We don’t tend to think that prepping for swimwear season is a sport, but for those of us eager to dress for the beach instead of a blizzard, it sure is.
Most of us emerge from winter with muscles in couch-potato form. Fair-weather sports, from volleyball to tennis, and camping to walking, tend to require more than a flick of the wrist, the most useful activity involved in television viewing. And we know that what looks great under a bulky sweater won’t cut it under the sun.
I live in Minnesota. That’s nearly as polar as the Arctic. No matter where you live, however, chances are you’ve spent most of the last season covered by the multitude of sweats acquired during the pandemic lockdown. Soon, it will be time to bare all.
You might not be aware of the fact, but energy medicine has a lot to offer the recliner-competitor who wants to turn into an athletic-contender. In fact, even before the (internal or external) snowbanks in your area melt, you can bulk up (the good way).
You can get your mind in shape to get your body in shape.
I’m going to explain how to get ready to slip on the short shorts without over-efforting.
Let’s start with the basic premise, which Albert Einstein and other geniuses established as truth eons ago. Everything is composed of energy, which is “information that moves.” For instance, the data in your coffee differentiates a café au lait from a straight-up black. The vibration of the molecules in your mug makes the java cold or hot brewed.
When we focus on goals like lifting weights, toning muscle, and slimming down, we usually concentrate on the physical attributes of energy. A good part of all energy is physical, or measurable and concrete. However, there are two types of energy, and less than one percent is physical.
That’s right. The other type of energy, which constitutes 99.999 percent-plus of all energy, is subtle, which could also be called psychic, spiritual, or quantum. Subtle isn’t weak, as subtle energies organize physical energies. That means that most of what appears in 3-D reality—including the muffin top of holiday treats around your middle—is there because of the programming contained in subtle energy.
Subtle energy is mainly managed by consciousness, or focused awareness. The more popular term for this action is intention. It seems rather lame to think that you can change your body, and change your life, by being intentional, but it’s quite true. First, let me explain how physical reality can be altered with mental effort, which is a form of consciousness.
Subtle energy is best explained by quantum physics. Quanta are the smallest known wave-particles in the universe, and they are super tiny. As I explore in relation to the body and sportiness in my book, Energy Work for the Everyday to Elite Athlete, these subtle mighty-morphins are regulated by very strange rules, to include these:
– They only become concrete when observed. The winter-you in the mirror? That’s a product of quanta made real by factors including your self-image. If you alter your self-image, you can steadily transform the mirror-self.
– They can jump from one state to another, therefore altering reality. This means that no matter how stuck a situation seems, it can be shifted.
– They obey something called the Uncertainty Principle. It’s super complicated, but it basically says that we can’t know everything about something all at once. Your thoughts can’t give you a complete picture of reality—but you can use a tool like positivity to keep increasing what you desire.
In simple terms, positivity counts.
Consider that way back in 1995, in the non-sporty world, Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, called Guruji, could alter physical reality with simple blessings. For a few minutes, he’d focus on a situation, and it would improve. Studies show his focus increased seed germination and survival rates amongst blessed plants to 99.5 percent, compared to 60 to 65 percent in control crops. He bolstered yields in a chickpea plot by 350 percent over control yields.
In line with this result, several scientific studies are moving us closer to the end zone in our understanding of the power of intention to director subtle energies, which, in turn, help organize physical energies. Included in the growing body of evidence is a study from the Cleveland Clinic that discovered that participants could strengthen muscles just by visualizing a physical movement. While gym rats increased their muscle-strength by 30 percent, individuals who merely visualized their workouts bettered their muscular strength by 13.5 percent.
It pays to combine the mental and physical. By joining physical action with mental focus, you can cut your actual practice hours in half. That conclusion applies to performance, as well as to practice.
You can use upbeat focus to enable better food choices too.
We know that food influences mood, but the opposite is also true. In fact, a study has shown that individuals making food choices while embracing attributes such as optimism and gratitude make healthier food choices. That’s how the placebo effect works. By believing a positive outcome will occur, you’re far more likely to experience that result—even if you don’t believe in the placebo effect. The nocebo effect has also been proven. If you think something will have a negative impact, it most likely will.
What ways would I suggest you start steering your subtle energies this winter so you can best spring into spring—and the summer? Here are a few ideas.
1. Tell yourself that your everyday movements are exercise. Yup, when you’re lifting a fork, imagine that it is as heavy as a forklift! One particularly interesting study that I read years ago found that by simply telling hotel maids that their everyday work was “exercise,” their bodies responded dramatically—with decreased blood pressure, body fat, and body mass, within just one week.
2. Hold spiritual qualities in your heart. That’s right. Self-love will automate your choices. Get in shape with mantras like hope, love, and gratitude. There is truly a subtle science to this idea. Every time pressure is produced in the body, such as when your heart beats, phonons are produced. These are tiny quantum energies that arise from atoms oscillating or moving in a crystal. If you are focused on positive qualities, the resulting phonons will bring positive messages throughout your body and greatly improve your health.
3. Visualize. That’s right. Three times a day, look in the mirror. See yourself as you desire to be, even while you love yourself as you are. Then get busy visualizing an activity. Running, lifting, flexing…if you move a little while exercising in your imagination, you’ll get in shape even faster!
Bottom line, know that what you focus on will expand. Stream those subtle energies toward a svelte and shapely you, and that is what will emerge.
Cyndi Dale
Cyndi Dale is the author of over 30 internationally renowned energy medicine books including Energy Work for the Everyday to Elite Athlete.
1 Ali Sundermier, 99.9999999% of Your Body is Empty Space, September 23, 2016, Science Alert, www.sciencealert.com/99-9999999-of-your-body-is-empty-space.
2 Cyndi Dale, Energy Work for the Everyday to Elite Athlete (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications), 2023.
3 Ibid, 16.
4 Michael Miller, “Envisioning Your Way to Success,” January 15, 2018, sixseconds, 6seconds.org/2018/01/15/envisioning-way-success-incredible-power-mental-practice/.
5 Alba Carrillo et al, “The role of positive psychological constructs in diet and eating behavior among people with metabolic syndrome,” January 5, 2022, Sage Journals, journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20551029211055264.
6 Maj-Britt Niemi, Placebo Effect: A Cure in the Mind,” February 1, 2009, Scientific American, www.scientificamerican.com/article/placebo-effect-a-cure-in-the-mind/.
7 Danny Minkow, “The Nocebo Effect,” August 26th, 2014, Students 4 Best Evidence, s4be.cochrane.org/blog/2015/08/26/the-nocebo-effect/.
8 Christopher Shea, “Mindful Exercise,” December 9, 2007, The New York Times Magazine, nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09mindfulexercise.html.
9 Peter H. Fraser and Harry Massey, Decoding the Human Body-Field: The New Science of Information as Medicine, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2008.206–214.
