What is energy work?

Maybe you've heard of "energy work" previously -- or perhaps this is your first experience. Despite our human tendency to simply define and concisely categorize...energy work encompasses many​ modalities and theories. There are many approaches. Energy work practitioners, predictably, have differing perspectives. Some approach their work from a very scientific perspective. Others incorporate religious or spiritual traditions to their work. Despite such broad diversity, there are some aspects of energy work that all​ modalities have in common.

Everything is energy.

Yes, everything is energy. Even that which seems physical is, when broken into its smallest components, pure energy. Our physical human bodies, for example, are really just physical manifestations of applied chemistry and physics, animated by a form of energy we call a spirit or soul. Yes, the human body is a biological miracle and a beautiful example of "emergent properties," yet when characterized by its individual "physical" components it is composed of the same -- albeit less dense -- energies that compose a wooden table or a metal lamppost. (Each of our bodies is just a soup of subatomic particles -- such as protons, electrons, and neutrons -- vibrating at different frequencies.)

That upon which we focus tends to expand.

Beyond the purely physical, even that which we consider intangible is just energy. Our thoughts are energy. Our spoken words are energy. Our emotions are energy. Thoughts and emotions are a great example of the effect of the intangible on the physical. Ask yourself: what happens to your body when you feel stress? With enough stress, you feel physical manifestations of stress. Stomach pain is common in young children and intestinal discomfort is a common stress response in adults. These very physical alterations are caused by intangible energy: in this case, thoughts and emotions. If negative thought energy can cause a negative physical response what can positive thought energy do?​ This is a basic premise of energy work.

Energy flows where attention goes.

You may also have heard this phrased another way: "energy follows thought." Have you ever noticed that the more you obsess about something the more obsessed you become with it? Have you ever worried yourself sick over something that, the more you thought about it, the worse your scenario seemed to be. But did the world end? No -- we're still here. You may feel as though your world ended (or was about to end), but it didn't -- not really. Even though some aspects of our lives come to a close, we're still here. And we're OK.

"A belief is just a thought you keep on thinking." 
-- Abraham-Hicks