress at all as you overstrain the energy system and deplete the reserves it draws on when growing. Having detoxification symptoms all the time, even before going to bed (assuming a day containing practise), would show that you try to clean up more than your body can handle. A bit of patience and sense of limit can be worth a lot in this effort.

[wstein]

now i'm totally confused, if energy blocks are where the tingling is, then how on earth can i be sure that energy is flowing at all if it doesn't provide me with any sensation what so ever.
Energy can be perceived in other ways. The most common is to 'see' it. Also its effects can be perceived sometimes through normal senses. Even if you can not sense the wind, you can see the leaves blown by it.

[Korpo]

I do not think that "seeing" energy is the most common way of percepting it. Maybe if you are clairvoyant. Since most usually aren't, feeling the sensations created by energy should be more common than "seeing".

Or what do you mean by "seeing"? You do seem to have had a connotation in mind, else you wouldn't have put it into quotation marks.

[wstein]

I do not think that "seeing" energy is the most common way of percepting it. Maybe if you are clairvoyant. Since most usually aren't, feeling the sensations created by energy should be more common than "seeing". I agree that 'feeling' is the most common method. Guess its not clear from the statements.
Rephrase:
Energy can be perceived in other ways than feeling it. The next most common is to 'see' it.

Or what do you mean by "seeing"? You do seem to have had a connotation in mind, else you wouldn't have put it into quotation marks.
The quotation marks indicate that information is presented in the mind as if seeing but the information did not come through the physical eyes.

[Korpo]

Okay, wstein! ;)

Some people have the blessing of seeing in their mind's eye from the start, but I don't. I guess most have not, otherwise we would have a completely different society! ;) (Would be interesting)