Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

Befriend Your Enemies
After gratitude, the most powerful “delete” key to rid ourselves of accumulated emotional stress that
we possess is forgiveness. Forgive, forget, and let go. Certainly, retaining the lessons of our suffering
is valuable, but when we don’t forget and hold on to anger, we deplete ourselves of vital life-force
energy. Our current moment, with its digital devices and excessive multitasking, require more life
force than ever before. When we are overexposed to emotional stress, a deleterious chain of stress
responses is set in motion and our flight-or-flight response is triggered, which amps up the stress and
creates excess inflammation in the body. And the antidote? In the face of such complexity, it is the
simplest things that bring us back and restore peace in our inner kingdom: a smile and a “delete” key.
It is only through self-directed loving-kindness that we can correct the internal imbalance and
cultivate the wisdom and the strength to simplify our lives and redirect our energy to what really
matters—befriending our enemies.
When you hold on to anger, who are you really hurting? Who actually suffers? In Buddha’s words,
“Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” The person who
suffers is you. And it doesn’t do good things for your mental state, your body, or your immune system.
When they talk about stress being the silent killer, they aren’t kidding. Hating or resenting someone is
the quickest way to challenge your immune system unnecessarily. Holding on to anger and resentment
requires prodigious stores of energy. When you flip the switch to gratitude, anger doesn’t have the
room to squeeze in, to assert itself, to do its dirty work and wreak havoc on your psyche and then on
your body. More often than not, this means looking inside, for the enemies are not always other
people, but are there within our own psyche.
Gratitude erases anger, almost instantly. It’s miraculous, actually. Try it right now. Feel grateful
for just one thing in your life, and feel the instant and palpable change, the buoyancy that making that
decision produces, the truly incredible lightness of being.
After the yin practice, where we have investigated and explored anger and shadow-side emotions
and viscerally experienced where they take up residence in our fascia, now we’re going further,
pushing “delete,” and taking a new neural pathway. Having lightened the load and exercised our
neuroplasticity, we will come to “know our enemies all” and develop powerful inner defenses to
protect ourselves from each and every one, making more energy available for productive purposes.
And it all begins with your own consciousness and love.
Train Your Army
We mentioned counting your blessings and befriending your enemies; if you can do both, you are
already way ahead of the game. Immune defense, good health, and energy actually start with you and
how you manage your emotions. Like an astute general on the battlefield of life, picking and choosing
your skirmishes with the greatest discernment translates into how well you love yourself and
conserve your energy. The attention you devote to and the gratitude you feel for your body, what it
holds, and how it hums and rattles and rolls for you determines the energy you have available to
manifest positivity and abundance in your life. Taking the time to appreciate, enjoy, revere, and
preserve the natural world you depend upon is the finest place to start. With this formula alone, you